Gabbi we hardly knew ye, enjoy those Dallas summers. Meanwhile in Rapids' PR land "Rapids sign their second DP" which will still give us just one and probably not a league MVP type unless past isn't prologue to present/future.
I can second that it was totally off. The thing is, I don't get why the Rapids PR have to do this. Why not reply to your question with 'Shane O'Neill has travelled with the team to Salt Lake & is available for selection for both the 1st team & reserve games. It is the coach's decision whether he plays or not.' To which you can then infer that he didn't play on Saturday because of Pablo's apparent squad-rotation policy.
Well @GoRapids didn't mention who he talked to. So the PR response may be just that, but if he talked to somebody else...
Guess I'm a little late to the party and maybe a dissenting opinion, but I thought that this was the best performance on the attacking side in the last four(ish)games. At least we had a few chances in the run of play and some decent services from the wings. I was actually slightly encouraged by the way the team played....too bad the phantom penalty may have been a factor.
As I pointed out elsewhere, the 2013 Rapids had goal scoring problems pre-Torres and Sanchez. We never had a good core of strikers to begin with, and its compounded by Sanchez being injured, Torres getting depressed and eating chocolate ice cream on the couch while watching Lifetime, and Brown being off to a slow start. We need to do some serious culling up top during the summer window. Buddle and Mwanga need to go first and foremost. If it were up to me, I'd wave them both from the squad immediately rather than wait for the window to open.
Alas cutting them would mean we're still responsible for their $500K of cap hit. Our only hope is to trade/sell them in the window.
I agree with this "engergy-wise" once the Rapids decided to finally show up. For me it was a sign of what is possible in the future which is encouraging, but, we should have been this far along by now (farther actually). I don't know if its Pablo that has been stifling this kind of attacking intensity with his more defensive approach or if the players just snapped and decided to actually play with some aggression/urgency going forward. They still need to learn to finish because although the intensity was there the execution is still lacking. I can't help, but, wonder where our team would be (attacking wise) had they been playing with that much momentum going forward since the beginning of the season. I'm sure finishing would still be a bit of an issue, but, there would be a lot more dangerous chances that could tip the scales in our favor.
I can't argue about chemistry. The team is lacking the cohesiveness and anticipation that comes from playing together. I don't think I am giving Sturgis flack, I just believe his ceiling is limited and we've more or less seen what he can do. He's a descent player that gives effort but is not going to do be a difference maker on the field. Klute on the other hand looked pretty good for most of last season. He was making aggressive runs down the flank, taking people on, providing good service into the box, and playing pretty solid defense to boot. His play resulted in him getting invited to the USMNT camp. This season he seems tentative, passive, and a bit slower. Is it chemistry, formation, coaching instructions, playing on the right, recovering from hamstring injury? I don't really know. He just doesn't look himself right now.
I rewatched part of the game and one thing I noticed was they did start well. If by "start" one includes the opening 5 minutes of the game. That was the period where Brown whipped in that nice low cross to the 6 yard box that Buddle didn't dive for. Klute also had a nice cutback in there but naturally no one was there to get a shot off it. I also noticed that Powers was very far forward, he pretty much started playing forward. I'd say for the most part going wide worked; having Powers far forward not so much. With how Serna played, it would have been nice if Klute had been more aggressive on the overlap.
DisCo chooses not to review the PK dive: http://blogs.denverpost.com/rapids/.../25963/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter