This looks to be a massive match for the Rapids given what's happened over the previous week. Not a "must win," but close. MUNFC comes in with 4 wins in their last 5 and in second place in the West on 24 points in only 12 matches. Most recently beat the Timbers at home 2-1. Thus far, the Rapids have followed a loss with
Tomorrow's player availability report for our game against Minnesota.#Rapids96 pic.twitter.com/Ex9OJfMFyd— Colorado Rapids (@ColoradoRapids) May 24, 2024
1-1 draw, goal by Navarro. We actually have a slightly better offense than Minnesota but, particularly after last week, a much worse defense. I hope we see a good bounce-back performance from the Burgundy Boys because a bad outing after the games last week could really send our season into a spiral. I think we look better but Minnesota is too good to expect us to beat them, so a draw seems likely. Navarro continues his hot streak making the decision on him even tougher. https://view-from-the-couch.blogspot.com/2024/05/commerce-city-going-little-loony.html
Win lose or draw, the Rapids will be playing tonight. That’s as far as I’m comfortable predicting this crap shoot of a team lol
On a positive note, when was the last time we have had this consistent of a starting XI? 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐗𝐈🆚: Minnesota United FC🏟: DICK'S Sporting Goods Park⏰: 7:30 PM MT📺: FREE on #MLSSeasonPass on @AppleTV📻: @AltitudeSR📝: https://t.co/S1HoT5Gh57🤝: @MyKingSoopers pic.twitter.com/VJPwAj1KYJ— Colorado Rapids (@ColoradoRapids) May 26, 2024 We’ve had pretty much the same guys out there all season for each game, with the only changes really being Harris or Cabral, and Ronan pre-injury
Big win, 3-1, Mahailovic, Navarro and the Bombinator scoring. By the way, I’ve been awful with every prediction the year. I’m due.
I really like Bombito, but.... he's looking like a player who has always been able to rely on his speed. When attacker has a step or can match/exceed his speed he looks ordinary.
Bombito looking like a Burrito tonight. He’s been eaten alive. MN has speed and his speed can’t make up for his positioning deficiencies.
So half time.. Bambito needs to practice in sandals and learn to defend when he's not faster. Down 3-1 and I'm gonna be uncharacteristically positive. The Rapids have found ways through the Minnesota lines with a combination of short and longer passes. It's pleasing. There's a failure in finishing but the skill to get through is a positive.
3-3 with Navarro missing a Pk. Wilder?? This game or the fact Cabral has a brace. Both can be true. don’t know if my BP and sanity can take these types of games.
I feel like the Rapids can win this one - no jinx. We've the better build up, and the Minn goals have come against run of play. It's a wild game to be honest, but the Rapids have failed to convert several good chances.
Well, that was interesting. Frustrating but interesting. I begrudgingly think it was a fair result. I’m pissed Navarro missed the PK (excellent save), but it was a marginal call. Part of me thought, “ball don’t lie.”
Bassett (as of the 92nd minute in the game) had 94% passing, 52 first touch passes, and 7.5miles covered. Man was everywhere tonight. I know Cabral had the brace, but Bassett was the engine tonight. Great to fight back. How many times in the past would we have given up such cheap goals and then just fade out of the game entirely. Minnesota sat deep, and we punished them tonight. Wish we could’ve had the 4th (Harris will be having nightmares about that 99th minute miss), but still extremely big to come back from down 3-1 to tie it up and have very real chances to win it.
Enough that I turned off the game at 3-1 and read a book instead. Apparently, even though I want to believe, I still don't.
Fair enough! Even tho we conceded 3 goals (and Peeku’s shot off the post) we still were the dominant team out there: An xG of 1.92 for Minnesota that included three goals and a post, means we weren’t allowing high quality chances. Heck, Minnesota didn’t even register a corner kick! An xG of 4.2 also means we were generating an high amount chances as well (shame Navarro couldn’t convert that PK). If Navarro scores the PK, or Harris buries the 99th minute header I think we meet our xG in this game and easily win it 4-3. Was a fun one to watch that’s for sure! We were all over them all game. Great response after the collapse against FSL. Definitely a different feel to this years team than last.
My problem with this game is not that it was a tie against at home… my problem is that this game should have been a win. We probably could have put another goal or two in the net early on. But more fundamentally our defense needs to be stabilized …we can be a pretty good team. We should be trying to keep Navarro, but if we can bring in a stabilizing defensive presence we could be competing for more. We need to do something so that we can stop getting lit on defense.
Absolutely stole a point. Down 2 goals at half, we flub a PK, AND we let Pukki have a shot on a completely empty net and he finds a post? We gift-wrapped 3 points for Minnesota but they refused to take them. Take the point and run. The 2024 Rapids now have more goals than the 2023 Rapids, more points from a losing position than the 2023 Rapids, and are only 5 points behind the 2023 Rapids point total. And there's still one game left in May.
I have been traveling and unable to watch the last couple of games. What do I know? Going into the season I would have bet the house that our defense would be our saving grace and we would struggle to create chances and score goals. Can someone explain to me the defensive problems? Vines, I think, has been very inconsistent, and Rosenberry isn't getting any younger. Are they the problem? Sounds like Bombito was really schooled on Saturday. Is he the weak link? Is it a problem with the midfielders? Please advise.
In my opinion, Bombito didn’t have the greatest of games, but I wouldn’t say he was schooled. It was probably one of his worse performances in burgundy, but I don’t think the failures fall solely on him. The first Minnesota goal was a lapse in judgement on a quick throw in. Rosenberry is caught completely wrong sided, late, and upfield on covering Sang-Bin’s run, Bombito is stuck between two guys taking care of neither, and I’m not entirely sure who Maxsø was covering with his positioning. Bombito actually recovered well, but Sang-Bin was already a step ahead so Bombito had to actually slow his run to hop over to the inside positioning. Getting to the inside positioning lowers the angles Sang-Bin has available with Steffen coming up. But, it’s too little too late and it’s slotted home. On their second goal, Bombito is man marking his guy, and tracks outside to the touch line where he tries a long clearance. It doesn’t go very deep, but Mihailovic completely whiffs going for the header (and ends up not even challenging the Minnesota player). Ball bounces around, and by the time the shot is taken, he’s actually repositioned himself well to help close down the shooting lane, allowing Steffen a better chance at saving the shot. Unfortunate for Steffen, the parry away doesn’t go very far, and unfortunately for the rest of us Vines is caught in la-la land and doesn’t track Oluwaseyi. You can see Maxsø’s frustration too, because he reached and covered his man, but Oluwaseyi was completely open and Vines is just jogging back. In their third goal, Bombito carried the ball upfield and then tried to force feed the ball to Mihailovic (coaches orders, as we’ve heard, are to get the ball to Mihailovic more). Unfortunately, he had a guy on his back and couldn’t play the quick pass back to Bombito. It wasn’t the smartest of choices, but at the same time, Rosenberry should also not have been positioned so high with Bombito so far forward, and should’ve dropped back help to cover the space Sang-Bin was starting to press into. But by the time he recognizes it, the ball is turned over and there is way too much space in behind. Larraz actually gets schooled here as well, as he gets caught completely flat footed, tries to cut out a pass that wasn’t made, and instead of tracking Sang-Bin - he gets dusted. Bombito again recovers and got to the inside shoulder, but again, Sang-Bin puts in the only shot that can get past Steffen here. So, while Bombito didn’t do anything amazing this game, I can’t honestly say that any of the three goals were actually squarely on him and him alone. What’s more, when Peeku hits the post towards the end of the game, it was actually Bassett (who probably had the most complete game aside from this one pass) who laid off the lame duck backpass to Steffen that Peeku pounced on. We had some really poor defensive lapses and collapses where we left ourselves completely open, and Minnesota executed the punishments perfectly (aside from Pesku’s miss).
IMO they are missing a good defensive midfielder presence to cover the defenders when they press hard.