3 is needed tomorrow. Time for the Rapids best match of the season. Time for all supporters/fans to come out in full voice and spirit. This is huge given the Rapids track record home and away.
No doubt. Rapids have to win this game if they are to have home field advantage, after that big win Dallas had against DC. What a great game that must have been. Anyway, I REALLY would rather not have CO play two games in Dallas, so Let's Go Rapids!!!!!!
No offense, but there's no way I see the Rapids beating Dallas without the home field, so a win tonight is crucial. The Dallas-DCU match, particularly the second half, was one of the most entertaining contests I've seen since I started following soccer. If tonight's match is half that good, it will be a blast.
The Rapids need to out tonight with the mentality that they have nothing to lose (which they don't), as long as nobody gets red carded. A loss does not hurt the Rapids really, where as a win greatly helps them.
I'm a little, make that quite a bit, nervous about Gus St. Silva reffing this, especially after last Thursday's how did a brawl not happen in the Meadowlands. Hopefully he'll pull a Rapids and ref a good game after a bad one. See you there.
For anyone who went to the Colorado-KC match at (new) mile-high: Who refereed the match? I thought it was supposed to be Gus St Silva, but the match report on mlsnet.com says it was Kevin Terry. ?????
I've seen Terry do a lot worse than tonight. But I do feel Meola should have been carded for stalling in the second OT. The play in the box in the second OT could have gone either way, the one just before it was a foul on the Rapids.
Good, lively crowd tonight. Does anyone know what the attendance was? EDIT: Attendance was 25,614. I have cofirmed with myself the fact that I hate KC. Every time I see them, they play the ugly counter-attack type style that the Rapids spent forever trying to get away from. Colo more or less dominated the field with passing and control and looked pretty good doing it but just couldn't put anything away. I think the final shots were something like Col:25-KC:10. Even Pablo took some chances. For the 1st time I was impressed my Rick Titus (I'm sure I missed his other moments) and for the nth time I though Kramer sucked. Not saying it's his fault they tied (felt like a loss) but if I had to pick someone to blame it would be him. Anyways, a pretty exciting game up until the final wistle. The ref added an extra minute to 2nd OT because of the stalling by KC. And Spenny nearly had the big game winner with only a few seconds left. Obvisously, I'm not too good of a summarizer but thats what I noted.
Congratulations to the Rapids for showing the rest of the league how to draw fans. A great final game crowd for the league leading (attendance) team.
As badly as Kramer screwed up on that goal, remember that Klein was set up by a rare screwup by Kingsley on his pass, but a screwup nonetheless.
Kramer saved our defense more than once last night, it was the marking that completely failed us. So I can't really blame Kramer for the goal, he should have had it, but it was just one of a number of good chances KC had due to lousy marking. Spencer, by far, was MOTM.
Poor Finishing!!!! It was a great crowd, even a loud crowd, but the Rapids just couldn't finish. They had some great chances to put the ball in the back near the end, but just couldn't bring the ball down. I would beg to differ in regards to Spencer. If it was "hardest worker", I might agree to that, but he was much too tricky last night. There were a number of times that the Rapids would have benefited from a straight attack on goal, pass, or shot, instead of the many dummy runs and back heels that Spenny attempted. I could say the same for Carrieri. We tried to be too careful when a more direct approach might have acquired that much needed goal. Go Raps Beat Dallas!!!!!
MOTM OK Pablo Mastroeni is MOTM. I sat with some folks in 108 the second half.....Pablo just stole the freakin' ball repetitively from the Piz players and went forward effectively. Nutmeg with KC, Morrow's late Dallas equalizer, etc. We have flopped in 3 or 4 games from 3 to 1 (or 1 to 0) point tallies. Sigh. I am concerned that we are not really playoff ready...we'll see. RLH
True, Pablo did steal a lot of freakin' balls, but I would have to disagree with your assesment of him going forward effectively. He had way too many errant passes to be declared MOTM. I believe he even had more than a couple giveaways in the offensive third. Pibe also for the majority of the game seemed like he was playing for the Wizards but he sure had a beautiful cross to Chung for the goal. You have to wonder what the Wizards were thinking, letting Pibe wander unhindered into the eighteen. He proved that he can still serve up a ball on a platter but these occurrences seem fewer and farther between and it certainly helps when you haven't got a defender within miles. No one played a perfect game last night but my MOTM would have to go to Mr. Consistency. Chungy wasn't overly impressive but no one on the Rapids was for that matter. Chung seemed to keep the ball moving forward and had relatively few turnovers. He gets the lone Rapids goal and has a nice clearance of a dangerously directed ball in the box. As far as the subs went, Wes Hart was uncharacteristically pathetic, Stewart was invisible, and Trembly was effective but needed more time to work. I've got mixed feelings on Kramer. Jasonma was right. There was no reason Kramer should have had that much pressure early on in the game and his stop on the Preki shot was one of the best saves from a Rapids keeper this year, right up there with Garlick's save on Preki in the first game of the year. However, his not being able to get his legs closed on the 5 hole goal negated his earlier save and he frequently gave up rebounds and corner kicks that just shouldn't have happened. I'm convinced the Rapids won't advance to MLS Cup with Kramer in goal, although he is by no means the sole reason.
I think luck saved the defense last night more than Kramer did. He had a great save early on, but that goal was just painful to watch. Yes, KC should have never been that close... Kingsley mishandled the play in the box and that gave KC the chance (to his credit, Kingsley acknowledged his mistake in today's paper). But if you're gonna come off your line on a player in the 6 yd box, then do it. Charge out there and force the shooter to make an error. Don't go out a couple steps, stop with your legs wide, and sit back on your heels. Nutmeg every time. -- jeff