I can't get excited because of the way the season played out. Jeez, I was hoping they'd start it earlier given the date. First snowfall on a playoff game date? The devil is laughing just thinking about it.
I was thinking the same, better get some covered seats lol I'm not excited either but I'll support these guys through good and bad, just feels like the bad isn't stopping...maybe they'll surprise me. If they lose these two playoff games in a row, they will have lost their last 6 games of season...and 7 of last 8. We are due, if nothing else
Update on training / injuries: 1849161691910525041 is not a valid tweet id Good news all around! Djordje may be back in time for an all important home leg. Cole and Kevin back to 100% as well
Hardest working team in the league? Well, we covered the most distance in the league this year! 1849198037240877282 is not a valid tweet id Bassett was the league leader in distance too, but that was pre injury. Not sure who took the top spot!
Huh, a team that runs that much might want to consider having some actual depth to rest players. Instead Maxso played every minute of all 41 competitive matches this season.
Padraig can't be bothered by that. He just had his good transfer window earlier this year, so it's now time for his traditional 3-year vacation.
Let’s be honest, not only did they get the stuffing kicked out of them on Saturday, they’ve played like stuffing for awhile. It’s a shame they couldn’t have stayed competitive a bit longer. Hard to be optimistic about next year.
I agree, it does not look good for Friday, but hopefully this showed the organization that depth is an issue and gives some added push to address it. Lots of good pieces there, essentially all under contract next season. Even if we manage to improve 10% next season it puts us in a great palce.
As mentioned multiple times across various threads - the Rapids have a massive dropoff in talent problem. This will only be exacerbated if we have a flat transfer window this winter. For example, defending without Bombito has actually seemed to be pretty dramatically worse. I did a deep dive on this too to verify what my eyes were telling me. In regular season games only - With Bombito this season, Rapids went 7W-7L-4T, with 34 goals scored and 35 against. Without him on the field, but while he was still a Rapid - we went 6W-3L-1T, with 19 goals for and 11 goals against. Not exactly a great case for his impact, right? Well, if you look after we sold Bombito, we went 3W-6L-1T with 13 goals for and 23 goals against. But here's the real kicker. When you look at how we fared against teams in the postseason (9th or better), it's a fairly drastic shift: Pre-Sale of Bombito Post Season Teams with Bombito on the field 5W-6L-3T, 26 goals for, 30 against Post Season Teams without Bombito on the field 1W-3L-1T, 6 goals for, 8 against Non Post Season Teams with Bombito on the field 2W-1L-1T, 8 goals for, 5 against Non Post Season Teams without Bombito on the field 5W-0L-0T, 13 goals for, 3 against Post-Sale of Bombito Post Season Teams 1W-4L-0T, 3 goals for, 12 against If you include our last game against the Gals, its 1W-5L, 3 goals for, 17 against Non Post Season Teams 2W-1L-1T, 10 goals for, 11 against Those numbers are absolutely bonkers to me. Bombito on the field made us more competitive with teams that made the postseason that without him. Our only success without Bombito on the field really only came against bottom of the barrel teams. This is a glaring weakness that needs to be addressed this post season.
We've all said it this year how the Rapids look good against weak teams, and struggle against the top dogs. This is only made worse when we are down guys like Bassett and Mihailovic too. We have little to no creativity outside with Cabral, Lewis, Harris, and Fernandez(when he plays winger). It's just 'boot the ball into the channel and hope someone is there.' If we actually receive the ball and possess it after a long ball, it turns into 'dribble it to the end line and hope someone is in the box.' Navarro is usually good at getting there, but then it's a hopeful ball that has to get through 2-3 defenders before Navarro can even get a bite on it. Bassett at least covers so much physical space on the field he limits the counterattacking passing lanes when we get caught upfield. Even with injury, Bassett was reported to have covered the 5th most ground in the league this year. Mihailovic, while he started a little rough early in the year, was really our only creative hope in the middle the second half of the season. WIthout Bassett and Mihailovic we become even more of a one-trick pony that can't defend in transition anymore without the covering speed of Bombito to make up for sloppy giveaways. I love Abubakar, but the difference is stark. If we are 100% healthy and rested, we have a shot to compete with the best of them. See our League's Cup run for example. But the second we are out of gas with our main guys - or they are injured - we simply drop off a cliff. That needs to be massively looked at this offseason. Too many holes to fill if one guy goes down.
I take the post-Bombito sale numbers with a grain of salt as they're also the "post Leagues Cup run that wore our legs out" numbers. Not that I think Bombito's loss was meaningless, but I think our struggles are a combination of losing Bombito and way too many minutes without the necessary rotation in the lineup.
Oh absolutely. That’s why I compared records both pre and post sale of Bombito. 1-3-1 vs 1-4 respectively. I think the goals scored / allowed definitely speak to the minutes as well. (Should be mentioned that Portland also hung 4 on us in leagues cup - and that was with Bombito on the field)
One word to describe February - September: Entertaining. One word to describe October - November 1st: Pitiful.
Hey, there’s a silver lining in everything. FSL lost in 2 matches against Minnesota - so they went only as deep as we did in the playoffs. But this year we got the RMC, so I see this as an absolute win
I watched the game hoping for that result and wasn't disappointed. I also saw a scarf that I absolutely need during a halftime shot of the supporter's section:
In some ways the season was like a bell curve. It started off flat (at best) then by June was on the upswing peaking at some point in August during Leagues Cup and then was falling off a cliff by the end of September. The physical and emotional toll from the Leagues Cup caught up to the team in September.