Just thought I'd throw out that the way the Rapids played on Saturday night would be what many consider to be "creative." Oh yeah, and note that two crosses into the box resulted in goals from our 5-foot-something strikers.
"two crosses into the box resulted in goals from our 5-foot-something strikers." Yup and as long as they are allowed unfettered access to the ball (like Sat. night), we should be okay " the way the Rapids played on Saturday night would be what many consider to be "creative." Continuing my comment from above, I was amazed at the space the Rapids had in the final third. On Chung's goal there wasn't a defender within 20 yards. CC was wide open for his volley. Spencer goal resulted from a well placed serve, but he did not fight off any defenders and Seth's goal was another wide open affair. In your judgement. Was this simply great open space recognition from the Rapids, bad defense, both, other? Whatever it was, it sure was fun to watch
Wasn't that Jay Heaps standing right in front of Chung when he went into the box? And Chung was able to take on Heaps because he received a quality early ball from Henderson instead of a crappy ball into space that would have given Heaps a chance to intercept. Instead, the ball was at Chung's feet and allowed him to make moves on Heaps and get open to score. Agreed, but the cross was placed at a spot where Carrieri could get to it before a defender, thus, excellent service. Again. I've seen Spencer score a few goals with his head in his first season and it had nothing to do with marking or height. It was the service. Again. Because Spencer drew defenders to him and then laid the ball perfectly in Seth's path. Plus, there were a couple defenders and Rapid attackers in the box that could easily have blocked the ball. I think that the Rapids finally played faster and more confident. Hanki said it himself about Seth that last week he had an identical opportunity but passed it instead of shooting. Henderson found Chung way before someone could step up and block his path and that is what gave Chung the room to get his shot off. And if you watch closely, Carrieri holds up after Schmidt makes a run to the near post, drawing defenders away and then Chris sets himself up for the volley. The biggest thing was that the Rapids looked like they were having fun again. The smiles were out early, even before the first goal and they played like they had no pressure. That's the big difference for me. I'll agree with that.
Only thing I'll add here is that the box was very crowded on this ball, and the key difference is not just the service but the fact that Spenny squeezed himself right in between two defenders to get onto the end of said service. If you watch the goal, you'll see that in effect Spenny is the second-assist man on the play; he lays it off, curls away and tears into the box to end up receiving the give-and-go on his head. The Revolution were not playing the most organized defense known to MLS, but as JoeyClams says this was the first time we've seen the Rapids truly buzzing around working to create open space off the ball, and playing in the right weight and placement of service when on the ball.
On Carrieri's goal, you can watch it on mlsnet.com, Schmidt was more involved then I had thought. He made a nice flick on from Garlick's kick, that Zach chased down. Casey then continued his run to the near post, and drew both defenders and the goalie towards him. Chris was left with a lot of space to volley a very nice cross. The play was text book material. Casey, Zach, and Chris all made their runs as if it were drawn out for them.
You could argue that all 4 goals in this game were better than the other 4 goals we had already scored this year. With the possible exception of Carrieri's goal against LA, these 4 were all flowing, fast and well-finished. The Rapids approached the goal with a confidence that has been lacking the entire year.
Thanks Guys, very helpful information. I hope they can continue the creative play this weekend. I watched the CC goal on mlsnet, are the other goals available for viewing somewhere?
All the goals are available on mlsnet, underneath the goal of the week voting. Just scroll down, and every goal by every team from the past week is there. I bookmarked it so that I could keep up to date on goals, since I don't have FSW. http://www.mlsnet.com/multimedia/pepsi/index.php