Well, not me, that's for sure! I've never seen a Rapids July 4th game and would like to this year. Hopefully, the game will be on the MLS website, though last time I checked, they didn't have a TV or radio feed listed.
The ticket lady told a friend of mine that the only tickets left were in the upper decks and at the ends. It could be packed. The most important question is; will Rapidman score this year?
Can anybody confirm this tidbit from the Rapids site: "...[T]he brand-new 23rd Avenue exit ramp that takes you right to Invesco Field from I-25 Southbound is expected to be opened before the July 4 match." And if it is open, does it truly take you "right to Invesco," or would I need a superb sense of direction to figure it out?
From the match preview: For Clavijo, the match is also important for what it can to kick off the second half of the Rapids season. "Unfortunately, our play has not decided our result. And that's the thing that's just getting me really frustrated. We have 16 more games and 48 points at stake. We need to ...continue creating those chances in the second part of the season, but the frustrating part for me is when I look back on the first 16 games, seven of those games have been one-goal differences and a lot of the time the mistake has been made by someone else. And that dictates the result. We're still where we want to be. We're still in the race of the playoffs, so that has to be what we concentrate on the rest of the games we have ahead." I just don't see it. I feel like he's been watching an entirely different team. Can anyone explain this another way so that maybe I can understand what he's talking about?
It's the exit I take every time. You take the exit, turn right, go up to Clay St. ( I think it's Clay St....it's your first light anyhow). Take a left, and it'll take you straight to the stadium. It's pretty easy.
At halftime, I was ready to put away my jersey and dig ditches. I can't even really say anything about Peguero. After so glaringly using his hand on the first attempt, how could he not expect the same result on the second. I sit far away, so I will give him the benefit of the doubt, but the recap on MLSNet says a second hand ball. At halftime, we take out Lewis and Luchi, sounds like a comedy team. Beckerman and Cooke come in. Yes, as in Englishman Cooke. Early in the season, I thought he looked very promising and then with injuries, he disappeared. Let's hope he has resurfaced for good. We could sure use him. My anxiety in the first half was because we looked so disorganized on defense. It looked like Klein could pretty much do whatever he wanted, and we never had a defender in his face. Then came the second half. It almost seems like when we are in despair, and there isn't anything to think about, just clear the ball, we do a better job. Maybe we could petition the league to let us start matches with just 10 players. I am surprised that Cunningham and Nkong could still stand up by the end of the match. They made enough runs for a season. I am still flabbergasted at Cunningham's acceleration when he gets in a position to go to goal. He truly leaves everyone in the dust. With a great crowd, we really needed this result. If the second half had gone like the first, the Rapids may have moved to Oshkosh and we wouldn't have cared. FC would have had to get a job at Dick's Sporting Goods. Thanks Goodness that didn't happen and we actually made some ground on RSL. Way To Go Raps!!!!
I wish I had recorded this game. It seems the Rapids played the best I've seen them this year in first 16 minutes of the 2nd half. As said, Klein had his way with the Rapids tonight, unlucky to not have a second goal and created many other chance for himself and others. He was with the Nat's pretty regular for a while, I wonder what happened. Hats off to FC who clearly made the right moves to start the 2nd half. Both in terms of players and formation. That might be the first time I've said something nice about his game time coaching this year. Nkong topped, in my mind, his best effort of last game and really seemed to fit better in an offensive midfield role. He looked for the ball more and was more effective. Jeff had another great game. He didn't score or get an assist, but he was dangerous and attracted attention freeing up space for others. Good to see Ritchie get a start and seemed pretty effective, like the old days . I want to see the Cannon kick save again. The replays weren't real good. MLSNet said it was his best of the year, it looked miraculous to me in real time. I thought Cooke looked a bit rust but still pretty good and the free kick, as the saying goes, sometimes it's better to be lucky then good and the Rapids (and Terry) deserved some luck. My only negative comment is reserved for Pedro. In all my years I've been watching the Rapids, I've never been so pi$$ed off at a Rapid. His two unsportsmanlike, amateurish handballs in the box torqued me like no one else has. I'm over reacting, but I would be perfectly happy with dropping him from the team, now, right now, like Sunday morning at 12:30 AM now. Of course the better course of action may be to package up some highlights and try and pawn him off for an allocation, draft choice or player.
Well, I guess you got to give some respect to Clavijo. He's managed to take a team composed almost entirely of average MLS players, without anything resembling a real midfield, and win games on pure determination. Some observations from last nights game: (1) Nkong has a bit of skill and good pace but he lacks the vision and passing ability to be a midfielder. He still thinks like a forward and early in the game he wanted to blast a long ball any time he was open in the offensive end. (2) Is this the best Peguero is ever going to be? His entire game seems to be trying to outrun or muscle past defenders. He's always been considered a project but I'm not seeing a lot of improvement. (3) There were almost 42k at the game and 90% seemed into the game, not just there for the fireworks. There's obviously a decent fanbase for soccer in Denver but the current faceless Rapids have no way of drawing them out to the stadium. This team badly needs a star, maybe an offensive player who the fans can identify with.
After going to bed last night I realized I missed giving Cullen his due. I thought he played his best game as a Rapid. If what we saw last night were players (and coach) playing up to their potiential the rebuilding may be a bit closer than I thought.
-------------Cannon-------------- Lewis--Borchers--Petke--Kotchtau ------------------------------Denton -------------------Cullen----------- ------------Nkong------------------ -Luchi------------------------------ -------Peguero-------Cunningham---- If you can spot the giant gap here, you will know why we got scored on in the first half and why taking off Lewis who frequently decided not to even bother playing in that position was Clavijo's best move of the year. Lewis was giving Luchi crap for not coming back and playing right back for him while he wandered into the middle of the field. That's why Klein whooped us so bad in the first half. Great second half, though! You just knew the Rapids would do something to win! The fireworks were great as well. Q
THought that the first half by the Rapids was weak and uninspired. Cannon - that kick save was amazing...Joe seems to be getting back into the all-star groove he had last year. The goal that the Rapids gave up was a beautiful shot by Klein - definitely not a softy. Cunningham - He was working really hard. Didn't pay off in goals. Lots of his shots seemed to barely miss the net by only about 20 feet. But I was really impressed with the hustle he showed, especially on the one re-start towards the end, where he ran in from the wall to challenge KC, blocking any meaningful pass and clearing the ball out. Pedro - I'm tired of Peguero. He is ineffective with the ball this season, and even worse, the red card looked well deserved, with his best attempt to mimic the hand of god (ok, in Pedro's attempt, the fist of god - either way, it was REALLY stupid). Funny thing is, in the last game at home (against Dallas maybe), I thought I saw Pedro try to handle the ball with his hands intentionally as well. We clearly need a better option up top than Pedro. He's lazy some of the time, off side some of the time, and injured the rest of the time. Cullen - come on...challenge SOMEBODY. Its like Leo Cullen thinks that his job is to be the monkey in a game of "Monkey in the Middle". I can do without him playing for the Rapids. I'd dump him in a minute, but I suspect we're stuck for the season with him. Kotschau - glad to see he got the start...especially over Mr. Hacktacular, Guy Melamed. How did Hunter Freeman play himself off the starting team in favor of developing Eric Denton? Oh well. BIg victory, but the Rapids can't seem to build on these.
While I suppose it's possible that he played his best game as a Rapid last night, it's all relative. I thought he still looked horrible. He seemed lost in the midfield and was probably fighting vertigo by the end of the game from all the spinning... where do I go... what do I do...? He also took (last night, at least) the crown away from Beckerman for inability to move the ball in a forward direction. He passed it square a few times ... with 30 feet of space in front of him. Let Cullen get splinters.
Hats off to FC who clearly made the right moves to start the 2nd half. Both in terms of players and formation. That might be the first time I've said something nice about his game time coaching this year. Nkong topped, in my mind, his best effort of last game and really seemed to fit better in an offensive midfield role. He looked for the ball more and was more effective. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- if his best effort is at offensive mid, he played that in the first half when you stated you didn't like his lineup and formation.. second half imo nkong played forward.. we played a 342 and then when we got ahead it went to a 441
Hats off to the boys ... let me say ... for what this team lacks in talent ... they sure have shown heart and determination these last few weeks. Pedros deserved his Red. Cunningham is awesome. Cannon is God. Good subs by FC to adjust a miserable first half. Cooke ... stay with us buddy ... please let that be the BEGINNING!!!
Pedro is lazy most of the time. His "hand of God" imitation was pathetic. Why try it twice if you can't even get close the first time? I mean if you have to extend your arm 2 feet in front of your head, what ref could even miss that? What an idiot!! and twice ... Although the second time was a tad better. Maybe 1 foot in front. Clavio should sit him after his red card, make him earn a starting position. On the flip side... maybe Pergero did us a favor. After he left the team played better. I guess his lazy attitude was a detriment to the team.
I couldn't figure out for the life of me why Pedro got the first yellow card. The only two things I could tell on the replay was that (A) Pedro took a shot on goal, and (B) he was on the ground after the shot. A handball would make sense. Either way, Pedro deserves the ride the pine while we try to find someone of skill and ability to replace him. The only problem is that we have zero forwards who can step up and start right now in his place, since Wolde is an utter disaster out there and the consensus is that Fabrice is waaaaay to young and unpolished.
He deserved both yellows. I was in 127 and got a good look at both and they were both deliberate handballs. I want to know what the hell he was thinking after getting carded the first time.
Sasha Gotsmanov. Tied with Wolde in reserve scoring, gets good reports, NE wanted him in a trade, but can't get a bloody minute of playing time.
Yup, both were crystal clear. I honestly was thinking he might get the red after the first one since it was so blatant. Then after the second I was livid. I was more ticked off after that then the 2 reds against L.A. and as my daughter will attest, I was mighty ticked off in that game.
What a weird game! How can a team play like absolute crap in the first half, have a player get sent off for 2 ridiculous fouls, then come up with 2 good set-piece goals and a win? I agree with the kudos for FC's halftime changes. Unlike the FCD game, when we fell apart after Pablo was substituted, we looked a lot better with Cooke & Beckerman than with L & L. Anybody else think the crowd was more like 32K than 42K? And I gotta agree with SmudgeyJoe's first comment. After suffering through the FCD game and the first half last night, I was just about ready to give up on the Rapids. But there's some optimism now - not a lot, but some.
Both yellows were obvious hand balls from where I was sitting. The linesman had a perfect view of the spectacle. I was screaming at Pergero both times. I was furious at his stupidity.
Sitting up (and I mean UP) in 510, I didn't see either clearly in live action, but a couple of guys sitting right behind me (who obviously play a lot, judging from their conversation) saw both immediately. They were also furious at him.
I think the halftime subs really exposed just how lame we are on the right flank with Luchi and Lewis out there. They are real journeymen, ya might be able to get by with one or the other but not both. Throw Denton and Cullen into that mix and fagedaboutit! The first goal was all about Ricky Lewis missing a rolling ball and leaving Borchers on an island. Cannon was huge, Nkong was good as a forward and poor as a midfielder, Beckerman had a solid half, Cooke's free kick was a beauty, and it was nice to see Katschau back in the line up. How about Hunter Freeman for Lewis next week? And who misses Pablo?
I agree that it is time to sit someone, either Lewis or Denton, and let Hunter Freeman have a try. He at least has an upside. I think Denton is maxxed out and won't improve. My biggest problem with him is that he too often gets caught out of position leaving others to mind the mint. That and the fact that he is about as one legged as Mark Chung. Lewis may still have an upside, but he has demonstrated too many errors to make it worth the cost to have him in. Having watched Hunter through all of the U-20 matches, I am not so naive as to think that he will suddenly take over the team on defense. He is fast and he does come forward very well. On the negative side, he sometimes overcommits and makes passes to that invisible player that a lot of the Rapids seem to see from time to time. Nonetheless, I think he has the biggest upside of all the choices and deserves playing time. I would also agree that Sasha ought to get the opportunity. In the reserve matches I have seen, he does some really good things and then some really immature things, just what you would expect from a young player. Nonetheless, I think if I was FC, I would give him a try next match, and bring Fabrice in for the last 10 minutes unless the situation would make that outlandish.