I have no words about this one. Just crap. My sense is Cooke won't be coach next season after the past few games. Pablo is probably sitting back and saying "told you the resources were not there". And I don't see very many of the Rapids that are worth keeping next season. I will support the team for the rest of the season (heck, may even go to a few games). But I am really hoping for a blow-up of everything and get this thing back on track. Because losing 4-1 in a RMC cup game is not acceptable. (I am just pissy because now I have to wear a stupid FSL scarf to work one day.) rod.
Wow. Just wow. I am glad I threw in the towel early last night. Just based on the posts in this thread, my heartfelt sympathies to any who endured that to the end. It sounds like I missed two red cards, a VAR-assisted goal, a late RSL scoring frenzy, and another obligatory Rapids Charlie Foxtrot. Did I miss anything else significant? From what I endured to the second goal, this was rec league drama, without any soccer. This isn't a team. It's a placeholder for a team to be named later. If I owned this team, I would keep four players at the end of the season: Berner, Doyle, MacMath, and Sjoberg. I would release every single remaining player, including Howard. Every.Single.One. To appease Transamerica, I would use the salary cap slaughter to sign somebody competent who actually has the directional sense to know where the opposing goal is located. I would start the process of building this mess as an expansion team, and honestly admit that it would take 4-5 years. Petke is a coach. He has RSL looking like they at least have seen a soccer ball before. Somewhere on this planet, there must be another human who can coach soccer. Heck, I'd even go for a robot with a modest amount of AI right now. But none of that matters, because the franchise has been Kronke'd in perpetuity. I refuse to clutch onto RTID as an excuse to keep adoring this pile of garbage. The Rapids are unwatchable. There is no vision - hey, that's "the Rapids way." remember? - no leadership, no talent, no future, and soon enough, no fans. Like I said upthread, I'm long past caring. Contract the team. Move it to Timbuktu. Keep tinkering uselessly for another 20 years. Collect enough wooden spoons for a banquet. It just doesn't matter.
I was thinking about this before last night's game and certainly nothing happened last night to change my mind. My issue with Smith's "Rapids Way" and the reason I immediately equated it with Hinchey's "#OneClub" is because both of them had the same fundamental problem. Its a marketing promise to the fans that we'll do better going forward/next.year/in the future. Its not an apology to the fans, admittance of any kind of specifics of what went wrong and what they learned, or a realistic assessment of how long it will take to fix this problem. This club for years (I'll be honest, I believe it started with Hinchey in 2011) has had an issue ever talking about the past and being honest with the ans. Instead its always "rainbows and unicorns" about what they're going to do. If you can't admit your mistakes and/or explain what you learned from them why should we expect anything to change. Honestly, I don't think anyone in the on-field side of this club, from the 30th (excuse me, 26th) player to the assistant trainer to the interim head coach and general manager should expect to have a job next season. Nobody has done their job well enough to justify that belief.
After a 24 hour cool down; still shaking my head at the dreadful play. Last year, we had Burch, Burling, Sjoberg and Miller as a back line. Not bad. Put Cronin and Azira in front of them and you can see why other teams struggled to score against them, particularly with a great goalie. This year, the back line has been abysmal. And the Rapids broke up the defense to add offensive play in Saied and Gatt, who actually have one goal between them ever. I frankly don't know what to say. What I can say is we'd gladly trade our players for the players on the two expansion teams. Just awful.
Reminds me of the old saying about a tree falling in the forest, "If someone scores after you turn the channel in disgust, should it count?"
it all starts with the coaching hire. Untill then I am just going to do all of the other fun stuff in life such as hiking concerts and marathons other sporting events like college football. I feel really bad for anybody that got season tickets for this year.
My problem is the Rapids are my guilty pleasure, kind of like the early Broncos when they were awful. I'm just drawn to watching the games; then bitching and moaning. (Okay, I did switch off the games before the end the past two weeks, but I digress.) Strangely enough, reading the comments during the games, particularly after a horrendous play, often makes me laugh out loud. Shared misery. But I agree, I've only attended a couple games this year. It's easier to take when you aren't shelling out money.
I'm giving serious thought to skipping the next home game. It shares a kickoff time with Washington-Fresno State and I can't help but think of how much happier I'll be at home watching Browning and Co. running up the score on a cupcake than watching Howard and Co. getting thrashed by Spanish National Team member David Villa and the rest of NYCFC.
You might be shocked to hear this, but we made the decision some time ago to miss this game. Turns out, a cool trip to Munich sounds like more fun than watching the Rapids. Having said that, we are planning on the rest of the home games. Need to get to at least a few games this year. rod.
A few of notes based on my observations: Our team generally runs, thinks, and plays way too slow. All three of Salt Lake's goals during the run of play were a direct result of their guys simply being faster than us. We were a step slow and looked like a preseason squad in all but the first 20 minutes. We're not winning the ball or maintaining possession in the midfield. That means Boateng and Azira weren't doing their jobs well. I think we need to look at other options for defensive midfielders in 2018. Gil and Gatt just plain suck. They run a lot and don't do a whole lot else. For being speedy offensive players, its remarkable how non-threatening they are to opponents. Hairston was more dangerous than both of them, and he's a defender. Williams again proves he's not an MLS level talent. He is an older, less talented, and more expensive version of Eric Miller. No new ideas in attack. It's still either "run into the corner, cross, and hope for the best" or its "shoot from +20 years out and hope for the best." Cooke doesn't have the chops to coach at this level, but honestly that is just as well because he's the kind of guy the club should avoid hiring as the full time head coach. He's clearly a caretaker and not somebody that has a vision for this team.
Admittedly you go to more games than I do, but I'm looking forward to seeing David Villa live. I still enjoy soccer, like that one article someone posted said, and watching someone crush the rapids in a nothing-at-stake situation is a pleasent enough evening. Plus, I like watching stars like David Villa in the MLS, it's just fun. Now if the Rapids grind out a 0-0 I'll be unhappy.
I'm with you on everything except this. Gatt shows speed and an ability to run through defenders. I'd be willing to give him another year, especially if there's support from new attackers. Gil on the other hand ... we should've look that gifyhorse in the mouth.
Updated RMC Stats: Records Overall (W-D-L) Real lead 17-10-12, 49 GF, 37 GA Games in Colorado Rapids lead, 9-5-5, 24 GF, 18 GA Games in Utah Real lead 12-5-3, 31 GF, 13 GA Margin of Victory, Real 4 Real 5 : 1 Rapids, 2014-09-19 Margin of Victory, Rapids 2 Rapids 2 : 0 Real, 4 times; Rapids 3 : 1 Real 2015-07-11 Scoring, Career Total Goals, combined 6 Saborio Goals, Real 6 Saborio Goals, Rapids 3 Casey, Cummings Assists, combined 4 Morales Assists, Real 4 Morales Assists, Rapids 3 Cooke Scoring, Single Season Goals, Real 3 Cunningham (2006), Morales (2014) Goals, Rapids 2 Ben Dayan (2005), Hernandez (2006), D.Brown (2013) Penalty Kicks 2006 Game 1 Cunningham 2006 Game 3 Cunningham 2008 Game 1 C. Gomez 2010 Game 2 Saborio 2013 Game 3 Saborio 2014 Game 1 Morales 2017 Game 1 Movsisyan 2017 Game 2 Silva Goalkeeping GAA, Rapids 0.86 Coundoul (Minimum 5 apps) GAA, Real 0.75 Rimando (Minimum 5 apps) Shutouts, Rapids 3 Cannon, Pickens Shutouts, Real 9 Rimando Shutout minutes, consecutive, Real 331 2007 Game 2 through 2008 Game 1 Shutout minutes, consecutive, Rapids 438 2010 Game 2 through 2012 Game 3 Appearances Appearances, combined 32 Beckerman (10 Rapids, 21 Real) Appearances, Rapids 14 Cooke, Cummings, Mastroeni, Moor Appearances, Real 26 Rimando Starts, combined 31 Beckerman (10 Rapids, 21 Real) Starts, Rapids 14 Mastroeni, Moor Starts, Real 26 Rimando Minutes, combined 2795 Beckerman (871 Rapids, 1924 Real) Minutes, Rapids 1260 Moor Minutes, Real 2285 Rimando Appearing in RMC for both teams Ballouchy, Beckerman, Borchers, Cunningham, Gil, Harris, Kotschau, Mathis, Wingert RMC Titles Won 10 Beckerman RMC Titles Lost 6 Casey, Cummings, Mastroeni Discipline Ejections, Rapids 1 Denton, Gordon, Watts Ejections, Real 1 Acosta, Russell, Olave, Harris, Sequera, Jaime, Maund, Cassar (HC) Cautions, total 9 Beckerman (3 Rapids, 6 Real) Cautions, Rapids 4 Burling, Freeman Cautions, Real 6 Beckerman Most cards, single game, combined 10 August 8, 2006 (6 Rapids, 4 Real; 8 yellow, 2 red) Most cards, single game, Rapids 6 August 8, 2006 (5 yellow, 1 red) Most cards, single game, Real 4 5 times (4 times 3 yellow 1 red, 1 time 4 yellow) Most consecutive games with a card, Rapids 4 Burling Most consecutive games with a card, Real 3 Espindola
@JasonMa as always, thanks for doing this. Have we really never had a PK against Salt Lake? Also, 1 item to correct... Unless maybe he reffed the 32nd match?