Beckerman down the right side, crosses far post to Nat who heads past Tony. Zizi on for Carrieri. Cross by Spenny side volley from zizi into the side net. Raps sound like they are pressing. No TV, so who would know. 14 minutes left. Still 1-1.
Carry Talley fouls. (Isn't that like "John Stockton hits a free throw"?) Nothing happening. 9 minutes left. Still 1-1.
Chung rips a left footer. Meola saves. Hendo with the rebound? No!!! It wasn't to be!! Meola sounds like he is having a game. GK for KC. Meola wasting time.
Ball out of the back to Crawford. Up to Henderson. Nothing. Still 1-1 at 90 minutes. Injury time? Davy Crockett picks up a hatchet, I mean a yellow card. 3 minutes of stoppage.
Raps pressing. Crawford dispossessed. Preki fouled. Carry Talley fouls himself. Rolls on the turf. Magic sponge. Ball back in play. 1:30 left. Meola with the ball. Out to Davy. Raps almost pull out an own goal with Mastroeni firing on Cannon with a back pass. FT 1-1. Over and out.
At least we get a team with a chance on the 2nd leg of pulling out a series win (DC out, Metros out, SJ in BIG trouble). Sounds like an ugly but well-deserved draw for both sides. I love this game.
Disclaimer: I know I'm biased, but I'm here top ask a serious question... Gansler was going nuts after the CO goal. I know why. The Wizards were called for a foul (not a foul, the Wizard won the ball and the Rapid tripped over his leg. I've got the tape, already went back, it was a bad call IMO) in the midfield that lead to the free kick, which when down the wing, with lead to the cross that lead to the goal. Did anyone else see this? Did any of the CO fans think that the foul call was wrong?
i am partial to the rapids but i didn't see any foul!the cross came and they all were going up for the header and it looked like the kc player was trying to get it out also!Good goal!
if there was a foul called in our favor on that play, it was the only one we got the whole game. the ref was crap, horrible, rediculous. the wiz were falling all over themselves and getting fouls called, and then they would steamroll us and the ref wouldnt see a thing wrong. a few handballs went unnoticed, and some rediculous yellow card calls and non-calls (amazingly i dont think pablo was involved in any of them). the rapids were the far more aggressive team the whole night, and i thought that that is what got rewarded, not bunker, sissy, flopping play. anyway, we were unlucky not to score a few more times, should have scored when spenny hit the post. i too missed the kc goal, so cant comment. should have a good return leg game though, and if la wins their series, we could have another home playoff game. go rapids.
A very disappointing result. Henderson gives the ball away in midfield and Cannon let's the resulting shot get by him near post. Ugly, very ugly. Cannon comes up big on the only other two real chances. If he makes that first save, it's an ok performance....but he didn't. I'm fed up to here (hands above my head) with the cute crap, flicks to no one, back heels to the defense. Play the damn game! To many passes to nobody. Of course we have the usual post knocker from Spencer and side netted rocket from Zizi, tip save by Meola on a Beckerman shot, any luck and it's 4-1. Congrats to Nats - Great goal off a great pass from Becks. I've said this before, I want a $50 fine for every flick and back heel. Why is Crawford on the team? Yeah, Yeah, he made a few nice runs, but ended up with zip, zilch, no passes to teammates. At least two wide open, no pressure passes up the line that rolled out for Wiz throw in's. He couldn't kick the damn ball in a straight line! I thought Zizi was more dangerous that CC, but considering how impotent CC was, that's not saying much. Great work rate by Hendo, zero offensive value, but does get some credit for defensive pressure. Sorry, not enough however, to forgive the pathetic give away that led to the Wizards goal. Sure, there were lots of other giveaways, but his was in midfield under mild pressure when the Rapids were moving forward, and got caught by that blunder. Hart wasn't even in the picture when Wolde took the ball down towards the goal, although I'm told he plays that side of the field. Gee, this has been pretty negative, but that's the gut feeling I have after the game. The good news, a basic one goal win in KC might mean another home game in 10 days. Oh, yeah, the crowd - what a joke, 6k, is that the worst of the year? Tuesday night game, yeah - good job Rapids/Broncos - Minor league!
Missed Call??? I am pretty sure that the Ref missed the entire match. I didn't know that they actually allowed members of the blind community to become MLS referees. Again and again, the ref allowed KC to stand in front of our players as they tried to start play. The ultimate was near the end when a ball KC kicked hit the placard fence on the side, and and KC player started dribbling it away towards the goal so that we couldn't begin play. Not even a warning. Also, we all know this, but Preki must weight 75 pounds, because if someone even runs near him, he falls down. Cannon looked pretty unsure of himself for most of the match, though in his defense, he made a great save way out of the box when Klein was breaking away. Pablo and Beckerman played as good as I have seen them. While Nat scored the goal, it wouldn't have happened without tremendous work by Kyle. Crawford and ZiZi both greatly added to our energy in the second half. We had so many chances but just didn't convert. KC was content to just diddle away the time, and I don't blame them, the referee never got after them to speed up play. Henderson had to have lost 15 pounds during the match. He probably ran 10 miles. In one obvious sense it was disappointing, we should have gotten some advantage goals going to KC, but on the other hand, the Rapids looked very good in the second half. If they can start the first half on Saturday without sleep walking, it is a match they can win. Just imagine, a conference championship match here. That would be awesome.
I wouldn't be bitching about the refs if I were Rapids fans. The only reason you even tied is because your goal was gifted. The foul in question was the foul that led to the free kick. I.e., it was non-existant. Secondly, Hall let them start while he was moving wizard players, and obstructed. Lastly, Garcia was fouled over the back by two Rapids at the same time, right before the goal.
Crap, listening to the radio broadcast, even Keith Bleyer recognized how much this stuff was going on. And I'm surprised about the refereeing being poor. Brian Hall is supposed to be the best the US has to offer. He's done world cup matches. And for the KC fans that are in here (go talk in your own damn forum) you also sound like 10yr olds whining about the refereeing. "and then, the sucky ref called a foul at half line that wasn't even a foul, and then the rapids passed the ball and then the the rapids crossed the ball and then jerry garcia got fouled eight times in the box, and then the ref missed a handball for the goal......and then..........and then.......and then.." The second leg is coming. Let's see if the Rapids can NOT give up a goal to these wankers in the first ten minutes.
Yes, but he didn't have his cleats or gloves with him. He didn't look happy when he walked off after the game.
Rapids fans would know better...Why the hell was the game played on a Tuesday night??? Does MLS want to kill the franchise or something? I know that the Broncos had a Monday Night Game, but what the hec was going on Saturday and Sunday at Invesco? (I'll hypothesize and assume that Broncos management just didn't want to have ugly soccer lines ahead of their nationally broadcast game!?!?Hence, waiting after their game for an MLS playoff match to take place.) Amazingly, these two teams have to play with less days rest than the other teams, as they play on saturday at Arrowhead and the others on sunday. What the hell are the MLS bigwigs thinking with this...ohhhhh what a minor league!?!?
I wasn't an MLS decision. The donkeys and invesco owners made that call. There's no reason it couldn't have been held on Saturday.
"There's no reason it couldn't have been held on Saturday." There was no GOOD reason. There was some women and football function on Saturday (covered somewhere else in another thread). Of course, that couldn't be moved in favor of an MLS PLAYOFF GAME!
Boo hoo. Three days before the goal someone looked sideways at Preki and he threw himself on the ground. This was so upsetting to the wiz players who would never foul anybody, that they simply couldn't respond after a foul in midfield and the following six passes that led 'directly' to the 'gift' of a goal. KC plays ugly, negative, hacking bunker ball. You got a goal at 3 minutes and went into a shell. You really deserved to lose. It would be a black mark in soccer's book if that KC team of hacks advances through the playoffs.
No, I didn't say the header was a foul. That was a judgement call, but in the end you have to let the boys play and they did. My question about about the foul leading to the Rapids possession that created the goal. The ball was in the midfield, came down to Zavagnin who stuck out his leg and played it wide to a Wizards on a one touch. A Rapids player came running through and never got the ball, but tripped over Zavagnins leg. Hall called a foul. But why?! Then to make matters worse, the Rapids ask for 10 yards on the restart. Fine, Hall starts walking off 10. Once a team asks for 10 you must wait for the wistle. While Hall is pushing the Wizards players back, the Rapids play the ball wide. Wheres the wistle?! Cross, goal. The goal was clean, no question about it in my mind. It was what lead to the goal that I have a problem with. As for Hall the entire game, I thought he did as good as any US ref we could have. Carierri just screwed himself (and I think his entire team) early with his dissent and subsequent yellow. Klein came through on a clean, yet physical, challenge. Colorado won the throw in, yet Carierri wanted a free kick (in his own end, no advantage b/w throw or kick really) and dissented to the point of getting cautioned. From that point on Hall allowed the Wizards to be pretty physical with Carierri without calling many fouls. Wrong as it may be it happens all the time in soccer.
Hacking? A little off base if you ask me, considering for the last two seasons we've committed the fewest fouls in MLS. Bunker? Hell yeah, and any team would if they were on the road, up a goal, in the first game of a two leg series. Chicago did, and just got a nice counter goal late. Otherwise, look at our goal total for the year when calling us a bunker team. Maybe you're the last MLS fan to realize that we don't play like the 2000 Wizards anymore. Six passes? Try three. From the free kick there was a pass, then a ball to the corner for Beckerman, then the cross thats headed in. See my above post for the explaination. CO should have never had the free kick in the first place.
First off ... that was a completely crap goal to the near post allowed by Cannon. Hanki's move backfires in a BIG way. Second, while Crawford did add too the attack as far as moving the ball forward ... he had the worst passing I've seen all year. Two times he gave the ball up on a no pressure F'up. Third, Pablo ... it was total crap he was given a warning by the ref in the first minute of the game. He is right ... he is targeted (by his own actions) but a ref isn't suppose to be like that. That being said ... that was one of his top three performances this year. Forth, Becks was outstanding in my opinon. CC was completely ineffective. Spennie didn't impress and gave the ball away on too many back heals. Hendo wasn't good. Chung played well. Defense wasn't really tested ... Richie had good runs but failed to make that final pass/move. Finally congrats to Nat. Fantastic for him for sure. Gansler should be fired to improve MLS. I've always hated his style. KC is lucky they got that first goal to allow them to pack it in. We'll win this one. We have to.