So KC plays today(5/30), then Wednesday(6/2), then Saturday (6/5), and then we get them Wednesday 6/9............I know the schedule evens out eventually, but having more games in hand leaves us lower in the West standings that we really are. Solid Rapids win vs. a tired squad. I fear 1-0. I want 3-1 or something. I would hope that Yoda will have the boys work on some, you know, scoring ideas during their time off. RLH
Re: Rapids/Wiz June 9th at Mile High To hell with the game, June 9 is my birthday!! Feel free to come by 127 to party and buy me beer! We're due for a break out game and KC will be tired after their schedule over the next two weeks. As a birthday gift to me, Raps go all out and firmly establish that just because you can teach a gorilla sign language doesn't mean you should let him play goalie. 4-0 Rapids. (I was also just thinking about how irritating it is that all the other west teams have played more games than us and are continuing to do so while we play a whopping three games between now and July 4. It sucks to keep looking up from the bottom while trying to keep it in perspective.)
Re: Rapids/Wiz June 9th at Mile High All will be made up when the Rapids play 5 MLS games in 18 days, from June 30 to July 17th... 8 in 21, if you count the Open Cup in the 20th.
Re: Rapids/Wiz June 9th at Mile High Why does this matter at all? It's not like we are going to play 4 less games than KC when the season is over. When we finally get to play catch up we could climb the standings giving us momentum in the local media.
Re: Rapids/Wiz June 9th at Mile High Where the F&)* is Kansas City? Seriously. I saw something about Kansas in a movie, what was it, Wizard of Aaahs or something. Just where is the City of Kansas? Is that in Arkansas? Quebec? Why are they in the Western Conference? Damn this Arizona edicashun of mine. I knew I should've learned some of the bigger cities, or territories, or whatever they call them in Canada. I was too busy with more important matters as a youngster. Laser tag, for example. Rapids 4-0. Meola cries. The Pope prays. Pedro being gone (and taking his #2 in the league in offsides) causes an offensive reorganization that creates 25.5 shots, 14 shots on goal. Cheers, BilFish
Re: Rapids/Wiz June 9th at Mile High For a team that has spent it's entire history in last-to-middle place, the press/TV/casual fan thinks we're never had a good team (like the Clippers!). This perpetuates the 'myth' giving the press/TV a "reason" to neglect coverage. It would be lovely just once to see the Rapids in first place for a month, even if it's only because we've played the extra games. You and I are the exception, understaning that most standings in the US use winning percentage, not points. RLH
Re: Rapids/Wiz June 9th at Mile High That's already happened, in 1999. And the local press didn't really give a damn... at least not to the point that press coverage increased. What you also need to understand is that regular-season records matter very, very little to the average U.S. sports fan, especially so here in Denver. It's all about the post-season, and more than a few casual observers remember that the Rapids did actually get to the championship "a while back." None of them remember (nor care) that the Rapids finished 8th out of 10 that year.
Re: Rapids/Wiz June 9th at Mile High Don't you think press coverage has increased since 1999, despite the team's record? The two major papers have Rapids stories each week, sometimes multiple times. Personally I think the media coverage will increase as the league get's older and proves to people it is not about to fold. It will be hard to take coverage from the Broncos, but there should be room for more soccer each year. Hopefully.
Re: Rapids/Wiz June 9th at Mile High My point was in response to Ricardo saying that the Rapids need to become a winning team to get on the radar, even if only for a month. In 1999 they didn't see a real increase in press coverage either from their regular-season performance (in the first half of the season) nor their Open Cup final appearance. Certainly the coverage has increased in the years since, but to be honest it's more to do with the Rapids having spent more time and energy on ways in which to get increased coverage, such as negotiating for articles in exchange for advertising, feeding entire feature stories to the press, and holding weekly press lunches. As everyone knows, the best way to a reporter's heart is through his stomach. This is one of the best things that the Rapids have been able to accomplish and improve upon over the years. Unfortunately just like successful ticket sales, the the side effect is that the organization has one less reason to feel pressured into improving performance on the field.
Anyway ... I think the Rapids are due ... the Wiz will be snoozing ... and we'll nail this one down 2-0. Goals by Spenny and DLT
Re: Rapids/Wiz June 9th at Mile High I would venture a guess that regular season coverage will not be particularly strong because at least for now, you have an 80% chance of making the playoffs in MLS. All you have to do is not be the worst team in the division (or league, depending on which playoff formulation they use in a given year - I hear next year that it will be the two worst teams west of Columbus not called LA or San Jose that will be excluded from the playoffs MLS regular season is practically meaningless. Unlike football, where you play 16 games, and pretty good records often miss the playoffs, or baseball, where mediocrity usually gets you nowhere (although because the season is SOOOO long, there usually is a precipitous drop off in attendance by the all-star break for non-competitive teams) 8 teams making the playoffs will be great when we have a league with more than say, 16 teams. That way, making the playoffs should not be almost assured. Now, you have to really want to see the games to go. No game on any given week means much to our playoff hopes - we just have to hope that somebody (probably Dallas) will svck worse than us this year. Compare that to the Broncos (I am NOT a fan of theirs, but they are a good example). Once you get more than, say, 3 losses, every game becomes must win. THat's exciting for regular season fans. And as for the US Open Cup (in terms of press coverage), I doubt many fans (not understanding the system) would see the prestige in the Rapids knocking off the West Monroe Crawfish-Eaters. Until fans in Denver start caring about the Rapids so that our attendance is over 10,000 per non-Adu game, and until the Rapids ownership cares about broadcasting games and advertising to the area that hey, we do in fact have a team out there, you might want to come, why should the media put the effort into coverage?
Keeping the upcoming KC game in mind here, I disagree that the regular season is "basically meaningless." Given the current structure of the playoffs, finishing strong in the regular season is incredibly important for home-field advantage. Given the Rapids' confidence and record over the past year playing at Invesco, can anyone imagine the Rapids not making MLS Cup were the single-game semifinal played here? With conference standings being the determining factor, games like next Wednesday's are crucial. The Rapids need 3 points from this match not only to make a move in the standings, but also keep the Wizards from getting even 1. And let's not forget that head-to-head is a big tiebreaker for playoff seeding, too. Oh, I almost forgot to be negative for the benefit of ballboy and his legion of sock puppets. boo! hiss! the Rapids suck! fire hank now!
As far as MAKING the playoffs, the regular season is pretty useless. Of course we've *missed* the playoffs a few times, eh? (I think 3 times). We really stank some of those years, too. We did get better coverage in the MLS Cup year. We did much better in 1999, remember even though we sucked our last half there were articles on Ian, more photos, a different attitude, and overall more interest. This even though we couldn't score any goals and got whacked 3-0 by Stern John on July 4. The benefit of a better seeding in theory is that you actually are a better team. You know, playing together, depth, character, spine, skill. I see little tactical advantage in being home for game 2 of a home-n-home as the other team, you know, adjusts it's game, too, based on game 1. As a #1 seed, you get the #4 team, in most years a good deal. The Rev's in 2002 and Rapids Cup year were the only MLS Cup teams I recall that, well, sucked most of the season but found life in the playoffs. For home field, it's much more important. The old three game or single game series gave the higher seed a significant advantage. Unless it changed, being a #1 seed means you'll get the Semi-Final at home. So, yeah, I think that we should try any win all the games. I am tired of heading into the playoffs as a #3 or #4 seed (even in '99) because it means we had a mediocre year, or underachieved, or (fire Yoda now) both. If the Rapids would figure that out, like other teams have, they might screw up and become winners. Gotta start somewhere. RLH
Good point, Greenie. If we can win the conference it'll be mush easier to get to MLS Cup. The two conference winners got there last year and I think the current playoff format will see more of this. A win over KC this coming week is important. One, to avenge last loss in the playoffs. Two, to climb ahead of them in the Western Conference. Three, to prove KC is stupid!
I just want a win!!! I think it is a great time to get another one. KC played mid week and like DC is in a tired position and should be beatable. Goals by Spennie, DLT and Henderson. Come on you Rapids.
Peguero will be gone too. Let's hope Spenny and Zizi stay healthy between now and Wednesday. Still looks good for us though!
Mastroeni, Meola, Wolff, Zavagnin removed from U.S. roster http://www.mlsnet.com/MLS/news/mls_news.jsp?ymd=20040604&content_id=4597&vkey=news_mls&fext=.jsp Seems that the Rapids decided to use their FIFA right to keep Pablo around for the game and Bruce decided to "play fair" and kicked all the Wizards off the roster too
Wow !! I am more or less amazed. And I am a big Mastroeni fan, but it looks like they should have released him. I am really suprised by this.
So after thinking about this I think Bruce Arena is sending a message to MLS coaches. He is playing Grenada, and figures he can beat them without some of his guns. So when Hanki holds out Mastro, Bruce responds by fortifying the other team. Basically saying "Don't dick with me." Otherwise, why would he make 5 roster moves because Pablo will only be in camp 3 days before Grenada. Further, Hanki, Counce, whoever is responsible needs to recognize that we are talking about The National Team and World Cup Qualifying. Becoming a hated quanitity at US soccer will not do the Rapids any good.
Two thoughts: First, Bruce is sending a signal to Hankinson and other coaches who might do this, which is, "do this and I'll make you look like a jerk." Second, this was an easy game to do this on. It's Grenada. Looking at the roster it's hard to imagine Meola, Mastro, Wolff, or Zavagnin were going to start. Wolff was probably the most likely of the group to get time. Mastro and Zavagnin would have had to beat out Armas, who seems to be Bruce's first choice. Mastro is a candidate for center back, but an unlikely one considering Boca and Pope are the likely starters. For what it's worth, Bruce has successfully made Hankinson look like an ass (not really a challenge), but I'm not sure it's warranted. All these players were set to miss not just the Wednesday game, but Saturday's also. I don't think it unreasonable for Hankinson to have asked to keep Pablo for first of those games, which is outside the FIFA window. MLS games are still important, and I will be disappointed if we lose to KC. I will have been more so if Pablo stayed in Columbus only to sit the bench. Another thing that bugs me is that instead of handling this situation Bruce just "used" four players in a way that they didn't deserve. He should have kept this between Hankinson and himself and even the media, but if Zavagnin or Wolff wanted to fight for a spot they'll just have to wait, because making a point was more important. On an up note at least we get two full teams, and a little bit of interest ahead of the game.
That is closer to my line of thinking then focusing the "blame" solely on Hanks. A World Cup qualifier (granted it's Grenada) and Bruce's main concern is treating the MLS fairly? I don't think so. While I don't agree with Hanks position, I think Bruce comes off worse with his response. Sending a messsage? I wonder if Bruce would have composed the same message if the opponent was Mexico?
Another aspect of this that just nags at me is that were this in the fall Bruce wouldn't being pulling this sort of crap on Man City. Reyna has flown into lots of camps with the same time frame, and he's had to travel a lot further than Denver to Columbus. I can't help but to think that part of the message here is, "you're MLS games don't really matter." I also think Bruce and a lot of posters on these boards have read to much into this as a tactical move. I don't think Hankinson did this to take advantage of KC not having their three players. Mastoeni has been a key to our team this year, and no matter who the opponent we need him. Another aspect is that many people seem to be missing the point that we, and KC, were going to lose these players for not just one game, but two. Hankinson asked if he could keep Mastro for the KC match. That's not really too much to ask for. It's very strange to be forced to defend a coach I don't like against a coach I do.
Getting back to the point of this thread, could someone please tell the RMN that this is a HOME match? Their local calendar in Friday's paper had the match unshaded, which denotes road games. Unless they got the legend backwards.