Chicago Fire 2-1 Colorado Rapids

By: Kyle | April 26th, 2008

Frickin’ Thorrington.

This is going to sound really lame: scoring a goal against the Fire is a victory in itself; not a “worth three points” victory or a “anyone will care in a week” victory, mind you. It was more of a “moral victory that people like to use as an excuse for failure” kind of victory.

While I’m never okay with any loss, if there is any game in the schedule that it is okay for the Rapids to lose, it’s this one. The Chicago Fire is, in my mind the best team in soccer. Their offense is only a little above average, but their defense might be the best this country has ever seen. 0.6 goals allowed per game is unbelievable. Even though their numbers are starting to drop, the Rapids are still the offensive team we saw at the beginning of the year if they can score against that.

You know when a team loses and says, “Our guys outplayed them, even though we didn’t get more goals” (a practice that has become a habit of Mexico after any defeat). This irks me to no end and you hear it all the time. In a game where the objective is to score more goals then your opponent, if you fail to do that, then by definition you didn’t outplay them. What I think people mean by that is “against most opponents, that would have gotten more goals.” And that’s what I think about the Rapids performance on Saturday. Or maybe we can put it this way: this kind of game would have beat San Jose last week.

But playing “if” is for children and now the Rapids have lost two games in a row. And the crazy thing is, the Rapids are still Western contenders. The rest of the west has kind of been slipping these past few weeks, too. The last two playoff spots being wildcards might come into play again this year.

So this leaves us third in the West, only two points back from first. Things could be a lot worse. And things are probably about to get a lot better, too. Check out our next three games: DC at home, Houston on the road, and then…Salt Lake at home. So, a team who allows a ton of goals, the worst team in the league, and then getting started on obliterating Salt Lake for taking the Rocky Mountain Cup from us? Is it Saturday yet?

Recap: Rapids