Let me start by offering a formal apology for predicting yesterday that Salt Lake would score a goal. That was shameful and, in retrospect, I don’t know what I was thinking. I will put forth great effort to avoid saying such hideous things in the future.

This game was textbook Colorado Rapids, start to finish. Here’s how the Rapids win for those who don’t get to see many of their games (you’re missing out by the way). The Rapids can be described in one word: relentless. What was the difference between the play that scored and the attempts that came before it? Nothing, except that it was the seventh time the Rapids did it. The Rapids are very effective with the soccer fundamentals. They don’t try anything fancy (usually) to trick the defense. They play soccer by the textbook: work the ball through the midfield and send it up front when a forward makes a good run. That’s it, and they do it exceptionally. They’ll do it again and again, and, come the second half, the defense is tired enough and has tried to stop the same play enough that they make one mistake, and the Rapids finish strong. At that point, the Rapids use the lead to open up the field a little and control the rest of the game, usually scoring one or two more. It’s simple, methodical, and effective, and it’s a sight to see. The numbers show it, too: the Rapids have scored 13 goals this year so far and ONE of those goals have been scored in the first half. Scoreless at half time is SOP for Colorado. They look like a group of guys who go out and do what they practiced together. It’s fun to see that payoff for them.

Congratulations for a good individual effort, as usual, to Kosuke. Facundo also played good defense and provided some excellent service forward to feed the attack. He’s a real two-way soccer player. Christian was flawless in the midfield as usual, and Colin simply owned the right wing. Heck, I couldn’t find a bad thing to say about a single one of them if I wanted to.

Here’s an interesting note: with a New York – Kansas City draw on Saturday (it could happen), the Rapids take position in the last SuperLiga spot. Either way, let’s cheer for a Dallas – Las Angeles draw on Saturday, and the Rapids will be two points ahead. Even if that doesn’t happen, unless Dallas wins by 3 (unlikely), the Rapids stay where they belong: first place.

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

If you missed it, the first half of the game featured a Glinton goal-that-wasn’t called back on a hand-ball and several pretty bad misses by Ronnie O’Brian. But O’Brian made up for it with the game winner in the 43rd. In the second half, the Rapids had one real opportunity at the start, but failed to control the ball much thereafter. In 61st, O’Brian got an assist to go with his goal when he slotted the ball past Erpen to Kei Kamara who scored to put the game away.

Last week during San Jose – Chicago, when there was that monstrosity of a miss by Shea Salinas of San Jose in stoppage time, the announcer said, “San Jose just can’t score. Everything else is good, but the scoring gets away.” I think that was a good description of their first two games, but bad news for the rest of MLS: they can score now. San Jose didn’t look like an expansion team tonight.

So, what do the Rapids take from this? Mainly, the 4-4-2 just isn’t for them. We tried to make it work all of last year and apparently this match, moving Colin up to forward. I really hope the team moves back to the 4-5-1. They have no trouble scoring IF they dominate the midfield. From left to right: Cooke, DiRaimondo, Gomez, LaBrocca, Clark. When Pablo gets healthy, put him in LaBrocca’s place.

One thing worth noting though is that the Rapids played defense very well, despite the two goals. It would have been three or four for most defenses. If you watch the extended highlights over at Quick Kicks, especially in the first half, it’s is mostly the Rapids back four breaking up San Jose’s attacks. Before tonight, the Rapids averaged only one goal allowed per game, and that same defense was there despite the shoddy midfield work.

So, let’s stay optimistic Rapids fans. Talent like we saw in the first three games doesn’t just disappear. I am fairly sure the Rapids will take the west back, (maybe not next week, they play Chicago at Toyota Park; yikes) and are still very capable of having an incredible year. One game in thirty is a shame to loose but not the end of the season. Worst case scenario (depending on how tomorrow’s games go): is that the Rapids are in second place in the west, 2 pts. back. I’m going to be cheering for a draw in the Chivas USA – Dallas game tomorrow. If the draw happens, the Rapids will still be tied for first place.

So, in summary, I guess it’s fair to stay that this was a disheartening loss, but not a decimating one. This should just be a single error in an otherwise great season.

Box Score
Highlights

4/21 UPDATE: I’m reading something strange (by my reckoning) on the Rapids blog row (i.e. Black Panther, a fine Rapids fan blog). Even over at The MLS Offside, there is an insistence that the Rapids played poor defense on Saturday. I think that’s a bit off. If they mean that the team as a whole did a poor job preventing opportunities by the ‘Quakes, then they might have a point, but that happened in the midfield, and those mistakes (mostly) were made by midfielders. If they were talking about the back four themselves, I couldn’t disagree more. The defense’s (as in defenders’) job is break down attacks by the other squad. In the game I watched, the back four did a fine job doing that. As I said, most defenses would have allowed three or four against that attack. The fatal errors were in the midfield, not the backfield; things like battles for lose balls, heading contests, and simple maintaining of possession.