The biggest question on my mind as we await the game against Houston (with much anticipation, by the way) is who will be starting. The Rapids showed at the beginning of the year that they can play well in the 4-5-1. I would still prefer it because, as I’ve stated and overstated here on The Rapids Offside, this team’s power is in its midfield. A 4-5-1 allows the Rapids to keep LaBrocca on the field, and if there’s a spot for another midfielder, he’s certainly earned it. On the other hand, a 4-4-2 gets another forward up there, and Peterson’s goal in his first start this year makes a compelling case for it.

If I had to choose now, and everyone was healthy, it would go something like this:
———————Bouna——————–
—Kosuke—Facundo—Ugo—Jose—
Terry—Pablo—Christian—Nick—Colin
——————-Herculez——————-

That striker up front is a hard choice, but with a five man midfield (a few of which are very capable of scoring), Herculez, Jacob, Tom, or Omar are all fine choices.

But, looking at The Match Up page on the Rapids website, Fernando is trying something different this week. It’s right about 2/3 of the time, but it has projected Jordan Harvey playing in the back instead of Jose, Terry and Colin are benched (like last week), and Peterson’s on the left wing. If this is right, it sound’s like something Fernando might do. He seems to be playing around with the line-up while it’s still early in the season and the Rapids have a couple of easier games ahead of them, and that might be a good idea. I will certainly be interested to see how this works out, and if there’s any early season game that’s good for trying this out, it’s this one.

Things didn’t look so bleak for the Los Angeles Galaxy by the end of the first half. And, yeah, one could argue Omar Cummings picked up a soft penalty kick; as Max Bretos noted in his commentary Cummings popped back to his feet to continue the play after Abel Xavier’s challenge. But a couple other phrases by Bretos – these came on either side of Colorado’s 4th goal, a particularly humiliating poke that, again, victimized Xavier and added LA ‘keeper Steve Cronin for good measure – speaks to how the game played out after that PK:

“Like lambs to the slaughter….”

“Like a hot knife through butter.”

So, the Rapids beat Los Angeles 4-0, a grim score in any part of the world. But it’s particularly grim from LA’s perspective: the Rapids haven’t beaten a team this badly since…nope, not 2007…there’s the 5-4 playoff win over FC Dallas in the 2006 playoffs, but that’s a close game, unlike last night; you have to go back to July 23, 2005 in order to see Colorado knock 4 past another team while also dominating – in this case, the Chicago Fire (archived results are available here). And, for the record, they had let in four goals on a couple occasions during that period – including the 5-0 pounding in last year’s U.S. Open Cup against the USL-1 Seattle Sounders. Even if I fudged the details, the larger point holds: the Rapids don’t very often do what they did last night. Nice way to start the season.

At the same time, how much of this was LA? I hinted at how badly LA played over on Center Holds It. Let’s just say such was LA’s defending that I’d wager the J.V. squad from the nearby high school could find a way through. Sure, it’s possible I’m wrong about LA, but I wouldn’t count on it.

Getting back to Colorado, though, a couple things stood out. In spite of an entirely competent night – and scoring on a PK to top it off – Christian Gomez didn’t mean as much to the game as Terry Cooke and, in the late going, Colin Clark. The team so far seems wed to last year’s formula of flying down the flanks – with the difference being it worked like gangbusters last night. It’s possible Cooke benefited from facing off against LA’s Michael Gavin, not to mention having the support of Kosuke Kimura for overlapping runs (he also shut Landon Donovan down; nice bonus, that); suffice to say, Colorado’s right laid open like a freeway at midnight. The left only opened up later, when being behind forced LA to chase the game, hence Clark’s “punking” of Xavier (it’s a Hollywood thing, Abel; get ready for more). All that said, though, having the flanks work should allow Gomez some room to operate in future.

If there’s one thing I’m uneasy about where Colorado is concerned it’s the somewhat random feel to their game. At times, it reminded me of basketball – e.g. isolating one flank player against one of LA’s defenders and putting it on them to beat them and make the opening. In other words, I saw fewer complicated build-ups and spells of possession than I saw a series of good, but opportunistic, plays. That’s not bad so much as it’s something you may not want to rely on for offense.

All in all, however, what’s not to like about a 4-0 win for your side? If you’re fishing for a bottom line, I’d dub this an encouraging performance with an asterisk stamped on the end of it: Colorado hasn’t won like this in forever, but *do keep the opposition in mind. Whether LA will be this awful in a couple months isn’t really the issue: they were frankin’ awful last night, bad enough that I’d recommend taking at least two of those goals with a grain of salt. I think next week – the Kansas City Wizards away, who are fresh off a decent win over DC United – will give a better measure of where the Rapids are these days.

Looks like the Colorado Rapids ended their pre-season on a high in the lower part of our fair nation: they beat the Chicago Fire 1-0 on a goal scored by Stephen Keel. And, to quickly flag some details in the write-up ), note the frequent appearance of the following names in that linked-to article: Ciaran O’Brien, Jose Burciaga Jr., Omar Cummings, and, later, Herculez Gomez. Personally, I find the first two names most encouraging. And the win seems like a good thing too.

A View from the Couch offers up the starting line-up and formation, a 4-5-1 with Cummings on top. The same piece also contains word on who’s gimpy and who’s not.

Today, we get to the failing that doomed the Colorado Rapids’s 2007: namely, the ever-sputtering offense. If Toronto FC hadn’t suffered eternities of incompetence in front of goal, the Rapids 29 goals scored would have set the all-time low-scoring mark for the 30-game era in Major League Soccer (MLS). The reasons for the failing are many: first, and most obviously, injuries; poor choices in personnel; lackluster performances by too many players when they were healthy – it adds up in the end.

The Rapids set out to fix their vexation in the off-season – and a good thing to with so many injuries carrying over from last season. Conor Casey, Herculez Gomez, and Mehdi Ballouchy: all three remain on the physios table. Not to put too fine a point on it, but that’s one starter sitting at least. Last year also featured an injury to Jovan Kirovski….what?….oh…never mind. Turns out he was there for nearly every game. You wouldn’t know it, not least until there was a PK to be taken.

The link in the paragraph above mentions that the Rapids’ physios are busy trying to get the wounded back onto the field for the season opener. That would be a good thing, of course (or probably at least), because both Casey and Gomez showed well over some spells, if at different times during the year. And it’s not like they didn’t have a solid supporting cast in midfield. In fact, it’s fair to say that, last year, the forward line let down a fairly decent midfield. Between Terry Cooke on the right and Colin Clarke on the left, healthy forwards could find decent service from the flanks. The bigger problem came with the comparative void between the two…

….but, hey, that’s why the Rapids lifted Christian Gomez from DC United. By bringing in one of the most consistent central midfielders in MLS, it’s hard to believe the Rapids haven’t upgraded. What isn’t hard to believe is that they still haven’t done enough.

What I expect from the Rapids’ offense appears after the jump. I’ll confine myself to players whose primary focus is on the making and scoring of goals; that’s not to say some people not named won’t contribute to the offense, so much as to point out they have other things they need to do. Here goes…

The Parts
Midfield: Rafael Gomes, Mehdi Ballouchy, Christian Gomez, Terry Cooke, Colin Clark, and – hey – I’ll admit it: a bunch of dudes I can’t peg. (FYI, I plugged in Mastroeni with the preview of the defense.)
Forwards: Jovan Kirovski, Conor Casey, Omar Cummings, Jacob Peterson, Herculez Gomez.

How They’ll Fit Together
I won’t deny that this would all read more impressively if I had some firm idea as to how the Rapids will line up in 2008. I suspect Gomez’ arrival will bring some changes, but can’t say what. So, what comes below is what I would do mixed with what I believe will happen…which is why Kirovski’s name is in there.

For the record, I’m assuming something wacky, something like a 3-1-2 (see the Rapids defense preview for the rest of the line-up; Mastroeni carries over). Read this from left to right:

Midfield: Cooke – Mastroeni – Clark
“In the Hole”: Gomez
Forward: Kirovski – Casey

Fortunately, Clavijo has options…including leaving Kirovski on the bench.

How They’ll Work (I Think)
To forward an educated guess, I believe this will work along the lines of the Houston Dynamo’s attack: e.g. solid flank play will open up room for Gomez (that’s Christian; I’ll call Herculez by his first name to keep this clear) to operate up the middle. That’s what makes me think they’ll play Casey whenever he’s healthy; can’t beat a big bruiser for getting on the end of crosses. Kirovski will do whatever it is he does – shoot from range, etc. – unless he cedes his spot on the field to Gomez and someone else pairs with Casey.

And, for Rapids’ fans sakes, I hope that’s what happens. From what I’ve heard, the Rapids are still shopping for options (I think his name is Sava? Or even some guy called Navia? Wait…I think that second one is dead), but they have a couple plausible options at hand, starting with Herculez. From what I’ve seen of him, Omar Cummings deserves a longer look and there’s also Jacob Peterson lurking out there. Of all of them, Herculez has the name recognition, but his patchy form should leave the door open for Peterson and Cummings; I’d go with the latter first, but that’s not based on a ton of observation.

The one thing I can’t really nail down – and this applied to the defensive preview as well – is what happens with Gomes. What does that guy do and where does he like to line up? I saw he scored one this pre-season (against Ipswich, I believe) and maybe he’s preferred over someone like Clark – though based on the raves I’ve read about Clark, he’d have to be bringing some game to displace him. So, there, I don’t know what to think…should be interesting to find out.

As for Casey, and any other oft-injured players, you have to wonder how often you clear a space for a guy like that. Scoring goals is hard enough without throwing a wrench into players’ familiarity with one another. The same goes for someone like Ballouchy, or even Kirovski – albeit not in terms of injury. Where do they fit on this team? Isn’t this what Steve Davis was talking about when he questioned whether a master plan of any kind governs the Rapids’ player acquisitions?

In spite of all the questions and caveats, when you put it all together, it’s hard to believe the Rapids won’t improve offensively in 2008. The problem is, they have a long climb ahead. Even with Gomez’ till-now-regular 10 goals per annum, they would have stalled around 39 goals in 2007. That, to me, makes the fundamental question facing the Rapids offense this season not so much how many goals Gomez can score, but how many he can create for Rapids’ forwards. I think a playoff berth, perhaps even beyond, rides on the answer to that one.