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.

The match on Sunday was a great way to get back into the swing of things. The man of the match was defiantly Christian with two assists. Another high point was seeing Jacob Peterson back in the lineup. He gets better every year, and netted the game winner.

The 4-4-2 made it’s reappearance at Dick’s. Amazingly Colin Clark and Terry Cooke were absent in the starting lineup. Even though the Rapids did well, I would still like to go back to the five man midfield, but if they keep winning, of course I won’t make a fuss about it.

So, now not only is Colorado back in first place again, they next play the worst team in soccer, and then Salt Lake at home. So now it’s time to start looking at qualification for some international competitions next year. The Rapids are one point back from the last SuperLiga spot, and four points back from qualifying for the Champions League in the regular season. With the West in the shape it’s in this year, the Rapids could really get quite a few points ahead of the rest of the conference with their upcoming games.

The only other team in the West who is on par with the Rapids is Dallas. They their next games are against Salt Lake and Las Angeles, so these are important games for the Rapids to win.

UPDATE: Holy cow. Look at this Box Score. 17 shots. 17. No wonder DC allows 2 goals per game if they allow that many looks on goal. If not for some embarrassing misses by the Rapids, that would have been a blow out. It looks like there’s not a lot of defense being played in DC this year.

I figure MLSLIVE.tv owes me about 50 cents. I’m considering tacking on some money for pain and suffering – I mean, here I am, primed to tell you about how the Rapids lost to KC and I got less than nuthin’ – but haven’t yet settled on a figure. I’m thinking, say, the low millions – ’cause this hurts real bad…and there’s this crink in my neck since – but, like I said, I haven’t settled on a figure.

Suffice to say, I didn’t see this game. Did catch the highlights, though, and – shuey! – what a second half I missed! All y’all will have to tell me about it…seriously, if you guys don’t provide some copy, I’m hung-out to dry here…so, please, anyone who caught the game should feel 150% free to tell me what I missed. If you just want to link to this article, hey, beats a kick in the head for drumming up traffic. I think I had something like 1,300 visitors last month…oh yeah….all right, I can’t make you famous, but you can make all of us smarter, so give it up. That goes double for anyone who made the road-trip.

Based on what I did see – again, just the highlights – I’d forward the following questions:

- Set piece defending: 1) was it as bad as it looked; 2) would you chalk it up to having the players better left to the “kids’ table” handling the piping hot gravy-boat before they’re ready.

- Your thoughts on the Rapids’ goals: I liked Jose Burciaga’s all right – even if Hartman shouldn’t have let that one in – but the other one….well, that ain’t gonna happen every week, now is it? Still, great work by Omar Cummings to let that go for…um…John DiRaimondo. Unselfish and alert isn’t exactly going to keep you off the field…good finish, too.

- OK, if MLSLIVE.tv didn’t take a giant crap on your afternoon (ooh…I think my knee hurts to; better call Dr. Nick), how did you think the Rapids did? On paper, this is about what I expected, if not a little better. A team can do worse after a opening day, home slaughter than a hard-fought home loss against a decent team.

All for now. I’ll tie some things up tomorrow…can’t say what yet…mainly ’cause I don’t know.

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.

View from the Couch responds in what I view as a healthy fashion: by moving on and looking ahead – specifically at who’s likely to start in the regular season, what’s up next in pre-season, etc. For what it’s worth, the “friendly” against Chicago should tell us more about the Rapids than the Bermuda game.

Speaking of the regular season, Rapids Class VI set plans in motion from the fan’s perspective, announcing available seats for an April 5 weekend road-trip to Kansas City as well as a pre-season party. I don’t normally cover the fan beat, but, given my role here, and wishing all the best to Rapids fans, I figure helping get the word out is the least I can do. So, if you live in the Denver metro area and want to hook up with the Rapids fan culture, it looks like Rapids Class VI is a good place to start.

Before closing today, I suppose the question is what to make of all this – e.g. the Bermuda loss, the fact the 3-2-3 (I think) pre-season record looks a lot like a regular season record from seasons past. Maybe I’m feeling a little reactive, but Friday’s loss has me wondering whether the Rapids did enough this off-season, especially at forward. Seeing the “wrong Gomez” make the telling, if futile, impact versus Bermuda raises the specter of the Rapids having bet the farm on an aging property. Probably getting ahead of myself on that, but…yeah, euphoria about that signing, or any other, waits on support from reality before it becomes confidence that good things are ahead.

Anyway…

Obviously, a couple big events came and went during my information blackout – and not just in Colorado Rapids’ land. March 3 (or maybe March 4) was Major League Soccer Roster Compliance Day (an event to be commemorated in future society by classing useful to semi-useful things as junk and throwing them out) and the Rapids cleared their closets just like rest. Actually, a post on The Offside Rules suggests the Rapids dug a little deeper than most.

Fortunately, it’s not all one-way traffic: Colorado actually brought in a player, a Brazilian to be precise. Meet Rafael Gomes, ladies and gents; ask yourself whether the Rapids front office didn’t hire him due to an unconscious association between Gomes’ haircut and Carlos Valderrama’s. I kid, I kid. The main thing is, Gomes is in Denver (or, rather, with the team in England) and, according to a write-up posted on View from the Couch, he’s already scored one for the team (who beat England’s Ipswich? Seriously? Wait…what? Jovan Kirovski scored? Now you’re just lying to me…). Well, call him a signing worthy of attention at least, even if not everyone sees the logic in it. It’s Gomes and Christian Gomez so far and that may be all Rapids fans get.

On a related note, the possible end to trading action could explain the trepidation on display in Rapids Class VI’s preview of the Rapids’ forwards – a pretty good read by my reckoning.

OK, all for now. I’m still getting caught up. Should be going full speed by next weekend….maybe the whole Chase Hilgenbrinck thing will make sense by then….

Bottom line, if I’m not talking about what I saw on the field the weekend before, chances are I’m just passing on news from The Official Organ – which, like their home field, we can all refer to as The Dick. No…wait. That would cause confusion. Let’s stick with calling Dick’s Sporting Goods Park “The Dick” and calling the Colorado Rapids/Kroenke Sports Enterprises (KSE), anything to do with the public face of the team, “The Official Organ.” There, that makes for some nice thematic consistence.

With that out of the way, here’s the latest from The Official Organ. Last Friday, the Rapids faced Rocky Mountain Cup rivals Real Salt Lake…in Florida. The game ended in a 2-2 draw. Now, there’s something else you should know about me: I hate match reports. They read like friggin’ instruction manuals, with names replacing parts. The Official Organ turned in one, which will tell you who scored when and how they did it, as well as who played and for how long. Sure, that’s good stuff to know, but that just gets me back to my issue with match reports, not mention copy handed down from in-house outlets: I need to see something – e.g. things, people, and soccer teams – with my own eyes before formulating an opinion on it that I trust; and, with the issue of trust still in mind, I don’t trust The Official Organ to give it to me straight. That’s like putting stock a government report titled, “Everything Is Great – Including You!” And we’ve had a few of those to ponder these last eight years.

With the Rapids heading to England and Arsenal fairly soon (if they’re not already gone), it seems worthwhile to put this latest draw into perspective. Picking through The Official Organ’s current archives (resisting temptation to be crude…must resist), I’m seeing three previous games…sort of: a goalless draw against Florida Atlantic University (who? ouch!); a win over Marathon, a Honduran team (more like it); and, let’s just say they took four points over two split-roster games against the United States U-17s (hence, the “sort of”). Add Friday’s draw with RSL and you’ve got a 2-0-2 record (W-L-T) thus far. And that’s against some, frankly, underwhelming opposition.

Let’s see what 10 days in London does for ‘em. I wouldn’t look for much out of their weekly updates, which seem inordinately interested in the weather…which, somehow, isn’t what I suspect fans are looking for.

A 3-zip win over New England seems like a lie, but every web site reporting on the game that appears in the Google search results tells me that it’s true:

• The Ledger from Florida
• Soccer 365
• AHN (whatever that is)
• The Lexington Dispatch
• Market-Day.net in Arizona

And, well, you get the point. Not exactly the New York Times or the Chicago Tribune, but at least someone at the Lexington Dispatch cares about MLS.

New old man for the Rapids, Tony Sanneh (boy, I remember when the hype for him was big, but that was about 40 years ago) came in for Dan Gargan after Garrrrrrs went off with an injury. Omar Cummings scored his first goal eva while Jovan kicked the other soccerballs into the goal-netting for a double pointer! YAAYYYY SOCCER! Actually, one of Kirovski’s goals was a penalty, which needs to start being counted as a separate stat as soon as world football statisticians get their act together.

I suck for not attending the game, but I may skip the next one as well if I get uber-suspicious and think it’ll result in another win. I hope someone who watched the game can explain this stat – the one that gives me the most hope and makes me think the game may not have been a fluke: the Rapids outshot New England 17-5. SEVENTEEN… toooooo… FIVE! Even I can’t find a way to mock that performance.

But what on earth brought this on? What changes have been made recently that would affect the team so much that they could shut out the two top teams in MLS? Um, getting rid of Beckerman? Makes sense to me.

It’s been quite embarrassing to join the Rapids bandwagon this season, especially since the wagon appears to be a Radio Flyer with two wheels that have broken off, and a handle that has rusted into position and spins the thing in circles. Nevertheless, I’m still going to the games and still watching on TV whenever we’re able to. It has been a pathetic season, and tough to watch a billionaire’s team execute this poorly (even within the financial constraints of MLS, would you, as a billionaire owner, demand more from your management and players – and when they consistently fail to deliver, wouldn’t you have replaced them by now?), but this is a low-water point.

With the shame they should display, the official Rapids team site buried their latest news as the fourth news item on their home page – “Sounders Beat 10-Man Rapids 5-0″.

While Bouna and Cooke didn’t play, plenty of other starters where in there (including Ugo, who in all fairness did score a goal last night. Unfortunately, he scored it for the wrong team). Erpen got two yellows and was tossed early in the second half, but the game was beyond reach by that point anyway. Let me repeat that – in the 49th minute, Colorado lost a player for the game, but it didn’t matter since they were already down, 3-0. To a USL team.

I’ve heard rumors that Seattle is in line for an MLS team, so I’m guessing it makes most sense to make the Sounders that team and watch them win the MLS Cup in their first season. It may also make sense to switch MLS and USL to a first division/second division league so teams like RSL and Colorado can be relegated (”oh, but then the owners will lose money!” BOO F’IN HOO. at least Rapids fans will be able to see their team win more than once every twelve games).