I rolled out my (half-blind, hence limited) thoughts on the Colorado Rapids tough loss to April’s Major League Soccer (MLS) flavor-of-the-month, the Kansas City Wizards. Fortunately, and as always, the Web restored my sight (Allelujah!) courtesy of game wraps by View From The Couch and wewantrapidman. You’ll find different formats – e.g. the former likes his bullet points and A’ing the Q’s he put to himself earlier, while the latter has a groovy stream-of-consciousness feel – but, among the names glowing on both sites, one name glows in both places: John DiRaimondo. In fact, DiRaimondo and his midfield running mate, John LaBrocca, enjoyed such a solid Saturday that they caught BigFoot-level attention: yes, Steve Davis made the duo the lead story for his Week 2 wrap for MLSnet.com. Good vibrations, Rapids fans, good vibrations…

…enough to get you wondering, by the way, why I don’t rate the Rapids higher in my Week 2 power rankings…though I think I explain it adequately.

Going back a week further – and this is where the “Busted Knee” thing snuck into the conversation – the reaction to Ciaran O’Brien’s red-card tackle on Carlos Ruiz continues to draw a little chatter; that could be down to MLS’s disciplinary committee going beyond the minimum sentence. The Black Panther Blog posted video of the tackling offense and one could imply from the copy that he’s not sold on the decision (it’s a terse comment and hard to read into; I don’t know what lev yashin actually thinks, only that his comment could be interpreted as contrarian). Not surprisingly, red cards have stirred conversation even this early in the season: The Original Winger held forth on several of individual incidents just last Tuesday…O’Brien’s among them.

To weigh in for myself, There’s no doubt, in my mind at least, that O’Brien’s tackle was dangerous. I am, however, less sold on the need for “bonus time and fines” being levied against the lad, for the reasons The Original Winger lays out. To sum up, start punishing stupid and the cards and fines will start flying.

All for now. Sorry this is a bit disjointed, but I’ve got a lot in the hopper today. I’ll get back to all y’all Friday.

• “Grand Opening Week” will kick off the usage for the Rapids new home, The Dick. On April 2, from 4-6pm, kids aged 6-16 “will get the opportunity to learn soccer skills from all the Rapids players and coaches, receive autographs, and meet the team in the only clinic this year featuring the entire team.” On April 3, from 11-1, is the season ticket holders luncheon with the team. At 7:30pm on April 4, local citizens (of Commerce City) and season ticket holders are invited to see an intra-squad scrimmage at the stadium. On April 5, some of the team and cheerleaders will be at St. Luke’s to visit sick kids (I’m guessing. If they are there just to raid the pharmacy, well that would just be sad now wouldn’t it?). April 7th should be a madhouse as the 8 billion soccer fields that have been erected around the stadium will be put to the test for the first official day of Colorado Youth Soccer games. And later that evening, I think there’s some pro team playing a game, as well.
• This is pretty cool, on Sundays leading up to the Rapids new home, various youth soccer teams from the area are invited to “open houses” at The Dick where the kiddies can get a tour of the new stadium before it is opened up to the general public. Very good idea, as are a lot of the youth-oriented events MLS and local organizations put on. Now, if clubs will work on retention as much as introduction, soccer may gain an impressive fanbase by the time I die.
• The Rapids waived two of their players last Friday: goalkeeper Matt Jordan and forward Fabrice Noel. Jordan is a native of Aurora (the city between my town and Denver) and I think he’s already signed to another team, but I have to do some “in depth fact checking” to verify that.
• The Rapids traded away a conditional 2008 Supplemental Draft pick for keep Zach Thornton from the Chicago Fire. I always liked Zach, despite only actually seeing one club game he played in. Seems like a big, agile dude. Of course, that was 7 years ago, so who knows what he’s got left in the tank. I’m rootin for him though. In fact, he’s already my third favorite player on the team after Herculez (great name, goals) and Stephen Keel (great bathroom-related blog, hair).
• Which reminds me of the TOP news of the weekend, Keel is still on the team! YES! Hopefully those fat cats in Washington (and Denver) will see through his mop and realize that only his presence on the first team will allow the Rapids to rise above the rest of the league this season.
• To counter the Claudio Reyna signing earlier this year, the Rapids have picked up Yherland McDonald, the 20 year old sensati– player from Costa Rica who had been playing in Norway. I’d type how many goals he’s expected to score, but I don’t have one of those weird Norwegian o’s with the line through it.