Colorado 1-2 Everton; Slipping in the West

By: Kyle | August 4th, 2008

The Toffees pulled of a win in the 87th beating the Rapids on Sunday and leaving the US with a 1-1 record. They looked much fitter then they (reportedly) did against Chicago, so I guess they adapted to the air quicker than I hoped they would.

The turnout was good (about the same as any other midseason Rapids game) and was surprisingly non-Everton. In fact, it was kind of nice having the hardcore soccer fans near exclusively in attendance. Don’t get me wrong; God bless anyone who comes to a Rapids game, but it was a nice change of pace.

It was also good to see Tim Howard play, actually making some great saves and defensive plays on the ball. That was the first and last time I will cheer against that guy, and a very small part of me took a tiny bit of satisfaction in every goal he saved as he will likely be in goal for the US in 2010.

All in all it was a disappointment that the Rapids couldn’t hold on to a draw, but they are an EPL club.

So, back to MLS. The Rapids week off combined with their marginal performance as of late has caused them to fall a bit farther behind than desired: 6 points back of first with a game in hand. That’s not a huge deficit with 14 games left in the season, but it does make the rest of this home series very important, as games in hand are games to be won. Considering the first game of this home series was a loss, the next two are a very appealing place to pick those six back up. If watching the Everton match or any of the Rapids’ better games has taught us anything, it’s that no accomplishment is too out of reach for these Rapids; they’re very capable of going all the way (even though this would probably come as a surprise to a fan of any other team), but we’re running out of season, so they have to start now. Will they? I don’t know, but there hasn’t been a Colorado Rapids club with a better shot at it than this in a long time.

COMPLETELY UNRELATED UPDATE: The Salt Lake Offside is back! It’s written by the surprisingly literate and insightful Akeem. Go and get acquainted so we are all well informed when the Rocky Mountain Cup trash-talking returns in a few weeks (and it’s ours in four weeks by the way).