Colorado Rapids 2-0 Chicago Fire

Who doesn’t love a giant-killer game? Despite being at home, the Rapids were the dogs on Sunday and they knew it. They had to shut down Blanco and McBride, and they did it. That’s going to (or at least should boost the confidence). It should also help that this was our first back-to-back win all year. Look at it this way: if the Rapids can beet Chicago at home, we should be able to get at least a point next week against New England at home (all they have to do is shut down Twellman, Ralston, Cristman, and the Gambians. How hard is that?).

First of all, who at this point can say that picking up Burpo wasn’t a great move? The guy better wear that baseball cap next week, because for most keepers, that was not a shutout. Chicago seemed very determined to stop the shutout, and Burpo’s defense wasn’t doing anything to help at that point in the game (as defenses up by two in the final 10 minutes tend to do).

As for the goals, Omar is the offensive MVP of the game. Remember when I said that we didn’t NEED Herculez Gomez? This is what I meant. Herculez is more of an attacking midfielder, and we only need one of those on our team; Herculez isn’t going in for Christian (if he gets back into the game any time soon). Our team needs quick, one-touch forwards like Omar and Tom. With the exception of Connor (usually), it doesn’t much matter who’s there to score as long as the midfield setup is good. Midfielders create shots and forwards create goals. The Rapids are fine as long as they keep shooting.

This win leaves us tied for the last playoff spot in the West with Chivas (from whom we can steal the tiebreaker if we win against them in a few weeks). It looks like (if Rapids keep this streak up), we can hope for second or third in the West this year. An interesting note there: unless they manage first place (unlikely), this would probably match us up with a certain club from Salt Lake. That’s almost to exciting to comprehend.

Category: Team News