Stop the Presses - Colorado Loses (with Photos)

By: Clint | July 9th, 2007

Zero goals in five of the last six games. No wins in the last eight games. A .82 goals per game average this year. And still no manager change, still no significant change in personnel, still no DP (and no fear that any of the current players will be worth paying DP money next year)… still no hope for the near future.

Last night was rough. Oh, it started out well enough - plenty of sunshine, decent crowd (not only did the Dick look over 50% full, there was some good noise coming from the crowd throughout most of the game), and plenty of stadium food.

Despite most of the seats filling up as the game got started, I always had a seat buffer to my left, which has to be the greatest feeling in the world at a sporting event. Especially after a hot link and nachos, the need to stretch gets reaaallll important in the second half.

Pre-game entertainment included some folks holding up various Celtic nation flags for some reason. I don’t understand some of the things that happen in this state, but it is nice to have a change from what we’d grown used to at Quakes games (essentially, nothing at all). After seeing those flags I tried to call upon the spirit of my McAncestors and kick some Norman ass, but, to be honest, us white people all look the same to me.

My wife asked why there was a ducky on the field, too. I had no answer for her.

Once the game started, within ten minutes it became clear that not even Arriaga II would be able to save the Rapids tonight. Nie dominated possession, keeping Colorado from even touching the ball on most plays. After several strong plays, they got the lead through a goal that even Bouna couldn’t stop (although he did make a brave save on a 1:1 early in the game when Wolyniec came breaking away towards him). And that was that. One goal was all Nie needed to win this one, despite a second half flurry (especially in the final minutes) AFTER Gomez was brought on at halftime and Beckerman was taken off (jeez, who would have thought that was a bright idea?).

In the first half, besides Bouna, Peterson, and Jovan all looked good - Peterson has a great work rate and balls of steel at times. I’d hope someone with the team would see this and put him up front with Gomez instead of sticking Brown up front to provide great comedy, but not much else.

Gotta go for a meeting right now - if I think of anything memorable from the game (apart from a great Jovan blast that hit the crossbar) later today, I’ll post it. For now, here are some other shots I took last night:

Corner action.

Reyna and Jovan having a little talk.

Bouna setting up for some damage.

Wide screen action.

Clint (the other one) was engaged in several side-conversations.

…while the ref and linesmen (and most of the players) were trying to get his attention back on the game, seeing how he was holding the ball.

Claudio time.

Angel, who had another uneventful game. Yeah, he’s not getting much service, and yeah, Altidore wasn’t there to relieve some of the pressure, but he really looked flat.