I tend to DVR MLS games and watch them as I have time. With Mother's Day, I couldn't get around to the Rapids game until yesterday afternoon, so I haven't been online or anywhere else I might accidentally see scores and ruin my pre-game optimism.
So.... A loss in New York would have, well, been expected given the Rapids track record. But we did it, even without 1/2 of our back line.
Police Alert!!! Kirovski and Cooke have gone AWOL. We should note that both men have been reported to MLS HQ as "whereabouts unknown" and search parties have been sent out to find them.
I question whether Cooke's absence is due to a lack of a right back that can be of assistance in the offense. Dunno. But even when he had the ball, Cookie did absolutely nothing with it.
Of course... not a single Rapids player took anyone on one-on-one. I thought that whole scene was like, you know, so last year?!?
Bouna Time!
No, it's not a new illness, nor a catch phrase used by Jolt Cola. It is truly, finally time to share the love with the crazy young freak who saved the game from three or four shoulda-woulda-coulda definitely been shots that didn't go in! And Gargan got the fifth one!
Did I just use Gargan in a positive way? Yup, and I'll do it again if he will.
Roberto Brown continues to confuse me. I hope he goes the right way and tries playing like a forward. You know, a guy who shoots more than once per game. Brown has 3 shots on goal so far in 7 games. It may be that we ditch Kirovski, who is fooking useless, assume Brown will play back and hold the ball and build attacks, and then add an actual forward.
Wish we had one or two or three of *those* kinda players sitting on the bench. Too bad.
Hernandez was decent, tracking back a lot, which unfortunately seemed necessary.
As a detractor of the Vanney trade, I'm eating my words, especially given how shallow our defense is. We've been very, very fortunate. And that includes the loss against Houston.
Bouna hasn't had a chance to royally screw us on a game yet, but he will. Then our defense will look that much worse. Mind you, no real fault of Bouna's, he's simply an inexperienced and 25-year old goalkeeper, it's to be expected.
And Gargan was not an embarrassment, so he's gone from the elephant crapping in the room to the zookeeper cleaning that crap up. Definitely a huge improvement. Not All-Star, but apparently on the Rapids you barely need a pulse to play defense as long as we can simply slap Pablo back there.
Even then, Pablo had a hard time given the lack of help from midfield
Thanks also go to the Revs for slapping down the Galaxy this weekend. Go Twellman! Honorable mention to the Crew, and KC can get stuffed.
Overall, I just can't get past the fact that our Rapids guys can't seem to connect a pass to their teammates. It seems like an indicator of lack of quality and professionalism on our team, which I think shows an underlying weakness.
Oh, and Beckerman looked Hot. There, I said it.
Posted by BilFish at May 15, 2007 09:46 AM