Rapids - Galaxy Tie

Last night the Colorado Rapids played, well, a rather poor game against the Los Angeles Cosmos Galaxy. The Rapids took the lead in the 60th minute though a goal by Colin Clark. Colin had drifted over the right side of the field, got a nice pass from Omar Cummings, and found himself with some time and space in the box to slot the ball past the Galaxy's keeper Rohan Ricketts. But as the game was winding down the Rapids defense, which had already been saved once by the crossbar, pulled a bit of keystone cops and allowed Landon Donovan to put the ball in the back of the net off a rebound.

Colorado Soccer Now (ColoradoSoccerNow.com) has a good look at the game, especially the controversial 74th minute which saw referee Alex Prus first issue a red card and then rescind it. Was it the right call? More details here.

Examiner.com's Deron White has up player ratings for the game. Was Deron right to give Pablo a 4 but a 5's for the backline?

For myself, Blogs By Dave has the best look at the game in calling out the Rapids for the performance they gave and how the team has changed but it still seems to be the same ol' Rapids.

Quick Friday Update

The Colorado Rapids are on the road again this weekend. They're in Houston looking for their first ever win at Robertson Stadium. The 1pm game, Mountain, will be broadcast on Telefutura. The 2 biggest questions I have for the Rapids at this point are if their defense will show up. They've been giving up far too many opportunities and goals. The other is if someone other than Conor Casey or Omar Cummings will step up for the team and put the ball in the back of the net. It's great to see the two starting strikers scoring goals. But we know in the long run we need more goal production from other players. Will we see that against Houston on Sunday?

In other news, ColoradoSoccerNow.com's George Tanner has been a part of InDenverTimes.com. InDenverTimes is a project that's risen from the ashes of the old Rocky Mountain News. One of the things they're doing is giving subscribers a chance to interact with the people covering the news. George Tanner did that today with a chat this afternoon giving people the opportunity to ask him questions and give their two-bits. Watch for more events like this in the future.

2009 Has Begun!

And finally the 2009 MLS season has kicked off. I've been anxious for the season to start. Not only to see Gary Smith show good of a coach he but also to watch some of the commentators back peddle on their predictions about Seattle making the playoffs. It's great to see a team their but this is 1998. Expansion teams in the MLS don't do well in their first year.

WOW! And it's like the soccer gods knew I typed that and had to show me up. Freddy Montero scores the seasons' first goal Seattle's first ever goal in league play. 12' minutes in and NYRB is down 1-0.

Updated 1 :
Brad Evans scores his first for Seattle after getting a handful for the Crew last year.
Seattle 2
NYRB 0

Updated 2 :
27' That reminds me.... I don't get why some pundits previews were so questioning of LA's or FCD's defense when NYRB's got Goldwaite and Petke in the center of their backline.

Updated 3 :
First half winding down and Boyens looks to have been subbed due to an injury. Not sure what to make of this. I can see that the new matchtracker on MLSnet looks cool but the sound / animation needs to have the option of being turned off by users.

Updated 4 :
Half-time and it's still 2-0 Seattle over NYRB.

Updated 5 :
75' While I haven't fallen asleep but I haven't seen much going on in the 2nd half. Freddy Montero did have a nice goal to make it 3-0 Seattle.

Updated 5 :
Game over. Sounders win their first. But don't get too excited. After all Real Salt Lake won their home opener in their first season yet the season turned into a long, grueling, torturous even for their fans.

Rapids New Season

The Colorado Rapids 2009 MLS season kicks off soon. On March 21st the season starts against Chivas at the Home Depot Center in Carson City, California. The game starts at 8:30pm mountain time and will be on Fox Soccer Channel (FSC). The next evening, Sunday March 22, at 6pm Class VI will be holding it's preseason bash. Ok, it's technically not the preseason since the season starts the night before. But don't get hung up on a technicality and head up to The Catina at Dicks Sporting Goods Park to have some fun with old friends and meet some new ones. Everyone, members or not, are welcome to attend. There will be :
- A silent auction for some incredible Rapids and Rapids related items…some of them signed!
- Raffles for some truly special prizes and experiences including a once-in-a-lifetime Honorary Captain for a Day experience!
- A speech by Rapids Head Coach Gary Smith about the State of the Team