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
With the Rapids loss to Chivas USA at Dicks Sporting Goods Park, they have yet to win 2 games in a row in 2008. At least in 2007 they pulled off a couple of winning streaks. One was 3 games and the other was 2 games. Not much to brag about? Yep. But so far 2008 hasn't been much better.
This loss really gets my goat. Somehow the Colorado Rapids didn't manage to own this game. Chivas USA was missing an entire backline (Suarez, Thomas, Vaughn, Zotinka). They were playing a 3-5-2 because, well, they didn't really have any other choice (Or did Preki actually trying calling that a 3-4-3?).
They were also missing Galindo, Wicky, Alecko, and Bornstein. Heck, Razov wasn't ready to make a start Saturday night. In 2007 we were told one of the few bright spots was the defense. Folks pointed at their GA and said they were 3rd best. But as I mentioned awhile ago in a post here , I thought there were more problems than the GA was letting on to. We painfully witnessed that Saturday Night when the defense allowed 2 goals despite Chivas USA fielding a 19 year old kid and Attiba "2 brick feet" Harris. With the injuries, the altitude and being away from home Chivas USA had no business tieing this game let alone winning it. This was a game begging for the Rapids to score a handful of goals and to rack up another clean sheet. Somehow the Rapids made sure that wasn't the case.
What will it take for the Rapids to start playing like a better team? Do they really have that much less talent than other teams? Is Clavijo making good use of Christian Gomez? Does Terry Cooke need to start? Is this the last year we see Jacob Peterson in the MLS? Was this just a case of Preki out coaching Clavijo?
But the main question I want to hear answered is this : Why does Clavijo play a 3-5-2 only for the team to turn around and spend 1/2 of their passes trying to hurry up and knock the ball 3/4th of the way up the field in the air? That is, what good is the 3-5-2 when the players are so prone to playing long balls?
Highlights from the game including Tom McManus' incredible 35-yard goal :
Durango, Colorado's Ft. Lewis College has one alum playing in Major League Soccer, John Cunliffe. Cunliffe will be making his return to Colorado tonight with expansion team San Jose Earthquakes. He played his first season in the MLS with Chivas USA, scoring thrice in 17 appearances. At the end of this past March, right before the MLS season began, he was traded to San Jose with Chris Pozniak heading the other way.
I missed this one from a couple weeks ago. It's nice to see that the league has the sort of coaching talent that someone like Klinsmann would be interested in.
The MLS Zone:
Chivas USA assistant coach Martin Vasquez has accepted a position as assistant to Jurgen Klinsmann with German giant Bayern Munich and will be leaving the MLS club immediately, according to a press release put out by the club today.
The 2007 Major League Soccer season is almost over. Beside playoff significance, the upcoming Chivas USA - Colorado game is important in that Chivas USA could be on the way to set the MLS record for the best unbeaten home record. The 2005 San Jose Earthquakes, since then having relocated to Houston, own the unbeaten record having gone 9-0-7 for 34 Points in 16 games (2.125 points / game). As long as they don't lose either of their last 2 home games, Chivas USA will best San Jose's 2005 record.
Even if Chivas USA win out they'll come up short in 2 other measurements. The 2000 Chicago Fire have the most points overall at home, 40 in 16 games. The 2002 San Jose Earthquakes have the best points per game with 37 points in 14 games for 2.6429 points per game.
Current Record
2007 Chivas USA 10-0-3 : 33 points - 13 games (2.5385 points / game)
Below are the possible home records that Chivas USA could end up with in 2007. They have Colorado and Dallas at home to close the season out. Neither of those teams have been doing anything to show that Chivas isn't quite capable of winning both of them.
Possible final home records for Chivas USA :
10-2-3 : 33 points - 15 games (2.2 points / game )
10-1-4 : 34 points - 15 games (2.2667 points / game )
10-0-5 : 35 points - 15 games (2.3333 points / game )
11-1-3 : 36 points - 15 games (2.4 points / game )
11-0-4 : 37 points - 15 games (2.4667 points / game )
12-0-3 : 39 points - 15 games (2.6 points / game )
Previous MLS season best home records by points :
2006 Houston 12-3-1 : 37 Points - 16 games (2.3125 points / game)
2005 New England 11-2-3 : 36 Points - 16 games (2.25 points / game)
2004 DC United 9-2-4 : 31 Points - 15 games (2.0667 points / game)
2003 Chicago 10-1-4 : 34 Points - 15 games (2.2667 points / game )
2002 San Jose 12-1-1 : 37 Points - 14 games (2.6429 points / game) 2001 Miami 10-2-2 : 32 Points - 14 games (2.2857 points / game)
2000 Chicago 13-2-1 : 40 Points - 16 games (2.5 points / game)
1999 Dallas 13-3 1SOW : 37 Points - 16 games (2.3125 points / game)
1998 Chicago 13-3 : 39 Points - 16 games (2.4375 points / game)
1997 Tampa Bay12-4 : 36 Points - 16 games (2.25 points / game)
1996 Tampa Bay 12-4 : 36 Points - 16 games (2.25 points / game)
Congrats to DC United in clinching a play-off spot with 5 games left in the 2007 season. Some may argue that the regular season doesn't matter. But how one goes about getting into the play-offs does. DC United now have the luxury of resting players or letting guys take their time coming back from an injury. That is if they're not gunning for the Supporters Shield. If they are, they'll be rooting for the Rapids on Sunday. Chivas USA has not only climbed into their division league but with 2 games in hand are close to being neck and neck with DCU for the Supporters Shield.
Ives writes about it in an aptly titled blog entry "An Unhappy Reunion". If you had any questions over why Guevara just up and left Chivas USA. If you thought that maybe there was something going on between Preki and Guevara or Guevara and others in Chivas USA's front office. Here was Guevara's chance to try to set things straight. But he hasn't said anything of the sort. And more so if he was going to, being petulant over a writer who was truthful in the past about your performances isn't the way to go around making your case.
