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.

KC - Rapids

The Rapids are coming off a big 4-0 win against a terrible Galaxy team. A couple things I haven't noticed mentioned on that are how many times last year the Rapids would've still found a way to struggle against such a team or at least mange to not put the ball in the back of the net. The other is that the Rapids weren't exactly at full strength either. Young players like LaBrocca got in the full 90 minutes in the first game. LaBrocca only played 67 minutes last year. Omar Cummings and Stephen Keel didn't see much more time. DiRaimondo is a rookie. Heck, even the much talked about Colin Clark has les than 20 games under his belt. If a few of those young pups can continue to step up, the Rapids will be able to get some unexpected wins.

As for the game against KC, maybe it's my burgundy colored glasses but I expect the Rapids to come away with a 1-0 win. They have the X factor in Christian Gomez, a player capable of winning games when his team didn't seem to earn it. The most interesting match up I'm anticipating is KC's 2nd year Michael Harrington and the Rapids' Terry Cooke. If Harrington puts too much effort into getting involved in the attack, he's likely to leave Terry Cooke run free at the wrong moment.

For more on the upcoming game :
View From The Couch
American Soccer News

The weather for game is looking like it'll be a lovely spring afternoon.

The Rapids Win Something

Amazing that a team that can show so little promise has a reserve team that shows so much. According to From College To Pros the Colorado Rapids reserve team has for a 2nd year in a row won the MLS reserve league. Last year they did it under Steve Trittsuch. This year they did it under John Murphy. It's too bad the team doesn't have some more players developed into pros to go along with these titles. So far Colin Clarke is the best prospect to emerge from the reserve ranks. Although some would argue that Littleton, CO native Stephen Keel has shown enough to have gotten more playing time in 2007 than he did.

Clavijo Wanted Victorine

The word on the street is that the Rapids coach Fernando Clavijo wanted to trade for Kansas City's Sasha Victorine before the Sept 15th deadline. What and who was he offering? Two 2nd year players from the Rapids - Colin Clarke and Jacob Peterson. No word on if KC was willing to pull the trigger on this one or not. It's a moot point though. The way it was it was told, it was the Rapids FO that overruled Clavijo.

Please keep in mind this is a rumor. If it's true, it makes one wonder why the Rapids Front Office that in the past has given Clavijo the final say in these matters stepped in. Have they had more say in previous trades than they're willing to admit to? Do they no longer trust him? If it is a matter of trust, why keep around a coach they no longer trust?