Rapids Still Give It Up Too Easily

I don't want to make too much of a glorified friendly like the game the Rapids had against Everton last Sunday evening. Glorified scrimmage? Yes, that is what the "international exhibition" is in terms of the game. Everton was working to get match fit and look at some players. For example, Everton manager David Moyes was using highly touted 17-year old Jack Rodwell as a midfielder. The talented Rodwell, who's the youngest player to have appeared for Everton's first team, has been a defender up until now.

Fernando Clavijo on the other hand put out his first team. The only differences were starting Preston Burpo in goal and using Jose Burciaga as one of the 3 defenders in the back instead of 4 in back. Despite fielding a strong squad, right off the bat the Rapids showed the defensive issues they've had all year (in fact, I've argued in the past defensive issues they've had during Clavijo's tenure with last year being a fluke; here and here). Mikel Arteta got the ball in the middle of the park and ran at the Rapids. Nothing special yet everyone kept backing off of him. Arteta showed his skills using the space he had to let loose with a 22 yard shot for a nice goal. For all the talk about the embarrassing goal by the Crew's Ekpo a few weeks ago for the game winner in Columbus, the Rapids don't seem to have learned.

What makes it more frustrating is that Clavijo is clearly aware of the team's defensive issues. As he said :

It's still a concern that it's too easy to break us down.
-Fernando Clavijo on the Everton games last Sunday

Jump ahead to the 65th minute. Everton was clearly gased. They're not match fit, they'd been training in 100F heat, and they were playing at elevation (over a mile high). Yet the Rapids did little to take advantage. They were again failing to get the ball to Christian Gomez and utilize his skills. Apart from a couple of wonderful saves by Everton's Tim Howard, the Rapids were failing to put their frequent shots on frame. Only Colin Clarke looked like he was interested in taking advantage of Everton's heavy legs.

To close the game out, the Rapids defensive organization issues again reared it's ugly head. They young Everton sub Baxter get a little run with the ball in the box where he slotted the ball across to a relatively open Leon Osman to slot it home. With only a couple minutes left in the game and faced with an exhausted Everton, the Rapids defense yet again came unhinged and let the opposing team score their 2nd goal for the win.

It's hard to see the Rapids making the playoffs if they can't count on their defense keeping the goals out, especially when they're on the road. FC Rocky had a guest writer take a look at the playoffs the other day. You can read the post here.

Liverpool's Daily Post on the exhibition game here.
View From The Couch on the Everton game here.
Kyle at The Offside on the game here.
Nick at We Want Rapidman takes a look at the game and also notes Colins 2nd half performance.
And Class VI's Josh Vaismann takes a look at the game with player ratings here.

Rapids at FC Dallas

The Colorado Rapids are in Frisco, Texas today to play FC Dallas. Dallas has 2 wins and 3 ties in their last 10 games. While they're struggled for points during this stretch they've only been shut out once, a 1-0 loss at New York. Can the Rapids shut them out this time around?

The only injuries with the Rapids worth noting at this time, sorry Justin, are Mike Petke, Tom McManus and all-star Christian Gomez. As you may know Petke is working to regain fitness after a long layoff after a foot injury that occurred in the 2007 season. Christian Gomez has been carrying a couple of knocks the last few weeks. And Tom "Tam" McManus was subbed out against San Jose after looking ineffective. It turned out that his picked up knee injury early in the game.

As for the game, Jason at View From The Couch the Couch predicts this line-up : GK : Bouna Condoul Def : Ihemelu - Pablo - Erpen Midfield : LaBrocca sitting back, C.Gomez - Ballouchy, and Cooke and Clark on the wings Forwards : Cummings - Casey

As for myself, I don't see anything too different. I wouldn't be surprised to see Christian Gomez start the game on the bench. If Gomez does start, he very well could be coming out long before the 60th. Gomez has wonderful skills but wasn't blessed with great stamina. Clavijo has commented in the past that the heat and humidity in the summer in Texas means not only is a slower game played but that the coach must be ready to sub players he wouldn't normally need to. Starting a banged up Gomez who normally doesn't have great stamina when they're looking at air temps in Frisco in the mid to upper 90s means Clavijo would already be commiting one substitution to Gomez. Sounds crazy? Keep in mind with the Texas humidity that means mid-90s feel well over 100F. For example 88F there right now has an AccuWeather Real Feel of 97F) at Frisco tonight. Add to that in the past Terry Cooke has also seemed to struggle with that heat and humidity. Given all of that I expect to see John DiRaimondo starting in the midfield alongside Nick Labrocca. Ballouchy will be given more freedom to go forward. That would give some flexibility to the squad. If Cooke gets gased he could be replaced by Peterson or even Christian Gomez with Ballouchy, Nick, or John pushed out to the right.

In other news Nick over at We Want Rapidman has a nice look at the upcoming Rapids friendly against England's Everton FC. Add me to the list of people disappointed that Tim Cahill won't be out on the pitch. At least US fans should have a chance to see US National Team goalkeeper Tim Howard play.

Dallas, Everton, KC, and Galaxy

There's been a lot going on lately. Euro 2008 is about to get started. The US Men are going to play Spain in a friendly. Southampton's coaching situation is an even bigger mess with Nigel Pearson's contract not renewed and the new coach, that Dutch P guy, apparently still under contract someplace else (I thought Lowe was going to clean up the mess instead of adding to it). The Rapids are taking on Kansas City in the US Open Cup. Tickets for the fancy-pants scrimmage between Everton and the Rapids go on sale in a few hours.

As for last week's FC Dallas game, well, I hope they can repeat that performance against the Galaxy. In theory they should be able to. The Rapids didn't let FC Dallas' midfield do very much. On paper they should be able to do the same again. Then again, we're talking about Clavijo's tactics versus Guillit's. That doesn't seem to bode as well for the Rapids.

We Want Rapidman was happy for the win but wasn't overly impressed by it. More by Nick here.
FC Rocky looks at the Dallas match noting the sloppy defending by the Rapids. He also mentions that, and I agree, Rapids' Scottish striker Tom McManus may be emerging as a player that can score goals when the team needs them. More on that at FC Rocky.
View From The Couch looks back at the match at Dicks Sporting Goods Park against FC Dallas. He notes 2 interesting facts :
1) This is the first time we've given up a lead this season.
2) Its also the first time we've won when allowing the opposition to score.
More from View From The Couch on the game here.

FC Rocky is passing on some comments from a fellow Rocky Mountain News employee who is in Italy and went to see Pisa and Bologna play. Are the marketers paying attention to this?
"To me, it's kind of how sports used to be when we were growing up without all of the annoying music, dancers, blimps flying around etc. Just the passion for the game."

More on the Colorado Rapids - Kansas US Open Cup game at The Offside.

Keeping Up With Everton

If you're looking to keep up with what is going on at Everton, Nil Satis Nisi Optimum is a good blog for it. They already have commentary on today's game in the UEFA Cup.

Beattie, Losing, and Boo-Boos

My apologies on that last post. I had a 3 month old keeping me occupied while I tried to put together a couple quick posts. I should have the formatting fixed now to better show the link to the original post.

Everton Dupes United

Speaking of apologies, Everton is going to owe one to Sheffield United. Everton just sold the ex-Saint James Beattie to Sheffield United for £4 million. I would imagine Sheffield United want to show they're committed to making the move back up to the Premiership. But spending that much on Beattie? Just a bit over 2 years ago, Everton bought him for £6 million but that was at a time when he had the potential to be an England international. Since then he's show that he's just not that good. £4 million is £2 million too much for Beattie.

Rapids Losing Streak

If the Colorado Rapids fail to win today's game at FC Dallas, their current winless streak will reach 10 and put them in the top 10 list of worst winless streaks in league history. With the anemic offense that the Rapids have had this year, it would seem their best hope for winning will come from FC Dallas' defense. If they play they did earlier this week against LA in the SuperLiga, the Rapids have a chance to score a couple. There are some other things that would give the Rapids a fighting chance, such as Clavijo not starting Niko Hernandez or Jovan Kirovski. But Clavijo's been very consistent about starting those 2 players despite their poor performances. It seems unlikely that he'd change that at this point.