Gibbs Grateful, Cooke On The Move?

There was a rumor in SI a few days ago about interest in Terry Cooke back in England. The basis of the rumor? David Moyes said some good things about him. Classic English rumor; that is, little if anything behind it but they'll still print it. I love have Terry at the Rapids. But it would seem odd that PNE, Derby and Cardiff were all interested in him because Moyes said something nice. Especially for a player who had a lot of playing time in England in Div 3 (League One).

Greg Seltzer over at Soccer 365 had an interview with new Rapid Corey Gibbs.

"The feeling was overbearing," Gibbs told Soccer365. "I really didn't get so overjoyed because I am a very neutral person, but I did thank God for all he did for me."

Gibbs has looked good in Colorado's backline in his first two games. Now if Smith can straighten out the rest of the team and get them playing better, Colorado has a chance.

Getting the team sorted out can't come too soon. The Rapids travel to Salt Lake City for a game Friday night (tomorrow). Why Friday night? Who knows. With the way the 3 Rocky Mountain Cups games were scheduled this year, you have to wonder if the league is trying to kill that rivalry. It's hard enough traveling 600 miles let alone for a Thursday, Friday or Sunday game.

Speaking of the game, as you can see below the Rapids have a lot of knocks going into the match. Could we see Smith go with a 3-5-2? Or will he stick with the 4-5-1 and slide Erpen over to left back with Kimura on the right? And what is with the Salt Lake fans? Have things really been so bleak there over the years that a 3 point difference in the standings is enough to make them think they're talking smack? Anyone predicting for Cleatus to get a RC in the 70th to help CO hold on to a 1-0 win?

Real Salt Lake - Colorado Rapids Injury Report :
REAL SALT LAKE - OUT: MF Nathan Sturgis (L hamstring strain); DOUBTFUL: MF Dema Kovalenko (L calf strain); QUESTIONABLE: DF Tony Beltran (L adductor tightness), DF Ian Joy (R adductor strain) ...

COLORADO RAPIDS - OUT: MF Mehdi Ballouchy (concussion); MF Terry Cooke (L hamstring); MF Greg Dalby (R ankle); GK Justin Hughes (L groin); DF Ugo Ihemelu (concussion); MF Pablo Mastroeni (R hamstring); PROBABLE: DF Jordan Harvey (R knee); DF Jose Burciaga Jr. (R hip); MF Jacob Peterson (L hip)

Rapids Sinking Further

The Colorado Rapids woes continued as they lost Toronto FC at Dicks Sporting Goods Park. Toronto hadn't won a game in 2 months. The Rapids had only won once in their last 10. But Toronto was missing players (Amando Guevara, Laurent Robert, Marco Velez, Carmelo Lobo) forcing them to start some reserves. Plus they were going to be on the road playing in the afternoon heat at elevation.

Toronto clearly came out looking to do little other than prevent the Rapids from scoring. Rohan Ricketts was slid into the middle of the park with revent arrival Chad Barrett roaming alone up top. Despite this Toronto was the first to get on the scoreboard with Chad Barrett scoring right before half-time with a perfectly taken free kick (see video below).

The game went downhill after that. The Rapids did have good chances in the first half and the second half. Overall though it wasn't a good showing by the team. Terry Cooke looked uninterested. Clark on the left wasn't much better. Cummings and Casey again squandered their opportunities. Christian had a few long range shots but nothing too dangerous.

The most confusing moment of the game came in the 60th minute when Fernando Clavijo chose to sub Christian Gomez in favor of Nick LaBrocca. At that point Gomez was arguably the best offensive spark the Rapids had on the pitch. Given Cooke's lack of performance on the day, he should've been first choice for coming off. But there it was, one of the most skilled players in the league being subbed for a defensive midfielder while the Rapids were down a goal at home.

In the end the Rapids took a whopping 21 shots with 10 of those on frame. Unlike the Columbus game it's hard to argue that Sutton stood on his head to prevent scoring. There was a lack of quality with their choices. This is a team that doesn't move the ball quickly nor take their chances on net soon enough. I don't expect this to change until a new coach is brought in.

I forgot to post awhile back about Bruno Guarda. Guarda decided to ditch SMU and go pro in the MLS. The Colorado Rapids beat the odds and won his rights in the MLS lottery (more on him at College To Pros here and here). Soon after that the Rapids traded him to FC Dallas. The Rapids got 2nd round and 3rd round picks in the 2009 MLS draft along with a partial allocation. A nice piece of business for a player the Rapids didn't need nor had to give anything to get.

Rapids, Houston and Catching Up

The Rapids will have US Mens National Team midfield Pablo Mastroeni back tonight when they take on the Houston Dynamo tonight. Is Pablo healthy and ready to start? The team hasn't said he's not despite him coming off early in the USMNT World Cup Qualifier against Barbados last weekend with, well, what appeared to be a sore butt.

View From The Couch has a suggested lineup for tonight's match :
GK :Burpo
D :Ihemelu - Erpen - Harvey
Mid :Pablo/DiRaimondo - LaBrocca
Mid :Cooke - C.Gomez - Clark
F : McManus - Casey

I doubt we'll be seeing Terry Cooke starting tonight. As We Want Rapidman points out, Fernando Clavijo wants to see Cooke playing both sides of the ball. Clavijo doesn't feel that Terry Cooke and Christan Gomez can be on the pitch at the same time. They're both defensive liabilities. Fernando feels the team can afford the hit from either one but not both at the same time. This may provide us with more insight into the experiment of Christian Gomez as a second forward. Injuries to strikers may have been the impetus behind the experiment. But in pushing Gomez forward, something Christian was infamous for doing on his own during his DC United days, Clavijo may have been hoping to get around that issue. Gomez up top wasn't working and now Cooke's riding the pine.

FC Rocky, among others, carried the news that John Murphy is no longer an assistant coach for the Rapids. Word on the street is that Murphy and Clavijo's relationship was deteriorating. A change was needed so Murphy's assistant coaching duties were ended. He will focus on his duties as director of play development. My take? If their relationship wasn't good the change was needed. It's common for MLS teams to only have a coach and an assistant coach. The Rapids brought in a new assistant coach before 2008, Gary Smith. The question here is if this a way for the Rapids Front Office to pull Murphy out of the picture so he doesn't need to be axed when they move to replace head coach Fernando Clavijo.

In case you didn't catch all the news the last few days :
ex-Rapid David Kramer Named As Goalkeeping Coach
Rapids drop Murphy as Asst. Coach
Brian Forbes at the Denver Post on Omar Cummings
Colorado Dads Interviews Coach Fernando Clavijo About Being A Dad
American Soccer News On The Upcoming Houston Game & Mike Petke's Health

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.