Did Anyone Notice?

I was watching some weekend MLS highlights on-line last night and when I saw Toronto vs. KC highlights I found myself taking a double take. The video was small and on my computer screen so it was tough to see but for the life of me I couldn't tell who was in blue. For a second, a brief second, I thought I was looking at Liverpool v. Chelsea highlights that somehow made it onto MLS' website by some accident. Really. All red vs. all blue uniforms, packed stands rocking with fans...it didn't look like MLS. I'm not trying to say that the play on the field was EPL quality, just saying the colors, the fans and the atmosphere looked like it could have been in Liverpool, England on a Saturday morning.

Borussia Moenchengladbach Coming To Colorado

Borussia Moenchengladbach is coming to Colorado in July. They'll be training and, as mentioned over at We Want Rapidman, look to be playing the Colorado Rapids.

Rapids - San Jose : The Aftermath

What a terrible game by the Rapids last night. It was a painful example of the cliche about a team not showing up to play. They didn't last night and instead of getting 3 realitvely easy points at home, they gave San Jose their first franchise win. Nick at We Want Rapids Man was right about confusion in the Rapids back line. Keel and Erpen struggled to get things right quite a few times. It cost the Rapids their first goal. And it could've been another one or two in the first half if not for Bouna. The real stinker last night for defense was Jose Burciaga. Jose's off night was compounded at half-time when Clavijo opted for a a 3-5-2. When the Rapids traded for the Burciaga we all knew there would be times when he was a defensive liability. Seeing him with 3 in the was horrifying. He was being constantly beat. With 3 in the back he wasn't able to get some extra cover other than Colin Clark coming back. That in turn made it difficult for Colin to get forward. Which brings me to Clavijo. Rumor had it going into the game he was going to tinker with tactics and the lineup. After the New England game we could see why. The team did nothing offensively in the 2nd half other than LaBrocca's goal (off a nice cross from Burciage? Or was it Clark?). In their first 3 games they didn't make much use of Christian Gomez. The tinkering though didn't appear to result in an improvement. The Rapids were still playing too many long balls out of the back, Gomez was still not getting the ball and seeing Burciaga in a 3-5-2 left me wondering if Clavijo's actually paid attention to Burciaga's previous 7 years in the MLS. Is Clavijo actually capable of coaching well in the MLS? His history says no. Last night has many of us wondering why we should have hope that this year is going to be any different than the last 3 with Clavijo in charge. Is this making too much from one off night from the team?

Welcome Back, John Cunliffe

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.

John Cunliffe

Regular Season Stats

YEAR	TEAM	GP	GS	MIN	G	A	SHT	SOG	FC	FS	C	EJ
2008	San Jose	2	0	26	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0
2007	Chivas USA	15	5	494	3	1	16	8	8	5	0	0
Career		17	5	520	3	1	16	8	9	5	0	0

Playoff Stats

YEAR	TEAM	GP	GS	MIN	G	A	SHT	SOG	FC	FS	C	EJ
2007	Chivas USA	2	0	49	0	0	2	0	1	0	0	0
Career		2	0	49	0	0	2	0	1	0	0	0

Rapids News & Upcoming San Jose Match

The San Jose Earthquakes are coming to Dicks Sporting Goods Park (aka The Dick) for the first time in franchise history. Yes, I know that's going to get some Bay Area fans worked up to phrase it that way but it's true. Other than taking the old name, this is a brand new team. If you're looking for their stats on the MLS' web site, you won't find them in the team-by-team drop down on the stats page. Apparently such a minor addition to the user interface has been too much work to bother with for the MLS. Fortunately the way their web site is configured you can trick it into giving what you want in some cases. In this case the key is recognizing that you just need the right URL variable of club=t100 for San Jose. The link ends up looking something like this : http://web.mlsnet.com/t120/stats/index.jsp?club=t110&year=2008

I don't expect much from San Jose's offense. They're an expansion team and in their first 2 games have looked to be on the same path set by recent expansion teams like Toronto FC and Real Salt Lake. Last year Toronto FC managed only 25 goals in 30 goals. Real Salt Lake managed 30 goals in 32 games in their first season. Kei Kamara and Gavin Glinton aren't exactly names that get MLS defenses worried. Even with the recent loan addition of ex-Rapid Jean-Philippe Peguero it's unlikely San Jose's offense will provide the Rapids defense many problems. That's why I chuckled a bit when Nick over at We Want Rapidman wrote "They may be new, they may be winless but those strikers are dangerous." Maybe it was meant to be tongue in cheek?

Bouna Time! If you didn't catch it, Brian Forbes has a nice interview with Rapids goalkeeper Bouna Coundoul for the Rocky Mountain News. You can check out the interview here. Seeing the questions about Bouna's dancing makes me with Bouna would do a little dance for us every time he gets a clean sheet (a shutout). What do you say Bouna? A jig for keeping the ball out of the net? Anything less than that against San Jose Saturday will be a bit of a disappointment in my book.