The US Open Cup is in full swing tonite.
DC United vs Harrisburg City Islanders
Rochester Raging Rhinos vs New England Revolution
Richmond Kickers vs LA Galaxy
Carolina RailHawks vs Chicago Fire
Atlanta Silverbacks (lost yesterday to) FC Dallas
Charleston Battery vs Houston Dynamo
California Victory vs Colorado Rapids
Seattle Sounders vs Chivas USA
The Rapids also took on the Chinese national team last nite after they lost to Real Salt Lake of all teams. Too bad for RSL they can’t beat any other MLS teams. Well the Rapids fielded a team of mostly reserves that lost 2-1 to China. I’m not here to write about the game. I didn’t see it and I don’t know much about it. But more importantly right now is the title of best soccer blog headline from the Rapids blog at The Offside:
If the goal scored around the 12th minute by Herculez Gomez had not been called back due to a bad offiside call, the Rapids would have gone up 2 - 0. Instead of that happening, Real Salt Lake scored a just a short time afterwards to tie the game at the final score of 1 - 1.
Had the goal been allowed and the Rapids gone up 2 - 0 anything could have happened during the rest of the game. Maybe Real Salt Lake gets pissed off and scores 4 2nd half goals, who knows? But the one thing I know is that I would have been much more likely to have a correct Thursday prediction. I would have bet $100 that Real Salt Lake is not going to come back from 2 down. They did that last week, they won’t twice in a row.
But no matter what I think, I was still wrong. This isn’t going so good with 1 correct out of 5 weeks. I’ll probably manage to screw up Dallas/Chicago next week as well.
Right before Freddy Adu’s goal a goal was disallowed on the other end of the field.
It has been a while since I’ve been registered as a referee, but I’m pretty sure Tommy was wrong and that goal should have been a good goal. Now instead of being up 2-0 (which was my predicted final score by the way) they are tied at 1-1. When the initial shot was taken there was no one in an offiside position.
I don’t have this one on the DVR so I can’t rewind it. Am I wrong, or should have the Rapids gone up 2-0?
Tonite we will be treated to the next installment in the Rocky Mountain Cup, which of course is the game between the two Major League Soccer cities that are in the Rocky Mountains. The game tonight will take place at Dick’s Sporting Good Park in Colorado, home of the Rapids, terrordome if you are Real Salt Lake tonight. Well at least if you trust in my Thursday prediction this week. I don’t know what RSL did to put 3 past NY last weekend, but
The Kansas City Wizards with their 90th+ minute moved to the lone position at the top of the table. New York really didn’t want to keep that scoreless streak going by giving 3 to Real Salt Lake in a 3-3 tie. Mathis got a couple of goals to help out my fantasy team quite a bit.
I guess what I meant was not that Houston and Colorado would end in a tie, but that New York and Real Salt Lake would be the tie game. At least I was right about Kansas City.
DC United finally get a win, will they continue in their winning ways?
The Colorado Rapids (Colorado Arsenal or Arsenal Colorado or whatever they are) traded Clint Mathis away to New York. Other specifics of the deal are unknown, but I hope the Rapids got something good for Mathis, I had high hopes for Mathis this year in Colorado. This will be Clint’s second term in New York, previously having played for the then MetroStars from 2000 to 2003. From ESPNsoccernet:
The Colorado Rapids have traded Clint Mathis to the New York Red Bulls, ESPN.com has learned. Sources close to Mathis confirmed the deal, but complete details of the transaction have not been disclosed. The 30 year-old Mathis is expected to join NYRB in Charleston, South Carolina where the team is training through Sunday in preparation for their season opener against the Columbus Crew on April 7.
Zach Thornton was traded by his Chicago Fire to the Colorado Rapids for future draft picks. Thornton has been a big part of Chicago Fire history, helping them to win the MLS Cup in their first season in 1998. Thornton is at or near the top of several goalkeeping categories in MLS history.
What will the Rapids do with Kevin Hartman and Zach Thornton together? Do they each get some games, or is one of them the backup to the other?
The rumors have been going around about he Rapids changing their name recently. Now the Colorado Rapids are going to announce an official partnership with Arsenal, the London based EPL team, one of the biggest in England.
Along with this change brings a new Jersey, which will be maroon and light blue. They do want to change their official name to Arsenal Colorado, but the league requires 18 months notice before a team can change its name, so it is likely that the team will still be called the Colorado Rapids, for now at least.
Thats great that MLS teams could make partnerships with big European teams, but do we really need to give our MLS teams the same name as the team they are partnering with? Come on Colorado, what the hell? Sure the Rapids isn’t the greatest name in the history of anything, but they have been the Rapids for over 10 years now. I’m not sure if this move is designed to build local interest in the team, or to make people lost interest. If soccer is ever going to gain the respect of the typical American sports fan, we can’t go and name all our teams after the European team they are partnered with. It gives those teams a little bit of a sense of a minor league farm team for the big European clubs, which will never, never be a good thing. The MLS should, and in my opinion can, have a goal of legitemately competing with the worlds top teams in coming years, not being their “minor league” team that they can send their old otherwise-would-be-retired superstars.
One more thing: maroon and light blue, who the hell picked those colors? If they want to be partnered with the London Arsenal, they want to be like the London Arsenal, why the hell are they picking up Aston Villa colors? The Rapids aren’t my favorite team, but I always thought they had the best jerseys, and have been very close to buying myself one on several occasions. Maybe I’ll buy one of the old ones if they do change the colors.
This has gone too far. What do you think?
Earlier I watched as the Chicago Fire looked like they would cruise into the Eastern Conference semi-finals when they went up 2-0 on aggregate vs the New England Revolution. The Revolution fought back and scored 2 goals to force overtime and eventually a shoot out. Thiago and Guerrero both missed PK’s for the Fire before Taylor Twellman stepped up and scored the game winner. Revolution advance to the semi-finals.
I have not been able to watch the FC Dallas/Colorado Rapids 2nd leg in Dallas tonite, but I’ve been following online. Seems Clint Mathis scored a late goal in extra time to force a shootout, then took and made the first PK. Finally on the 6th shot, Pablo Mastroeni hit the game winning goal to send the Rapids into the Western Conference semi-finals.
I like Major League Soccer, you should too!
