There may not be two more inconsistent teams in MLS than the Colorado Rapids and Houston Dynamo. The Rapids have bounced between good stretches and bad stretches and pushed their winless streak to three games against a Dynamo team that has its own issues. In its past six matches, Houston has tied, lost and won, then won lost and tied. That isn’t exactly the consistency you would expect of a defending champion.
To be fair, both teams had national team absences, but Houston still had plenty of firepower to pull off the road win. As for Colorado, the Rapids had to at least be happy not to surrender three goals for the third straight game.
SBI Correspondent Craig de Aragon took in the action and provided his perspective on the state of the Rapids (Houston correspondent Alex Swaim just returned from a trip out of the country).
Another flat performance from the Rapids
By CRAIG de ARAGON
I am getting married this summer. It’s going to be in the Church. Because of that, my fiancée and I are required to attend a two-day retreat covering everything about catholic marriage. That retreat was this weekend.
After eight hours of classes Saturday, which basically entailed me doodling on a notepad and refreshing the web browser on my phone to see the Netherlands/Russia score, we headed to the stadium. It was a hot day, but luckily the sun had just gone beneath the roof of the stadium at game time to save me from getting sunburned. I was expecting a good game, and really, anything would be more entertaining that what I sat through earlier in the day. But after watching the Rapids play Houston for 90 minutes to a 0-0 stalemate, I’m not too sure which was worse. The Rapids offense was as ineffective as the “Rhythm Method”. I don’t know which was filled with more hesitancy; the Deacon talking about the “conjugal” part of marriage or the Rapids midfield. All evening they made runs with no destination and held possession by making lateral passes to each other; both of which distracted fans from seeing that there was really no creativity on the field.
The Rapids were shut out for only the second time this year, and I should feel good about that. They showed effort from the very beginning of the game, and I should feel good about that. But once again the offense didn’t show up when it needed to, just like the lights at the stadium in the 67th minute.
The team really didn’t play that bad. If this game was 2 months ago, I would have been encouraged. But with the season seemingly going down hill, even minor setbacks seem to be magnified.
One thing that was good to see was Terry Cooke back out on the field. Although it was too bad that Jacob Peterson picked up an injury, Cooke looked refreshed, sent in some good crosses and also ate up all the attention he could get from the supporters’ group. When the lights went out, he ran all the way across the field to acknowledge the fans. He hammed it up more than the 6 year old girl practicing her cheerleading in the Cantina after the game.
Looking at the bright side, we found out a couple of things this week. The Rapids need Terry Cooke to play well to have a happy ending to the season, and I’m way too immature to sit through any more Natural Family Planning classes.