The Big News for the Rapids this week is the return of Conor Casey from national team duty. Eager to follow up on the local angle to the US team’s Confederations Cup success, the 3 major media outlets in Denver sent camera guys to Rapids practice to interview him. While waiting for practice to end, they had a friendly discussion about when was the last time any of them had done “real” journalism. The year 2000 was mentioned. Then practice ended and Casey walked right over after heading several crosses perfectly into the net. The camera guys closed into a tight semi-circle, while he answered questions like: “Are you glad to be back?” “Yes.” (what other answer could he give?). How did it feel to look at the scoreboard at half time during the Brazil game and see the 2-0 score. Casey indicated it was great.

I asked Coach Gary Smith about the Seattle game: “What happened?” His opinion is that the Rapids held their own during the first half, but when the score went up 2-0 early in the second, especially considering the missed PK, a comeback became that much harder. I’d been hoping for a miraculous Brazil-type comeback myself, but after the third Seattle goal, I decided my own mental health necessitated turning off the TV. I must be a bad fan. I asked Smith whether he thought playing 3 games in 8 days was an issue. No he didn’t.

Finally, I asked him about new defensive player Julien Baudet. Baudet, from France, is 30 years old and has played for clubs in England and France during his 10 year career. Does this mean Smith think the defense needs improvement? He said he’d been looking at Baudet for some time, and thought his experience would be a good addition to the young defensive line. I would have thought the front and/or middle could use some firepower, especially considering that some of the top players keep disappearing for national team play. The current players rotating in and out of the back 4 include Ihemelu (26 yrs), Palguta (27), Gibbs (29), Kimura (25), Harvey (25). Baudet won’t be eligible to play until after the July 15th International Transfer Window opens, but he is here training with the team.

Go Figure:
Soccer By Ives Power Rankings moves the Rapids to #4, despite the loss the Seattle. Apparently the ranking gives a lot of weight to Conor Casey’s return, discounting the absence of both Clark and Cummings for the Gold Cup Tournament. Each will miss at least 3 games during the preliminary rounds, and more if either the US or Jamaican teams advance. Smith hadn’t decided on the line up yet for the July 4th game, but did say that, with those two key players gone, Cooke and Peterson might see more playing time.
ESPN Power Ranking: Colorado at 7.

Old Friends:
Bouna Time! But not here. The New York Red Bulls, currently at the bottom of most everyone’s rankings, obtained the rights to Bouna Coundoul from the Rapids in exchange for allocation money. Bouna is now listed on the Red Bulls roster, #24, and is one of two GKs on the list.

Spain played South Africa for third place in the Confederations Cup last week, and Fernando Clavijo was doing analysis on the Spanish channel broadcast.

The tailgate will start THREE HOURS before kick off at 4:00 pm.

We WILL NOT be in the usual spot since the team needs those parking lots. Instead we'll be directly East of our usual spot. Red arrow marks the spot:

We'll have lots of noobs and there will be a lot of people - so BRING SOME FOOD TO SHARE!

If you have any questions - send them to mark@nofanalone.com

Ahh an overdose of soccer, how indulging is this? After the Rapids were out of town most of the first two months of the season the string of home games is welcoming.

Tonight we go up against FC Dallas who turned around a 1-0 deficit to beat Columbus 2-1 Saturday Night. With the National team having a major turnaround against Egypt Coner Casey is still in South Africa, but with Omar in the form he his goals are still a plenty.

Leaving work early a trip down 25 to 270 was like going down a Class IV rapid and to my relief we arrived safely on the river banks of Dicks Tavern. A quick Superman change in the Lot BB out of the corporate attire into the comfort of the burgundy and blue for the tailgate festivities only to realize I forgot a change of shoes but as Tim Robbins said in Shawshank Redemption no one looks at a man’s shoes so jeans, t-shirt and dress shoes it was. All the buzz at the tailgate was the result against Spain and I proceeded to play catch with what seemed like everyone there except for me had watched the game.

In what I see as highly significant game for us tonight if we can pull off two wins in a row it could be a key point in how our season unfolds, amazingly we haven’t lost since April 19th. Starting off sluggish which we continue to do so until the second half substitutes, as with the Pepper Lake match Ballouchy and Labrocca struggle to determine what each other’s role is on the field, Labrocca plays in too tight, Cummings goes wide on the right leaving the seeming not so fully fit Noonan up front alone, Palguta is magic, Gibbs is finally showing some class.

As the game proceeds you get the feeling if we don’t take our chance FC will get one chance and take and in the 37th minute they do, 1-0 FC. We continue to be flat but we are constantly fighting our flatness like being slightly hung over at a busy day at work.

Clark can either play in his shell or out of his shell, tonight he is in his shell so there is nothing coming from either of the wings with Clark emotionally closed and Labrocca\Ballouchy trying to determine who does what our scoring options were coming through the middle with the confident Omar Cummings. Half time 1-0 to FC Dallas, off the to buy some more Rapids merchandise cause you can never have enough.

Second half it’s more of the same and not until the late subs of Peterson and Cooke did the personality of the game change. Can we give Schunk a run to prove himself? Peterson and Cooke independently provided structure on the right; Omar does not need to go looking for the ball. We have 3-4 clear unchallenged headers in the Dallas box that we struggle to get on target. In previous seasons this team would have just accepted the inevitable defeat, but with the Smith regime there is a belief in the team that we can not only pull one back but go onto win, Omar is rewarded for his efforts with a clinical finish in the 84th minute, we push for a win to no avail.

Final Score 1-1, practice for the next 4 days is headers on goal.

It’s fair to say I’m more soccer correspondent (“the fans were not in a good mood”) than soccer reporter (“X passed to Y who crossed to Z who put it in the net in the 88th minute”). For one thing, you can find all the details about games elsewhere. While I’m pretty good at recognizing offsides now, I’d rather actually watch the games instead of taking notes.

The Rapids are looking ahead to a road game against Seattle minus Conor Casey again. While they showed they could win big without him against DC United, they also showed they could flounder around without him against a lower-ranked Dallas team. Emotional let down? The Dallas game came just 4 days after the big win, on an evening plagued with threatening weather. I arrived at what I thought was half-time for the women’s game, only to find the game had been halted in the 30th minute by lightning, and wasn’t going to re-start until 6:30 at the earliest. Doing the math, clearly that game wasn’t going to go 90 minutes. Sky Blue FC, a pro team from NYC, was playing Colorado Force, a W-League team from Fort Collins. The game was relocated to one of the turf fields east of the stadium, so that the MLS teams could warm up. The Sky Blue, in totally orange kits - go figure - were clearly a more talented bunch, but couldn’t seem to score on the Force team. Maybe because their star players were on the sidelines, sitting out the friendly exhibition match. And a good thing, because the friendly match quickly turned thuggish. The ladies slugged it out for another 30 minutes, and then all the spectators filed back into the stadium. At which point I realized I’d forgotten my Rapids scarves. Fans, like players, can have special Good Luck charms or rituals. For me, it’s the scarves, so I was worried. Desperately digging through the car, I came up with a stray airline blanket, which would have to do.

The Rapids looked out of sync from the get go. They had the energy, but something was off about team cohesion. They had like 50 scoring opportunities - OK I exaggerate - but A Lot of scoring opportunities. The fan experience of this was something like “Yay!!! He’s going to score!! .... Oh NO!!!! over and over and over again. Disbelief. How could he miss that shot?? Much tearing out of hair and anguished expressions. I’m sure all the players were working hard, but, for me, the noticeable ones were LaBrocca and Ihemelu. New forward Pat Noonan was playing, but he doesn’t have the highly visible profile of, say, Conor Casey. Omar Cummings was always marked by 4-5 Dallas players, who had done their soccer homework and figured out who was most likely to score for the Rapids. Mehdi Ballouchy didn’t seem sharp, and some of our loyal fans were expressing loud opinions about that. When Cookie came on late in the second half, everyone expected him to create brilliant scoring opportunities. Actually he did send some very nice crosses and corners, but the end result was always that “YAAAY!! ..... OH NO! .. Waa!!! So if you, as a fan, really enjoy exhausting emotional highs and crashing lows, this was the game for you.

By the way, when Cummings finally did score, I waved the airline blanket around, but it clearly didn’t have enough Good Luck hoodoo to cause a second goal. I won’t forget scarves again anytime soon. And I plan to ask Class VI/C-Firm fans about their Good Luck totems. If you’d rather not admit to them, that’s OK.

Team news: Colin Clark will play with the US team for the upcoming Gold Cup, and Omar Cummings will play for Jamaica. That means both will be missing for the July 4th game, the next Dallas game July 11th, and possibly more games through July. But the Good News would be that Conor Casey will be back.

As like the Rapids I’ve been traveling a bunch lately, airports, delayed flights, hotel rooms with minimal heat, hotel rooms with not enough AC and then each morning trying to work out where the rental car is, in fact what rental car do I have? In fact what city am I in?

So coming home it’s nice to be around the familiar where you can be on the highway on the way to work before you‘re awake, the Rapids return to Denver with 9 of their next 12 games at Dick’s Tavern so if there is a time to accumulate some points and make a run for the play offs this would be a swell time to do it.

We are in the early days in the one of the most over saturated and poorly coordinate seasons of soccer in the US for some time, we have World Cup Qualifiers, the Confederations Cup, The Gold Cup, SuperLiga, CONCACAF Champions League qualifiers, Everton MLS All Star Game, Barcelona Exhibition games and finally the World Football Challenge, which are all positives for the Rapids as we are not involved in any of these marketing events plus our two US players have failed to perform and should be available for the burgundy and blue. Omar may get called up by Jamaica but the new addition Noonan to the squad which should provide some excellent options for our strike force.

Once again it looks like a cold night for soccer in Commerce City as we stand under the tailgate tents hoping for the weather to clear. And as in previous games we are facing a team at home that have played a midweek fixture so an advantage to us. DC

With this writer’s personal frustration of the unbalance schedule it’s hard to determine how good the different teams are DC maybe 6 points ahead of us and at the top of the Eastern Conference but they have played 4 more games than us. DC have won 2 of their last 5 with an impressive come back from 3-1 to tie against Seattle Mid week.

As the skies clear we kick off in Burgundy while DC in all white control the first 10 minutes and pass it around like a team from a higher level league while the Rapids seem disjointed with the return of Matseroni and Noonan play is first game up from with Omar. A wise old high school coach next to me proceeded to inform me how much Omar has improved and was starting to show his potential, I was politely skeptical then on 11 minutes he made a proactive anticipated run onto a precision pass from Mastroeni slipping behind the defense to slot it passed the keeper 1-0 to the good guys.

How uncomfortableness of the of our first 10 minutes like wearing a new pair of jeans disappeared, we started to show the confidence that we displayed against Seattle, we’re closing down DC, Gomez was still causing havoc around the Rapids box but without the decisive final pass. Two quick chances on goal where we hit the bar, forcing the keeper to save and then at the other end DC force us to do the same. Palguta is just solid and consistent, well positioned and clearing all potential danger. Just when it felt like it would be happy to go into the half and the Cantina up by one Omar bounces on a defensive error to round the keeper initially looking like he touched it too far past the keeper but with confidence he finishes a great opportunity. We go into the half 2-0 and its all good.

In recent reports I have been critical of Peterson and Gibbs so at the tailgate I made an informal questionnaire for the Rapids faithful where their feedback was they have potential or they used to be good when then they first came onto the team, in conclusion either most people are a lot more patient with players than I am or they are in faithful fan denial either way we will just have to see how the rest of the season unfolds.

After the bizarre events of the mascot fan dance off the players were back on field for the second half the match. We start the way we left off, Omar sets up the third goal for Clark who was lucky that his poor shot went in; Kasey Keller would have had that one for breakfast. For the remainder of the second half we continue to make opportunities, Pickens makes a good save to keep a clean sheet.

It’s good to be back home, three unanswered goals, it’s good to get three points at home in the comfort of Dick’s Tavern. If we keep playing like this for the upcoming 8 games at home in the next 11 we will be sitting pretty come Labor Day weekend.

And before we know it will be Wednesday night with FC Dallas in town.

The biggest thing for me right now is in the table. The Rapids, who for the past two season started their summer tailspin sometime around now, are sitting in 4th place in the West on 20 points from 12 matches. The closest team behind them, Fake Salt Lake, has 16 points from 14 matches. So we have four more points and two games in hand. The closest team above the Rapids, Seattle, has 22 points from 15 games. The best team in the West, Houston, has 28 points from 14 matches. So, if the Rapids can string together some more home wins over the coming weeks, they will be knocking on the door at the top of the Conference and the League.

What? League Leading Colorado Rapids? Can it happen? I certainly hope so, and if the Rapids continue to play the way they did on Saturday I feel confident about it. I am a little worried about them slacking off, missing Conor Casey too much, etc. But at least I have hope. Many of you will remember my rants when I didn't have hope. I think there is a good contrast between the two.

So let's get out there and support these 'Pids. Hopefully they can keep things going and be a serious contender when playoff time comes. Hopefully they'll be able to qualify for some continental competitions this time around. Hopefully they'll get into the US Open Cup without stupid qualifications. Hopefully there is something there for the marketing department to latch onto now instead of heritage nights and festivals that have nothing to do with soccer. Oops, did I say that out loud?

For Saturday night's match, you can vote for your man of the match and also defensive player of the match below.

With that in mind, I drove off to DSGP on a sunny weekday morning, to interview players and coaches after practice. Practice is on the fenced field east of the stadium, behind Class VI’s former tail gate location. Jason, the Director of Media Relations, greeted me and we chatted about things Rapids while the team practiced. Nearby, a camera man from a local TV station was busy filming random scenes, including laying on the ground and filming a soccer ball.

My first impression: they’re all much taller than they seem when I’m sitting in the stands watching a game. There were 30 or so guys practicing, and Jason explained that additional players come to practices, including MLS pool players who live in the vicinity, and other hopefuls who travel to Denver to work out with the team and get noticed by coaches. New forward Pat Noonan was there; scoring star Conor Casey was not. As we know, he’s currently in South Africa with the National Team, competing in the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup. I asked about National Team call ups. Is the player obliged to go when asked? No, apparently they can decline the offer. I didn’t know that. When I asked coach Gary Smith about the impact of Casey’s absence, he said it was a big blow to have a player like Casey miss games, especially on short notice. However, given how play has gone in South Africa, he now expects Casey to be back for Wednesday’s match, although it’s not certain how much he would play after traveling.

After practice I spoke to new defensive player Scott Palguta. When he first subbed in to cover for some injured players earlier this spring, my reaction (perhaps yours, too) was “Who’s he?” He was signed in mid-March, and has started 7 of the 8 games he’s played. He’s excited to be playing here, although he admits adjusting to the altitude took a week or so. He was recruited to play soccer at Cornell University. After graduation, he played 4 years in Rochester, NY for the Rochester Rhinos, where he met Steve Guppy, now the Rapids assistant coach, who thought Scott would be a good fit here.

Key words for the day: consistency, parity and Seattle-esque. Coach Smith used that term to refer to the May 23rd tie with the Sounders. His view was that many good things came out of that game. His goal is team consistency, vs the highs and lows of last season. This season, the Rapids have shown they can win (or tie) at home or away, so the message is that even if they do lose a home game going forward, they can also win an away game. Meanwhile Smith said he is “taking every game as it comes”, being flexible with starting line ups as necessary.

Power rankings in Week 13 at the Soccer by Ives website have the Rapids at #7, down from 4, based on ..what? They had a bye week. Apparently not playing at all costs you. ESPN ranks them #6, with the observation that with 4 of the next 5 games at home, the Rapids have a golden opportunity to “make hay in the standings” - good hay.

Executive Summary:
• Tina’s a wonderful organizer
• Rapids Supporters are welcoming, fun and good travel companions
• I go to bed earlier than most all Rapids Supporters
• Pablo holds the team together even more than I assumed
• SLC is a ‘walkable’ downtown, but there’s nothing much worth walk to
• Had a great time and am looking forward to more Rapids road trips

Detail:
First, I have to say that signing up, paying up and showing up was all we had to worry about. It was a fun and very hassle free trip. That was because Tina N. took most of that on herself – thanks again Tina! Flights, transportation, hotel, pregame meal/tailgate were all taken care of and it was one of the easiest road trips we’ve done.

Being new-ish and not sure whether we’d recognize the group at the airport meeting place, we figured we’d suit up (Rapids jerseys of course) so if we couldn’t recognize them, they’d recognize us. No problem – everyone else was suited up as well. They were waiting for us. I’d mentioned to Tina that Erin and I were usually early and had unwittingly challenged her to beat us to the airport…we lost. In addition to our group there were a few folks that were flying independently that were also taking our flight and once again, good folks.
Travel to Utah was a breeze and we were at the hotel in no time. Turned out the team was staying in the same hotel and they were passing the time watching the Galaxy (somehow) upend the Reds in Toronto. By this time, however, we were starving so we went out searching for a bit of lunch in downtown SLC…on a Saturday…apparently the day no food is sold in downtown SLC.

Found some lunch (eventually), took a post flight nap and became the folks that everyone has to wait for to get to the game. Figures. Tell someone you’re usually an early arriver and just see what happens to you.
We didn’t have a traditional tailgate at Rio Tinto due to the hard earned experiences of the Rapids supporters in past trips to SLC. Everyone had a ‘we got drenched’ story about attending past matches and we opted for the indoor-pizza-beer-root beer-national team match-on-the-telly style tailgate. Good pizza, decent beers, good company – good time. Not knowing us very well, they let Erin handle some glassware…now they know better.
Arrived at Rio Tinto to find some Rapids cheerleaders waiting for me…well, maybe us…well, maybe Wiley (hah!)…well maybe they were just at will call getting their tickets…that was probably it. They left us after we were let into the stadium – could be they were there for the David Archuleta concert? (I had to ask too – something about American Idol). We were escorted by security to our section and managed to be loud enough on the way (thanks to the drumming) to warrant some boos from the FSL fans – good stuff.
The game? You probably saw it and I’m no expert, but I spent the first half hoping FSL were going to have a lot of regrets about missed chances and the 2nd half a bit more at ease, but wondering how we were going to steal this point. We did celebrate like a win – I think we all had the sense we stole a point.

Got back to the hotel at 10-something and, being old, turned in. Shouldn’t have – that was our one regret. A nightcap and some socializing would have been the better capper to the evening. Don’t make this same mistake you noobs.
Finally, had a pretty relaxed Sunday morning breakfast and trip to the airport. Air travel, being true to itself, couldn’t allow a trip to go sans delay, so we sat at the lovely SLC airport playing cards for a couple of hours. I was trying to cheat, but couldn’t get it done.

Bottom line – if you’re considering doing this in the future – don’t hesitate. Good folks, good times.

2007 Class VI Player of the Year: Bouna Coundoul
2008 Class VI Player of the Year: Conor Casey

This season, Conor Casey is the clear leader for Player of the Year, winning Man of the Match five times.

The Best Defensive Player is murkier, but one thing stands out. Rapids Supporters love their keepers selecting the net minder six times this season with Pickens and Burpo each winning three.

We have been playing well in recent weeks, against Seattle I think we had our best game of the season even though the result may not have been ideal, the way we moved the ball, how the full backs linked with the wingers, the movement behind the front two, poor finishing and poor defending let us down but supposedly the poor finishing is going to be addressed with a couple of additions in upcoming weeks. While per The Shelbyville Tribune the pressure is mounting for Coach Jason Kreis after the recent 6 game losing streak, so definitely a bigger game for them than us.

Touching down in the land of the magical stovepipe hat I’m interested to see what this town is all about, a town that was built on a religious ideal in pretty much isolation after the so called pioneers had been persecuted and chased out of New York, Missouri, and Illinois to finally land in the picturesque Salt Lake Valley.

With map in hand I set out to explorer Shelbyville with an open mind, after spending three hours walking around the Temple Square trying to understand the logic and history of this commercial cult I’m just confused, baffled and didn’t know crack was available a street drug back in the 1800s. The brain washed tranced glazed look of Sister Surgart and Sister Prete as they take me on their dog and pony show of Temple Square felt like they were trying seduce me with knowledge of the secret golden egg which I had amazingly managed to avoid my whole life while my reaction was how can I corrupt these poor delusional girls and what I found out I wasn’t alone as there is a dark underlying gothic, sex, death metal scene going on in little old Shelbyville.

As I check in they initially attempt to give me Jeff Plush’s room key which I’m tempted to take but for some ridiculous unknown reason a moral value sweeps over me as explain that I’m not thee Mr. Plush. At 5pm I hook up the rest of the Class VI\C-Firm clan and it couldn’t come sooner, we head for beer, pizza, good banter and some details about PT’s preferences that I don’t think I really needed to know, but good to know anyhow then onto the Rio Tinto Stadium.

Roadway logistics poor, parking beyond comical, light rail logistics excellent, the stadium seemed more enclosed with the second level but you don’t have the luxury of walking around the whole stadium like Dick’s Tavern, very high level of Fake Salt Lake merchandise worn by the fans, zero beer lines, while lines for the turnip juice was staggering.

Game time yeah baby bring it on, crank up the drum, sing loud, then sweet Jesus some dude blessed the field for a good 7 minutes, talk about buzz kill. Then there was the delayed arrival after the local idol runner up David Archuleta impressively banged out the National Anthem of the Air Force transporter flyover which was more like 911 reenactment as it went over our heads rather than the middle of the field. Thne finally it was game on.

We looked good in the first 5 minutes and after that we were just pinging long balls telling Omar and Jacob to get on the end of that one. The weakness in that strategy is the Shelbyville defense was as quick as our attacking options. I must note that Omar made 3-4 great crosses, I don’t know who was shocked more me or Clark and Peterson whose timing of runs into the box was appalling.

Cooke was doing what Cooke does and was the bright spot, with Mastroeni out Labrocca was playing deep and Ballouchy playing the attacking midfield role they just looked lost in trying to determine the best way to play together, one or both of them was either too high or too deep or just plain out of position. Shelbyville had more opportunities than I could poke a stick at, include 4 in quick succession, half of them were 20 feet over the bar to the frustration to the quiet sold out home crowd. Palguta was having another stand out game, Gibbs lack of pace was shown up again. Cooke was subbed after 31 minutes to our new attacking option Kimura who did a solid job even though he may have been out of position the odd time. We make it too half time thanks to a fine efforts by Pickens and dismal finishing by FSL.

Someone turns around and asks our personal security guard if they are going to bless the field at half time again to which he turns around and says “No, living here you have to put up with a lot of that sh*t”. Priceless.
Half time 0-0, there was a number of people telling me to go home and I suck, which wasn’t going to happen with absolutely no beer lines and 45 minutes of soccer left, maybe they were from the sinner side of the Shelbyville demographic equation, all in all most people were friendly especially those sitting around us. It has to be said that we were lucky not to be down 3-0 at half time.

Whatever Mr. Smith said at half time seem to have an effect, the midfield was a lot more organized, Kimura was growing in confidence in his new position, Omar was dropping and making some good runs while Clark was invisible right behind Peterson.

Dalby comes on to make us play 5 in the midfield we are going for the draw in the 71st minute, which I think we would all be happy to get out of town with at this stage.
We were still holding on for dear life in defense and in the 79th minute just when we thought the dark cold winter nights sitting alone at bars across the front range were behind us the emotions come flushing back…..back four….playoffs….so close…why? ..Don’t like salt….need pepper……Yura….why?

Yura sticks another one in the back of the net, 1-0 Shelbyville….. bollocks.

We go up a gear attacking, creating space, there is hope here, as the drum beats on we sing louder, in the 81st minute Russell for Shelbyville gets sent off for a second yellow. Ross Schunk is brought on for his first game in the MLS and was impressively providing energy up front doing the basics well and all we could ask for as we go for the equalizer.

Just when the feeling that any hope of a goal for the Burgundy and Blue was gone Ballouchy threads a needle pass to Omar who twist and turns on the right corner of the 18 yard box, fires a wicked shot, for a second everything stands still in silence, then the net balloons and yes Miss Haddle as you had been singing all night “Score and we will all go Mental”, and Mental we all did go, Rapids! Rapids! Rapids!

The seer stones didn’t see that coming.

1-1 and it felt like we’d won, the glazed look of Sister Surgart and Sister Prete was now on the faces of all the Shelbyville fans, realizing that they had thrown away 3 points; celebrations were loud and strong for the travelling faithful.
With the continued executive logistic management of young Tina we were back on the bus to breakdown all the intricacies of the game, which continued into the wee hours of the morning at the hotel bar with a collection of players, management and a bottle of Pino. A big thank you to the players and management who took their time to discuss the game and our experience at Rio Tinto Stadium.

If you have ever considered taking a road trip with those that support the Burgundy and Blue and haven’t start saving your pennies now for the next trip, an absolutely fantastic experience to live, breath football for a weekend with a great group of people who will help you sing your lungs out.