Monday, September 10, 2007

Rapids Audio

Sorry I'm a little late with this audio but hopefully it's still pertinent.

Colorado fell hard to the Galaxy on Saturday. What made it a bit strange was that the Rapids had won 3-0 just two weeks earlier against basically the same Galaxy side - no Landon Donovan, no David Beckham - yet this time the tables were turned.

Fernando Clavijo blamed the Rapids' poor finishing. In the first half, the Rapids had several chances to put one away. Mehdi Ballouchy walked in alone on goal. I thought he should have passed the ball to either Herculez Gomez or Jovan Kirovski but instead chose to shoot and skied it over the bar. That seemed to wake the Galaxy up as they had a few chances to close out the half.

What made matters worse for the Rapids was the first moments of the second half, as Alan Gordon took advantage of a Rapids defensive error to score. Actually, it was Bouna Coundoul who couldn't handle a cross as a cross had more pace than Coundoul apparently though. Bouna Time dived at the ball and ended up hurting himself. Zach Thornton came in about 11 minutes later and yielded two goals. I asked Zach about his night and he said that he didn't have any excuses about not being sharp.

Herculez Gomez has been on the other side of those games before. If the Galaxy gets hot, they can play the way they did in the second half. Herculez, though, said their lack of finishing also did them in.

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