Woodypaige.com

By DANIEL KRUEGER

@danielkrueger96

woodypaige.com

A season that had been so successful ended too soon and too bad.

The Colorado Rapids lost both games to the Seattle Sounders in the MLS Western Conference Finals.

And the worst was saved for last.

It was cold. And so was the Rapids offense.

On a chilly Sunday in Denver, the Rapids faced the Sounders for the return leg of the conference playoffs. Having lost the first match 2-1 in Seattle, the Rapids needed a victory by a score of 1-0 or two goals or more to win the right to represent the West in the MLS Cup Final against either Toronto FC or the Montreal Impact.



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Unfortunately, the Rapids failed to score even one goal, and Sounders rookie sensation Jordan Morris scored the game’s only goal in 56th-minute. The goal stemmed from a poor clearance by Jared Watts, and poor tracking by Rapids midfielders. The Sounders dispatched the favored Rapids 3-1 on aggregate and will play in the MLS Cup final.

So, what went wrong? The Rapids were dominant all season. They featured a daunting defense and a tenacious attacking midfielder who goes by the name of Jermaine Jones. The simple answer is that the Rapids inability to score goals finally caught up to them. When teams lose, everyone wants to play the blame game. But I think the ineffectiveness of the Rapids offense was a collective effort, encompassing the Rapids management.

First off, examine how Mastroeni set up his side. I believe the Rapids are best suited to play a 4-2-3-1, a formation puts Jermaine Jones in his best position. And when he’s comfortable on the field, the Rapids are a different team. Jones has shown all season that he is a box to box midfielder that can take games over. The MLS is especially suited for technically competent, extremely physical midfielder like Jones, and he was rightly chosen to be an MLS All-Star this year. In Sunday’s game, Jones was the best player in burgundy.

Here’s an alarming stat: The Rapids finished the game with zero shots on goal. Ziltch, zip, nada. It doesn’t take a trained observer to recognize that if you don’t have any shots on goal, you aren’t going to score any goals. Given how dominant a defense the Rapids displayed this season, their inability to score goals was comical at times. They finished the season 18th out of 20 MLS teams in goals with a measly 41. Only the 7-13-14 Houston Dynamo and 8-14-12 San Jose Earthquakes finished behind the Rapids in scoring. This is where I put some blame on the Rapids management.

The MLS secondary transfer window runs from July 4 to August 3. The only attacking acquisition the Rapids made during this window was a trade with Philadelphia where the Rapids acquired Sebastian Le Toux, a forward who scored 2 goals in 21 games for Philadelphia.

So, the offense hasn’t been producing all season, but the Rapids were in a prime position to make the MLS Cup final. Even after the first-leg loss some analysts still would have picked the Rapids to advance. They were at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, a stadium where  they had been dominant all season. Most important, it’s a place where they consistently recorded clean sheets, something they needed to do unless they planned to score three goals.

Even though their personnel is not laden with inform goal scorers, there were certainly still different ways that the Rapids could have tried to unlock the Seattle defense.

I would have loved to see Doyle, Le Toux, or Gashi run into the channels more. When you play a team like Seattle that features two hulking center backs, Chad Marshall who is 6’4” and 190 pounds and Roman Torres who is 6’2” and 190 pounds, the best way to beat them is to string them out into positions they are uncomfortable. Torres especially looked uncomfortable when he was isolated in space. Luckily, drawing center backs out is simple. All it takes is a check back by Gashi or Le Toux to draw out an outside back. Then you need your center forward, Doyle in this case, to run off the outside shoulder of one of the center backs filling the space in behind created by the winger’s run. Instead of using this simple tactic, the Rapids seemed hell-bent to loft and drive balls at the heads of Marshall and Torres, who won them with ease.

Looking back at the season, Rapids fans should be proud, considering how far the team has improved from last year. . But the Rapids and their rabid followers must be hungry for more. With the addition of a consistent goal scorer, the Rapids could be an early favorite to win the Western Conference next year.

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Daniel.krueger@coloradocollege.edu

Daniel Krueger is a student-athlete at Colorado College in Colorado Springs.  The sophomore plays forward for the Tigers’ soccer team and is majoring in mathematical economics, with a minor in journalism. He writes for SB Nation’s Pacific Takes on Oregon Football and also for The Catalyst, the Colorado College newspaper. He was born and raised in Eugene, Oregon.  Daniel has become a contributing writer for woodypaige.com.)