Also, I think this might be the first team we've played this year where I'm actually jealous of their defense. Very underrated. And with Colin Clark and Omar Cummings, Colorado has two brewing stars. Speaking of defense though, I'm not sure that this was the best match to bring back back the 4-4-2. Hindsight is 20/20, but I think the 4-4-2 would have helped slow things down a bit in the Seattle match. It certainly wasn't effective here tonight.
And what a big difference between the atmosphere on Wednesday night and tonight. The vast majority of the crowd in Colorado was seated and silent, which is a huge contrast from Seattle. The same can probably be said about the action on the field. The Seattle match was fast-paced throughout. This match was slow and consisted of a lot of giveaways.
1. It seemed like every chance we had on goal came from the head of Chris Pontius. Here's hoping that Quaranta to Pontius will be one of our top scoring options for years to come.
2. I was admittedly harsh on him earlier in the week, but Clyde Simms played well tonight. Most of Colorado's chances came from balls over the top, bypassing the midfield where Simms was roaming.
1. Dejan Jakovic seems to be better suited for the 3-5-2 than the 4-4-2. If he isn't trusting someone else to help cover, he's running all over the place chasing down attackers. The defense was better in the second half.
1. Cummings abused Greg Janicki 1v1 on the first goal. We should all be worried about how the team will cope to the loss of Jakovic to Canada's Gold Cup team.
2. Was Avery John trying to improve his fantasy stats by giving an assist directly to Cummings on the second goal? And he was in no man's land standing in the middle of the box on the third goal, instead of looking to see if someone (Clark) was attacking the back post. John might also be better suited for a 3-5-2, where he played for so many years in New England. Meanwhile, I think Burch is better suited for the 4-4-2, so this lineup didn't really make sense to me. You guys all know where I stand on the Marc Burch versus Avery John debate, but hopefully now we can at least all agree that John is NOT the solution to our persistent problems at left back.
3. I didn't see any game changing saves from Josh Wicks in this one.
4. Ange N'Silu looked disinterested, and really not a part of the team. I counted three times in a row that he gave the ball straight to the Rapids on his first touch, and two times he should have made a run if he was correctly reading a play, but did not. We really thought this guy was better than Francis Doe?
Alright so United just didn't have it tonight. A tired team going up against a well-rested team in high altitude isn't a great excuse for a less than energetic effort, but the result wasn't entirely surprising. United was shut out only one time in the first half of the season. Let's hope this is the only time they get shut out in the second half.
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2 comments:
Goff made a comment in his pregame blog post that the 4-4-2 was in part to start working Janicki into the line-up because Jakovic will be leaving to play for Canada in Gold Cup.
That Burch was benched for the ridiculous Avery John is my point of worry. The left defense is in trouble.
Yeah I definitely don't like John in a 4-man backline. If we're using 4, it needs to be Namoff-Jakovic-Janicki-Burch. Getting some playing time for Janicki isn't a terrible idea, although I still think Seattle would have been a better place to do that. How about giving McTavish some time at CB too? Because he's going to be our only backup there when Jakovic is gone.
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