Pre-Game: @ FC Dallas

by Brendan Wyatt

This is the big one as the Rapids are in Dallas tonight to face FC Dallas.  It’s big for a few reasons, after losing the last two and winning just two of the last twelve games the Rapids need a morale boost.  Secondly, if the Rapids have any desire to reach the MLS Cup final, chances are they will have to get past FC Dallas.  Thirdly, the Rapids have two games in hand compared to FCD, and taking three points from them tonight would seem like six. 

 

Nineteen out of twenty teams in MLS have a losing record on the road and four of the last eight games left on the Rapids schedule have them away; there really isn’t any room left for losses on the road.  Although The Voice of C38 has said multiple times that it wouldn’t be fair to compare this year’s team to teams of 2015 and 2014, the biggest win the Rapids had in the last three years came at Dallas.  Of the two dozen big blowout games so far this year, FCD has been on both ends which could mean there is potential for the Rapids to finally score more than three goals which hasn’t been done since April.  

Yes, Jermaine Jones is still out and until he is training with the team (not on the side doing rehab work) it’s best to put the thought of his return on the back-burner.  Shkelzen Gashi may not have suffered a big injury, but we all know that the Rapids don’t rush guys back. So if we see him tonight it will most likely be off the bench.  Marco Pappa got 90 minutes in Guatemala’s first game of World Cup qualifying and then returned to the club and was a part of training. He could make the starting lineup tonight with Gashi still sidelined.   

Earlier this week TVOC38’s Brian Jennings got a candid interview with Kevin Doyle. Doyle lured Brian off the ledge from being a desperate Rapids fan wanting only three points from tonight’s match to having some patience.  My takeaway was what I feared. Coach Pablo has all eleven players on the defensive and offense comes second.  “It’s a very fine line,” the Irish striker details.  “Certain games call for certain players in certain situations.  We’ve been very successful in our ‘defend from the front’ philosophy, very tight-knit unit, and that’s gotten us where we are.  We can’t say forget that, we want to score those goals and be brilliant in the playoffs.”

“As a striker, I’d like to be just hanging around up front, saving my energy when we have the ball, and just scoring goals.  But, that isn’t the team we’re set up to be and we all realize that.  As selfish as we’d like to be, but we all realize the best results we’ve gotten is when we all are on the same page, all working our nuts off, and making life difficult for other teams.”

That statement confirmed my belief that due to the lack of wins, the guys have lost confidence in what they are doing and in Pablo’s defensive philosophy; so they tried to do it all themselves and it backfired.  In order to bag a point or three tonight the burgundy boys need to regain that confidence, and work as a team, no matter who lines up at kickoff.

               

Like the Rapids, FCD is unbeaten at home, how sweet it would be if our boys could go in there and do what no one else has been able to do, win.  Stick it to the coach who stuck it to us, although we all know Oscar Pereja was Dallas bound at some point. As well as a kick to the gut to the team who took out Dillon Serna on a dirty play during the US Open Cup back in June.

Soccer is slowly taking a back seat to football now, so get out to some of the C38 viewing party’s and show your support for our burgundy boys.  Myself and Brian Jennings will be at Wonderland Brewery, The Drunken Monk will be holding up the fort at Blue Spruce, and if you’re downtown hit up Southside Kitchen or the Celtic. Kickoff is at 7pm. 

Predicted Starting XI: Tim Howard, Eric Miller, Bobby Burling, Axel Sjoberg, Marc Burch.  Sam Cronin, Michael Azira, Sebastian Le Toux, Marco Pappa, Marlon Hairston. Kevin Doyle.