Colorado defender Eric Miller had to think about it for a
second when asked when was the last time he played soccer in Minnesota. “I haven’t played a game in Minnesota that’s
competitive since maybe High School soccer?” Eric told The Voice of C38.
Hopefully for Colorado, a large contingent of Rapids fans
led by Eric’s parents can help provide extra motivation on the road where
Miller grew up playing the sport that is his profession. He admits there will be plenty of family and
friends cheering for burgundy because of number 3. “My parents are throwing a really big
tailgate, all my buddies from High School will be there, so I’ve actually given
up on trying to find tickets for people and just get as many as possible and
lump some to my parents and see what they can figure out. I should have good away support but my
girlfriend and her brother are also out in Minnesota so it should be fun.”
“It’s just crazy sometimes when I think about the fact
there’s an MLS team is something I never would’ve imagined growing up. I watched the Thunder play at Central High
School and to see them now building their own stadium is really cool. The sense of familiarity is a bit weird
because you’re going to a place you know so well but you’re not really doing
the same thing you’ve always done there.”
That will ring true Sunday as Miller and the Rapids make
their first trip to the University of Minnesota’s football stadium to play
MNUFC. “Obviously they’re on an upswing
a little bit so that’s going to be a good test for us,” Miller says after
watching the Loons recent results in some hectic contests at home. “They’ve got an interesting little small turf
field so it’ll be a little bit tough to play on but we’ve got a good group of
guys and we’re going to go like we go to any road game for 3 points. We just have to be focused the whole time and
make sure we’re locked in and get a clean sheet.”
Doing that is not something Colorado has accomplished in any
match but one so far in 2017-a position they’re unaccustomed to as of
late. However, Miller explains even in
the latest defeat at the weekend the Rapids weren’t far away and know it’s a
matter of mastering the small things and the collective confidence of the team.
“It is actually more positive than you would think after
such a crushing defeat,” said Miller of his teammates’ general psyche this
week. “Going down in such a manner is
not something we’re used to. Not many
people have come back and scored late goals on us. I think we played well for 83 minutes,
controlled the game, and we did play the game on our terms which is something
that we haven’t done as much here as we’ve done in the past.”
Being this early in the season, it’s hard to qualify the
match as “must win” but for Colorado and its restless fanbase at least some
points from this match are a necessity if they want to gain back some of the
swagger they built last season.
“The good thing here we do is focus almost entirely
internally because it’s an extension of the way (Head Coach) Pablo (Mastroeni)
lives his own life,” Eric explains to the fans. “He wants to play on his own terms, he wants
to dictate what happens instead of letting things come to you. We’ve become a good extension of that and we’ll
kind of look inside ourselves.”
If nothing else, Miller thinks the loss to RSL will serve as
a fresh reminder for the remainder of the season the way one lesson did in 2016
for Colorado. “Closing games out is
tough. I think it’s something you gain
when you’re older and experienced player and obviously there’s a lot of younger
players here now.”
“We saw it last year in Vancouver-we gave up a late goal
that was not good and we gave 3 points up.
After that, we were able to learn from our own naïveté’ and figure out
where it went wrong. It’s one of those
things where you have to make the mistake, now every game the rest of the year
if we’re up in the last 10 minutes we’re thinking Salt Lake happened. We can’t give up 2 goals and our effort has
to be totally focused.”
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