Colorado Rapids, what up?

The Rapids looked pretty good overall tonight in their win against RSL. I'm starting to think, against my better judgment, that they might just be for real this year. Is 2008 the year Clavijo finally gets over the hump? What happened in the offseason?

Christian Gomez has instantly made this team better. Everybody keeps going on with the Gallardo v. Gomez comparisons, and Gomez is winning all of them right now. He's not the player Gallardo is, but he might be the more effective player in MLS due to his more direct style. Regardless of the Gallardo comparison, Gomez adds a completely different element than anything Colorado had last season.

Omar Cummings is turning into quite the effective goalscorer. Add in the nice wing play of Jacob Peterson, Terry Cooke, and Colin Clark (who I'm really starting to like the more I see him) and this team could finally realize its potential.

The defense still worries me a little bit, but having a veteran like Mastroeni in front of them helps out a lot.

There's still plenty of soccer to play, but I see no reason for Colorado to not be near the top of the standings at the end of the year.

Thoughts?

USL>MLS

In Edmonton, at least. The Vancouver Whitecaps beat Beckham's Galaxy 2-1 in Edmonton last night. 37,000+ showed up to see it, not too shabby for a Tuesday night.

Alan Gordon keeps scoring goals, as he got one off a Beckham cross. Eduardo Sebrango and Nicholas Adderly scored for the Whitecaps to get the win.

Now, let's see how Open Cup goes this year...

Apocalypse Now 2: The Sequel

Alan Gordon just scored an excellent goal to tie the game. An excellent finish, controlling a cross from the left, and then turning and finishing with his left foot into the far post.

Of course, he then hurt himself celebrating, which is always impressive.

Before I can even finish typing this, New York goes straight down and scores to regain the lead. Great defense, Gals. Ouch.

I want the last 2 hours of my life back

Rod Dyachenko, I hate you right now. Don't ever pull out of a 50/50 challenge in the 89th minute when your team is losing, and then follow it up with a petty, dirty, over the ball tackle. Absolutely worthless...

Luciano Emilio, I'm glad you got your DP money. It would be nice if you'd actually try, I don't know, earning it.

Marc Burch, way to suck tonight. At least you didn't do anything as asinine as Dyachenko, but you were just flat out bad.

There's very little heart on the field right now in Black & Red, very little. Changes need to be made ASAP.

This is just embarrassing...

What have I missed?

It's been a while, sorry for that. Real life caught up to me for a bit, and Bakery had to stop production. We're back now though, here's some new sprinkles for y'all...

• I woke up and saw that Columbus had the best record in the league. I thought I was having a nightmare. It's true though, the Crew are playing the best soccer in MLS right now. It'll be interesting to see how long this keeps up.
  
• DC finally got its sponsorship deal done, they'll be sporting the Volkswagen logo on their jerseys Thursday night against Chicago. Maybe the VW will bring some luck, or at least some consistency. DCU looked great against RSL at RFK, then horrible in Colorado. It might really be time to bring back Hristo to knock some sense into these guys.
  
• Can we get an ankle transplant for Ben Olsen? Please?!?
• Beckham had 2 goals against RSL last weekend, too bad his defense is one of the worst in pro soccer. Galaxy games are must watch TV because of the insanity.
  
• Seattle still has the Silverbacks' number, winning 2-0 at the RE/MAX over the weekend. What is it about those guys?
  
• Atlanta FC won its season opener over Rocket City United 2-1, with 2 goals in the second half to come from behind. They're preparing for US Open Cup qualifying later this month in Jacksonville.
  

What else have I missed? Fill me in on the comments...

Too busy to blog

Crazy weekend coming up in the ATL. Lots of youth tournaments around town, the Silverbacks are hosting Seattle in a championship rematch, and Atlanta FC plays its first NPSL game.

I doubt I'll be around the Bakery much this weekend, so feel free to use this post as a sounding board for the weekend's activities.

I'll see y'all on the flip side...

Apocalypse Now

Alan Gordon

2 goals

It's all over for the world.

What a crazy game...

I have a feeling Landon Donovan might have something to say about this one.

My mind is blown...

The Crew have gone global, we're all in trouble now.

(HT: The Offside Rules)

Quick thoughts on Atlanta-Montreal

Thanks to some traffic and a late start from the southside, I missed the first 20 minutes of the game. It was nice to pull into the Park and hear the stadium erupt on Macoumba's goal. Here's some quick thoughts about the rest of the game, leave yours in the comments...

• After the goal, Montreal really started to control the game. They were getting plenty of chances, but the finishing was not that strong. Everything was right at McIntosh. You could kind of feel the goal coming.
  
• I really liked what Coach Smith did in the second half, with three forward pressuring the Montreal backline. It really changed the game, and ended up creating both of the Silverbacks' second half goals. While it didn't really result in sustained possession, it kept Montreal bottled up in their own half.
  
• Rios' pass to Hayes on the 2nd goal was exquisite.
  
• Toure's cross to McLaughlin on the 3rd goal was almost as good. McLaughlin's header was picture perfect off the inside of the far post.
  
• Montreal started creating chances again late in the half, primarily coming through the middle of the field. It seemed like the Atlanta forwards tired because there wasn't as much pressure up top.
  
• What was Bolton doing on the 2nd Montreal goal?
  
• I'll be curious to see the stats, it seemed like Montreal outshot Atlanta by a fair margin. Atlanta's finishing was much better though, Montreal didn't force McIntosh to work all that hard.
  

Good win against a strong team, you can't really ask for much more. It was a weird one though, as it seemed like the game was always up for grabs. Next week's championship rematch with Seattle will be quite the test...

What it's all about...

Okay, the Donkey guy is taking a break for a little while. I want to get back to some of the great things about the game...

For those of you who don't know, pretty much everything I do is related to soccer. I work it, coach it, watch it, and still try to play it. I try to play as much as I can, whether it's with the kids I coach or in the 7v7 leagues at Silverbacks Park.

I was reminded this week why I still do it, even though my ankles hate me the next day. All the frustrations of not being able to do the things I used to be able to do, or were never able to do, are washed away when everything just clicks for that one moment. All the frustrations of the workday, all the frustrations of whatever else is going on in my life, it's all erased for that time on the field.

I scored a great goal, one where I was actually able to do everything I wanted without thinking about it. I turned into that 10 year old boy who fell in love with this sport for a few moments again, I wanted to jump up and down and do a dance. I remembered why I do what I do. You just can't top that feeling, I know I haven't found anything that replaces it.