I had a bad feeling about this one before we every got started. The Rapids are a decent squad, and being that we were playing our 3rd game in 8 days while Colorado had 7 days in between two games at home it was going to have to be perfect. With some positions aging, the lack of oxygen up in the Denver area, and being the Dynamo were also going to be without our coach (Thanks for that red again.....Penso) I was holding out hope we could at least hold onto a point here on the road. When I saw the opening lineups and formation, I was pretty worried about it. 5 new starters, a formation I've never seen us play, and some of these guys haven't seen the field all year. I can't even remember the last time I saw Nico Lemoine play (much less start). I was curious to see what Alejandro Fuenmayor would looked like, same with José Bizama. I really thought that starting with (basically) a back five would help keep us solid in defense, maybe we could keep them off the scoreboard, and maybe Ramirez could sneak one in for us. Colorado was coming into the game scoring only 5 goals in 4 games but was the more rested team. Colorado is a good team, Kellyn Acosta, Sam Vines, and Michael Barrios are really good players, and although we hadn't lost to them in 5 straight games dating back to 2018, I didn't think this was a good situation.
It didn't take long to see this was going to be bad. Colorado found cracks in the early going and completely destroyed us from minute 10-45. The first half was awful defensively, Marco Meric had 10 good minutes then fell apart, and we didn't generate a single shot for 27 minutes. It wasn't until Adam Lundkvist blasted one on target from about 40 yards out that we finally tested William Yarbrough. What happened directly after this pretty much sums up the game. Yarbrough hit Barrios on a dime about 70 yards downfield, who in turn left one in a gaping chasm right in front of the goal. On a ball that seemed like it was in slow motion, and took about 5 hops to get there, Sam Vines blasted it in the top right corner. What's most disappointing about it was no one reacted until after the ball was in the back of the net. The second one 7 minutes later showed how much Alejandro Fuenmayor needs to grow to be a full-time defender. When Christian Ramirez pulled one back soon after, you kinda thought we had a puncher's chance. But Marko Marić's mistake was just unbelievable and deflating.
The second half was much better, and I actually felt like we were the better team for much of the half, but it was all for naught as we couldn't close the score down. There was a lot working against us in this game, but good teams have to be able to overcome those things. It's kind of a sign of where we are right now. Our best 11 aren't bad, and are actually pretty solid defensively. We have little depth, and if we have to rotate the squad it means trouble. While it's not all fire and brimstone, and you just have to chalk it up to Colorado being the better team on this night, there are some things you can take away from this game.
Alejandro Fuenmayor is not the answer:
Not with the way he played on Saturday night. He had several bad moments, including whiffing on a cross soo bad he did a 360 and fell on his rear end. He got beat soo badly on the second goal, Tim Parker threw up his hands in frustration. Fuenmayor didn't even bother to fight for that ball. While his stat line reads 8 interceptions, 6 clearances, and 9 recoveries he was beaten several times and was out of position or not moving often. While we need another center back, Fuenmayor might need to move on. I've been asking for him for two years, but I wasn't impressed by his performance against the Rapids.
Remember when I said Marić's distribution would come back to bite us?
Yeah, not a lot of commentary on that, and the bad news is there's more to come. While he was slightly better in the two previous games this gaff was inexcusable.
Bajamich looked ok:
Not a glowing endorsement here, but Bajamich has a little something. Had a couple of nice runs and a really nice back heel on a play that he was called offsides on. He looks a little green, but between he, Lemoine, and Lassiter, I'll take Bajamich from the 30 minutes I've seen right now. I'm hoping he earned a little more time. He basically outperformed Lemoine in 1/2 the minutes statistcally.
I'm interested in seeing more Bizama:
I'm not a huge fan of Zarek Valentine, but not knowing what's behind him it's been hard to clamor for someone else. I thought Bizama was decent, but I don't know he possesses the deep passing ability that Valentine flashes at times. Both of these guys are limited, but I think Bizama earned at least another look.
We need Tyler Pasher back so we can stop seeing Memo on the wing.
Memo isn't fast enough to play there in Tab's system, he doesn't cross particularly well, and he can't cut back inside to his right foot. While Memo is a decent defender, there was a noticeable difference when Fafa Picault came on for him.
Sorry this is a quick one, not a lot to say after that one. I'm hoping this is an aberration, and not the norm going forward.
Remember when I said Marić's distribution would come back to bite us?
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