Let's face it folks, the Rapids get much better press than they deserve for what they've accomplished. Every week we've hoped that the offense would improve but it hasn't happened yet. Hell, the game that I labeled their best win of the year was only a 1-0 win, the lone goal coming from a mistake by the opponent's goalkeeper who shoved it into his own net! The issue is pretty simple, it's not a failure to create chances by the players, it's not really a complete lack of creativity in passing or crosses either. The failure is in the finishing.
Just watching this team you can see easily that the Rapids are possibly the least clinical team in front of goal in the league. Every single week seems to throw us another horrible miss that any good goal-scorer would scoff at. Conor Casey's late post against Kansas City. Omar's whiff in front of goal at Seattle. Pablo's near miss in Philadelphia. Most recently, Omar beating the entire defense and then missing the net yesterday. All of these came with the goalkeeper not in the net or completely out of position, but the Rapids could never finish.
Past Conor Casey and Omar Cummings, our defensive midfielder Jeff Larentowicz probably has the best finishing on the team this season. That's right, a defensive midfielder with two goals is one of the more clinical members in front of net of this team. If you're thinking "How can he be better than anyone else, he's only got two goals," recall that the only player other than our strikers with more than two goals is Mehdi Ballouchy with a paltry three, one of which came off a PK which might as well not count.
For supposedly being one of the "top offensive pairings in MLS," our strikers and just about everyone past them sure haven't been playing like that. The Rapids could really use somebody who knows how to get the ball into the net.
And no, Claudio Lopez doesn't count because I'm still not sure he's not just a figment of our imagination caused by a mirage on the bench every week.
Just watching this team you can see easily that the Rapids are possibly the least clinical team in front of goal in the league. Every single week seems to throw us another horrible miss that any good goal-scorer would scoff at. Conor Casey's late post against Kansas City. Omar's whiff in front of goal at Seattle. Pablo's near miss in Philadelphia. Most recently, Omar beating the entire defense and then missing the net yesterday. All of these came with the goalkeeper not in the net or completely out of position, but the Rapids could never finish.
Past Conor Casey and Omar Cummings, our defensive midfielder Jeff Larentowicz probably has the best finishing on the team this season. That's right, a defensive midfielder with two goals is one of the more clinical members in front of net of this team. If you're thinking "How can he be better than anyone else, he's only got two goals," recall that the only player other than our strikers with more than two goals is Mehdi Ballouchy with a paltry three, one of which came off a PK which might as well not count.
For supposedly being one of the "top offensive pairings in MLS," our strikers and just about everyone past them sure haven't been playing like that. The Rapids could really use somebody who knows how to get the ball into the net.
And no, Claudio Lopez doesn't count because I'm still not sure he's not just a figment of our imagination caused by a mirage on the bench every week.