Last season, Conor Casey played some incredible football despite the fact that Colorado wasn't able to squeak into the playoffs with their 40 total points. Casey managed to get 17 goals on the season along with a handful of assists, giving him the second most in the entire league. Not only did that earn him an ESPY nomination - you get three guesses who won it, hint; he's the only player most Americans know the name of - along with helping him grab a couple of appearances on the USMNT during last year's Confederation's Cup.
Since last year, Conor's game has taken a bit of a nose dive. He began this season with a couple of decent performances, but has had abysmal finishing for most of the year and hasn't seemed capable of putting together more than a single good looking play on the pitch all season. Up until the Rapids last game, he was stuck with seven goals and three assists - good for a paltry first and second place on the team respectively. Up until the last game Conor was in a rut, but it might be safe to say that he may have broken that rut spectacularly on Saturday.
In Commerce City on Saturday the Rapids best striker managed a three point game, getting a goal and two assists. In fact, he was close to a five point game, with a goal being robbed from him by a great save from Dynamo goalkeeper Pat Onstad and another missing the net by literally centimeters. He looked strong on the ball all evening, looked confident with his passing and shooting and started to resemble the Conor Casey of 2009 a ton more than the latest buggy model. (He's like Windows, one version is awesome and then they release Vista and you can't get it off your computer back to XP because you already paid for the new one and it won't let you reinstall the old version. I realize that extended metaphor lasted about a sentence and a half too long.)
The stretch run for the Rapids really could use the fantastic version of Conor Casey from yesteryear, so if he can keep up his performance like he did against Houston they'll be gold. They say you just have to get hot at the right time in order to win a title, Conor's picking a fine time if he can just keep it up.
Since last year, Conor's game has taken a bit of a nose dive. He began this season with a couple of decent performances, but has had abysmal finishing for most of the year and hasn't seemed capable of putting together more than a single good looking play on the pitch all season. Up until the Rapids last game, he was stuck with seven goals and three assists - good for a paltry first and second place on the team respectively. Up until the last game Conor was in a rut, but it might be safe to say that he may have broken that rut spectacularly on Saturday.
In Commerce City on Saturday the Rapids best striker managed a three point game, getting a goal and two assists. In fact, he was close to a five point game, with a goal being robbed from him by a great save from Dynamo goalkeeper Pat Onstad and another missing the net by literally centimeters. He looked strong on the ball all evening, looked confident with his passing and shooting and started to resemble the Conor Casey of 2009 a ton more than the latest buggy model. (He's like Windows, one version is awesome and then they release Vista and you can't get it off your computer back to XP because you already paid for the new one and it won't let you reinstall the old version. I realize that extended metaphor lasted about a sentence and a half too long.)
The stretch run for the Rapids really could use the fantastic version of Conor Casey from yesteryear, so if he can keep up his performance like he did against Houston they'll be gold. They say you just have to get hot at the right time in order to win a title, Conor's picking a fine time if he can just keep it up.