A View From The South Stands: Ceus Saves!

On October 6^th, 2012 Steward Ceus made his MLS debut for the Colorado Rapids in relief of Matt Pickens who strained his groin in the game. Ceus gave up one goal to San Jose in that game. In the two weeks between that game and the game with Chivas USA last Saturday Pickens was shut down and Ceus was given the reigns of keeper for the team.

Ceus did not have much work to do against Chivas, but any playing time that he is able to get will most assuredly help him out. I am sure that he was very nervous going into the game since it was his MLS debut, but what better team to make your debut against than Chivas? Chivas has only scored 22 goals all season; so he was not going to be asked to do too much, especially if our defense played to the level that we know they are capable of.

As the game went on I started to wonder what was going through his mind when it looked like a clean sheet was going to be in his future. Those had to be some of the longest minutes of his life. I know I had written a couple weeks ago that I was ready to see Ceus go, but it was really good to see him get that clean sheet. He has but in 4 years of work in the MLS and to see that start to pay off is good. While it wasn’t the prettiest clean sheet, or one that required him to be too active, a clean sheet is still a clean sheet.

It is going to be interesting to see what opportunities knock at the 2^nd keeper’s door. In attempts to remain unselfish, which ultimately I will fail to do, I hope that he is given the chance to really see how good he can be somewhere, because obviously Pickens is rightfully our starter. But there is no taking away an incredible start for his MLS starting debut. We are lucky to have a keeper with his talents backing Pickens. The selfish part of me would keep Ceus here out of sheer comfort with him on the pitch if Pickens were to go down again, especially in a season where we were still in some kind of playoff contention.