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We've been saying it all season long. If Deshorn Brown can just get that finishing together, we'll have ourselves something special. From the start, it's been clear that he has had just about everything you want from a striker. He's got pace to spare, strength enough to hold off just about any back defending him and an eye for goal that the Rapids haven't seen in a forward since Conor Casey's lethal 2009 campaign.
It's that darn finishing. It always has been. From day one against FC Dallas, we were praising just about everything about the kid except for the finishing. Going into the match against the Sounders, he had seven goals, but most of the 80+ shots he had taken were of the variety we saw late against Portland (from way too far out and wide by several yards) or the variety that frustrated us against Chivas USA (missing absolute sitters by waiting too long to take the shot). On a team that has had problems putting the ball in the back of the net consistently, Deshorn was the unfortunate shining star of the bunch.
The 5-1 Seattle match might be the first time we saw the Deshorn we've been looking for all year. It wasn't just that he was so fast, strong and ready to shoot. We'd seen that all season. It was his calmness on the finish both times he was given the ball with space. How many times this year did he get that gleam in his eye and race towards goal only to hold onto the ball a touch too long or sail it acres wide when presented with an on-rushing goalkeeper? Not just once, but twice against the Sounders, he stayed calm and put the ball exactly where it needed to be to put a point on the board. Both finishes were clinical, the type you would expect a guy like Thierry Henry to be making.
Does that mean he's going to keep up that form? Of course not. One game is about as small a sample size as you can get, and he'll be gone with the Jamaican National Team for a while so he won't be able to pick up exactly where he left off when the Rapids play the Quakes. However, if the Deshorn Brown we saw against Seattle shows up for the next few games he plays in, the Rapids will have a real chance to make noise in the league all the way until December.