Colorado Rapids 0 Chicago Fire 0 - Pablo Plays With Fire

When you play with fire, you're going to get burned. Pablo Mastroeni has played with fire twice now this season, and has come away with a single point from two games where he probably should have gotten six. Once again, Pablo came into a midweek game with a starting lineup that looked more like a third-string reserves lineup than one gunning for three points, and once again the Rapids looked... well, they looked like a third-string reserves lineup on their way to a 0-0 draw against the Chicago Fire.

The Fire were absolutely awful on the day, far worse than the Rapids were by any stretch of the imagination. Yet, despite playing against a team that was firing on negative cylinders, the Rapids' lack of talent on the field shone through. Jared Watts was ineffective, Nick Labrocca didn't seem to know what role he was trying to play, Marc Burch and Thomas Piermayr were both lacking attacking flair, and Danny Mwanga was Danny Mwanga. There were decent performances from guys like Marlon Hairston and Charles Eloundou, but there's a reason why Hairston and Eloundou aren't everyday starters. Neither are complete players yet, and neither have the game-changing spark that Deshorn Brown and Dillon Powers possess.

After Brown, Powers, and Dillon Serna joined the party, the Rapids looked legitimately good. Unfortunately, by that point it was too late.

That's really all I can stand writing about this one. Bring on Dallas on Saturday -- after all, the reason why the best players were all benched today was to prepare them physically for that.