This Colorado Rapids defense is fantastic

Yes, the Colorado Rapids offense hasn't scored yet this season, and hasn't scored a goal at all since last October. There have been no fewer than millions of words vomited out on the internet about it since the start of the season. It seems to be the only thing that anyone is willing to talk about right now when it comes to the Rapids. Is it incompetence? Is it bad luck? Really, I don't care right now; I'd rather talk about something else.

How about the Rapids defense? Since the offense has been so god-awful, seemingly nobody has been talking about how stellar things have been on the other side of the ball. They gave up two goals against the New England Revolution, the first two goals against of the season, but even with those two goals counting against the Rapids' record, things are looking fine in the back.

Opposing teams are now averaging half a goal per game against the Rapids, and the two goals that broke through were a goal of the week candidate and a penalty kick. Past that, there's been little to speak of. It's not been the Clint Irwin show either -- how many times in past years has the Rapids defense needed to be saved by the goalkeeper more often than not? -- with only 9 saves required from Irwin in those four games. Add in the two goals and you have 11 shots on target total by opposing teams, an average of 2.75 per game. Colorado is not only keeping opponents from getting tons of chances, they're keeping them generally off target as well.

It's been the new additions that have sparked the most improvement in the defense, which makes sense since that was what the Rapids focused most on during the off-season. Marcelo Sarvas, Lucas Pittinari and Sam Cronin have all added a lot of mettle to the midfield's defensive capabilities, which has given the defense much less to do than they had to do last year. In the defense itself, Micheal Harrington has been steady at fullback so far and Axel Sjoberg has been an early rookie of the year contender. And the defense has managed to stay decent despite a bit of an injury mess

Sure, the offense hasn't produced as of yet, but as long as the defense remains this good, the Rapids will always be in contention.