#COLvHOU Takeaways: The final third went flat for both teams

The match between the Colorado Rapids and the visiting Houston Dynamo, a game which ended 0-0, was somewhat boring to say the least. Yes, the Rapids gained an all-too-rare point. And yes, anytime Rapids supporters can come together for a Saturday night at the Park is fantastic.

The Colorado Rapids are now 4-11-4, comfortably in 11th place in the Western Conference at 16 points, four points clear of last-place San Jose Earthquakes and one point behind 10th place Seattle Sounders. Points are hard to come by—and our Burgundy Boys desperately needed that point.

Here are a few of my takeaways from Saturday night:

1. The Rapids took 10 shots with three on target, compared to 8 shots by the Dynamo with three on target. The Rapids won possession of the game by a 55-45 clip, but the eyeball test would say that Houston was content to not concede, not score. Mission accomplished for the Dynamo.
2. The Rapids are now 3-5-3 at home. If we double this, the Rapids would be 6-10-6 at 32 points, putting them in 5th place. Their road woes are making a difficult season even more difficult with a 1-6-1 record. (I know, doubling the home record is a bit absurd. But bear with me here in working to find a bright spot.)
3. Speaking of bright spots, Giles Barnes brought an energy and something tactically that the Rapids were missing—an attack up the middle. His pace on the counter gave Houston fits. He seemed to know what to do with the ball, while the others struggled—maybe because they were not used to being in such positions? That’s not a dig, mind you. When a club has played 19 games thus far, with the majority of the offense coming almost exclusively on the counter and the wings, chemistry is needed to help them understand how to maneuver in those spaces.
4. Anyone else surprised that Jack McBean came in for Barnes rather than Shkelzen Gashi? That is another head-scratcher!
5. I’m also finding out how jaded our supporter base is when Giles Barnes went down. I found myself saying, That would figure with the Rapids. That is, that would figure that the Rapids get someone that brings some energy and puts pressure on the Houston backline—and he goes down. Turns out, other Rapids supporters said the same thing. We will be posting regular injury updates from the team this week, so we should learn more soon.
6. The Rapids announced attendance was approximately 14,000, but clearly this was tickets sold—for the attendance was nowhere near 14,000. This put us last in announced attendance, a brisk 58,000 behind Atlanta United’s announced attendance at home against Seattle.

The Rapids have a huge match coming up on Saturday, July 21st, as they travel to Sandy, UT to take on 5th place Real Salt Lake (7:00 pm MT). Let’s bring home three points.

What were some of your takeaways? Sound off in the comments section.