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The Rocky Mountain CupColorado Rapids
vs Real Salt Lake |
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The Rocky Mountain CupColorado Rapids
vs Real Salt Lake |
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2007 Standings
Game 2: Thu May 10 Game 3: Sat Sep 22 Game 4: Sat Oct 20 REAL SALT LAKE WINS ROCKY MOUNTAIN CUP |
[MLSnet.com] SALT LAKE CITY - There were more than just a couple of Real Salt Lake players that had a point to prove to the Colorado Rapids on Saturday. Not only did Kyle Beckerman and Chris Wingert have reason to show up the Rapids, for trading them away to RSL earlier this season, but the rest of the team meant to show Colorado that the Rocky Mountain Cup was not safe in Commerce City yet this year.
RSL got a rebound goal from Kyle Brown at the 30-minute mark, then made it stand up for the remainder of the game as they claimed a 1-0 victory in a driving rainstorm at Rice-Eccles Stadium and evened the competition between the two regional rivals. Each club has now won once this season, with a third meeting a draw; they conclude their season series in Colorado in the regular season finale for both teams.
Read the complete game recap at MLSnet.com
The Rapids and Salt Lake are making waves in MLS! Yep, lots of “firsts” coming from the Rocky Mountain Cup in 2007. Not all of them good, mind you, but lots of firsts.
First? Well, the first 2007 RMC match was the League’s first Monday Night Football game. Next? The first Rocky Mountain Cup rivalry game to be played at The Dick in Commerce City. Possibly? It was the first RMC game without a yellow or red card. Finally? Well, it’s the first time an MLS game has tied exclusively on own goals. Own goals? Own goals. OG. We’re so proud.
“La OG” when written in Spanglish, it’s like a real Goal spelled backwards.
The first own goal of the evening… Was it another Jack Stewart Moment? Oooh, oooh, I know the answer! Yes. Assisted by Hercules and our favorite netminder, Nick Rimando.
The last own goal of the evening… Was it another JS moment? Uhhh, no, it was a Pablo moment. Turns out Mastroeni knew that no cards would be handed out, so he needed to do something outrageous. This qualifies. Totally ruined a beautiful clean sheet in the making. Bouna Time be damned, apparently.
GO-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-A-L! Huh. Sounds weird when we yell like that for an OG.
There actually was a real goal, the normal kind you score against the other guys. It was onsides, it was a goal, it was legitimate… but for the second week in a row, RSL escapes with a great referee call in their favor, allowing them to set up another tie against the better team.
Yes, yes, yes, it was onsides. If you don’t realize that? You’re an RSL fan who’s new to “soccer.”
Halftime couldn’t come soon enough for those of us fans sitting in front of the famed Freddy Adu, who was given 30 yards of freedom to run the wing by our junior senator from Georgetown. The break also gave us supporters more time to enjoy a beautiful Thursday weekday night matchup with more than 13,000 of our fellow fans.
The 2nd half started and ended better than the first, except for the scoring. While the Rapids possession stat dipped below 200% that of Salt Lake’s, it was better possession at times with more scoring opportunities from a hustling Hercules and high-flying but ineffectual Nico (get those shots down, friend).
And the Rapids terminated the “don’t cover Adu” experiment, which gave the ESPN announcers time to talk about something other than the 17-year-old phenom. And with Adu switching wings, we fans could rest our voices from the “Europe doesn’t want you” catcalls we enjoyed so much, not to mention the occasional “Forko, Spoono” and “Marco, Forko” shouts. Now we could focus on the bloody refs, continuing the refereeing train wreck of last week.
So. That was pretty much it.
Oh, sure, there was another questionable offside call (so much for giving the advantage to the striker) and then there was a poor non-call as Heroic Hercules was taken down with a charlie horse to the thigh which actually gave RSL a couple of dangerous free kicks.
Time and again, Bouna Coundoul showed why he’ll be a great goalie some day. The “Hand of God” defense he employed against Freddy’s cracker shot was stunning. And probably painful. To put it another way, the number of fantastic saves was equivalent to the number of Rapids goals called back by the Refs. Yeah, no kidding, that many!
Anyway… our boys struggled to complete some relatively simple passes (triangles boys, triangles), and while Hercules continued to hammer away at the goal, there just wasn’t anyone else willing to assist.
On the plus side, Jeff Cunningham was on the field (I verified this, saying hello when I was down at the player tunnel) but fortunately absent from the 18-yard box. Another benefit of this tie was to elevate the Rapids into sole ownership of 1st place in the West. Woo-hoo! Even better? With just four points “earned” out of a possible 18, this tie helped our Utah brethren sink to the bottom of Salt Lake.
So… the Rocky Mountain Cup competition rolled on with less piss and vinegar and more too-polite-for-words own goals. After two matches, the Rapids gain the advantage while keeping RSL from entering any positive numbers in the win column for the season.
The RMC reconvenes this September, but we can all enjoy a grudge match the evening of May 23rd at The Dick as Salt Lake comes back for another helping of Rapids hospitality in the US Open Cup. Tickets are $7 for season ticket holders, $10 for everyone else.
RMC points update: Rapids 4, RSL 1. With two games left at the end of the season, it’s still anyone’s game. As long as you’re a Rapids fan.
It was a great pleasure to finally sit down and realize the DVR had actually recorded a Colorado Rapids game successfully for a change. The first 30 seconds proved especially delightful as viewers saw a beautiful close-up of the Rocky Mountain Cup (RMC) and were reminded of the passion in which the teams have already met in competition to win it.
Colorado fans, current RMC stewards, had brought the trophy to Salt Lake to once again throw down the gauntlet, in the hopes that Salt Lake would step up in competition to create beautiful, solid, passion-filled soccer.
Tell me the RMC means nothing and I'll understand that you have no passion, no drama, no soul. The instinctive desire to challenge for the tall, gleaming trophy has made grown men fight, rich owners explode in embarrassing red-faced PR rage, and pro players put that extra oomph into a good yellow card tackle.
All in the name of owning the right to be the winner of the Rocky Mountain Cup competition and that was just the first two years! Mastroeni looked ready to repeat his shirt-off celebration and security was already lining up to keep RSL owner Checketts from draining his self-confidence any further.
"Every time you come to this venue, you wake up in the morning and my blood's already going," Mastroeni told the Deseret Morning News. "Who would've thought Salt Lake & Colorado would have such a great rivalry?"
Ahem. The fans knew. And we're loving every minute of it!
And so, for the 2007 season, it is finally: GAME ON.
Eventually. Even with fast forward, Monday night's game was never going to be considered instant gratification. The Rapids spent the first 20 minutes making RSL look almost as good as Ellinger thinks they are.
Of course, it's one thing to wish you can fly. It's another thing to succeed.
Then, in the 33rd minute, it was Bouna Time! As an homage to the displaced RSL goalkeeper Nick Rimando's embarrassing wandering last week against Chivas, Rapids netminder Bouna Coundoul charged out of his box towards the sideline to create a one-on-one defensive challenge with the talented Jeff Cunningham.
Turns out Cunni was the goat this week, and Bouna recovered.
The halftime breather gave pause to all fans watching, a chance to remember that watching professional soccer on uber-fast fake turf is almost always nearly unwatchable.
And the next twenty minutes of the second half neatly proved it.
Luckily, there's always a "Jack Stewart Moment" lurking around the corner. In this case, it was actually RSL's Torres, but the mental mistake on the defender's part was so big you could drive a Panamanian tank through it.
A tank known as Roberto Brown. And for those who haven't watched the Panamanian Army do drills? Apparently it's a lot like slapping the slow-mo button on your VCR. Brown went past Torres two or three times in his teasing run into the box, keeping possession as the hapless defender slid around on Central American banana peels.
Veteran Eddie Pope struggled to get free of Rapids Rookie signing and Generation Adidas hopeful Nico Colaluca but couldn't get back in time to stop the slightly off-balance rocket by Brown's One Man Army into the upper ninety.
RSL goalkeeper Chris Seitz said something that sounded a bit like his last name as RSL realized that playing for a 0-0 draw never worked for the Rapids and wasn't about to work now.
Colaluca continued showing some impressive footwork and flashes of interest as the youngster started running at a back line stretched by the sudden need to score. He was integral in forcing the next Jack Stewart moment by RSL. This time, it actually *was* Jack Stewart who initiated an odd-looking pass back to Seitz, who took the bait and picked the ball up in the penalty area. Deliberate back pass.
Doh!
Indirect free kick for the Rapids in the 74th minute. Goal! No goal. Hercules Gomez slammed it home, but apparently you have to wait for a "whistle" as it is known in the industry.
Doh!
Try again. Indirect free kick in the 75th minute. Goal! No kidding! Yep, same plan, Hercules fires it in. This time RSL falls over themselves to put bodies in front of his cannon, and a heroic defender pays the price and blocks the shot. It leaks out to Colorado's own Becks Beckerman, who whips his dreds around artfully before slamming home the insurance goal through the train wreck of 10 RSL defenders and a stunned rookie goalie.
What followed Beckerman's hammer blow was the "Class Act of MLS Fandom" showing their true colors. To quote the RSL television announcer, "And here's the exact thing we don't need. Fan are throwing debris on the field."
On a positive note, RSL finally showed some moxie after going down by two quality strikes and made for some great TV moments in the final 15 minutes of the game.
Rapids win 2-0 in the first RMC match-up of the season, gaining 3 points and an important +2 goal differential on the road.
Welcome to MLS. Every Penn needs his Teller. Every Laurel needs his Hardy. Every Roadrunner needs his Wile E. Coyote.
A 1-1 score line with both goals being own goals does not really tell the story of this match. The RSL own goal came when Rimando tried to tip out a cross into the box that bounced off Jack Stewart and into the goal. The Colorado own goal came in a similar situation where a Freddy Adu cross to Jeff Cunningham deflected off the foot of Pablo Mastroeni and in.
Some bullet points I take away from this match:
The offside calls on Gomez mostly c ould have gone either way. They were called as offside and as a ref, especially at the speed that MLS plays at, that call is extremely hard to make. Sometimes I hate to see the referees determine the outcome of a game, but had they gone the other way, we would be screaming about it. If the refs are going to err, it’s best to make that fall in favor of the defense and calling it too close. Otherwise, the game was a lot cleaner than normal for RSL and the cRapids which was great.
forthcoming...