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Rapids misfire against Chicago on 4th
Chicago’s Wilman Conde, left, heads in the winning goal over Rapids defender Kosuke Kimura and beyond the reach of goalkeeper Matt Pickens. (photo by Jonathan Ingraham/ColoradoSoccerNow.com)
The game was a dud, and so were the fireworks.
With 19,680 fans inside Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, the Rapids lost. The team that normally owns the Fourth of July dropped its first home game of the season, a 2-1 defeat against the Chicago Fire on Saturday in front of the largest crowd ever at the stadium.
And if that wasn’t enough to dampen the spirit of the holiday, the fireworks fell flat, too. Technical difficulties interrupted the display five to 10 minutes after it started, and the show was called off about 10 p.m.
Fizzle. Sputter. Flop.
Let’s begin with the game.
Midfielder Marco Pappa scored half an hour into the match, and all of the anticipation of the evening popped like a red, white and blue balloon. Thoughts of a patented victory on the Fourth by the Rapids, who were playing without Colin Clark and Omar Cummings, turned to hopes for salvaging a tie.
When Wilman Conde gave the Fire a two-goal lead seven minutes later, the record crowd was hushed. Even a draw seemed like a longshot at that point.
The Rapids were slightly off all night: A cross just inches over a player’s head. A dummy that slips through to nobody. A pass just out of the reach of a teammate. A chip forward when the other guy drops back. A shot off the post. A header just over the crossbar. Even the Colorado goal was slightly off.
Conor Casey got his head on a Mehdi Ballouchy cross in the 76th minute and drove it right to the feet of Chicago’s Jon Busch. The goalkeeper made the save but couldn’t control the rebound. The ball rolled toward the right post, where substitute Jacob Peterson bashed it in. The end result of the play was difficult for many in the crowd to see, and some folks were unsure the ball went in the net. Altitude announcer Mike Haynes was one of them.
And that was it, the second loss on the Fourth of July in team history. The Rapids’ record on Independence Day slipped to 11-2-1. The postgame mood was less than festive … and was about to get worse.
The fireworks show opened with Richard Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries” and was followed by “4th of July” by X and “Roll Over Beethoven.” But after that, the soundtrack was an annoying mix of two songs playing simultaneously, like marching bands playing over the Stray Cats and Lee Greenwood. It was jarring, and it brought down the proceedings.
Folks started to leave the stadium in large numbers, despite two announcements that the fireworks would restart as soon as technical difficulties were ironed out.
But the problems were not fixed, and the whole show was halted, put off until July 25. More details are available on the team’s Web site.
I’ve written before about how important it is for the Rapids to come out on top on the Fourth, to win over the hearts and minds of the casual fans when the house is full. But this one hurts. Not only did the first sellout crowd of 2009 go home with a loss, the fans went home without fireworks.
As one little boy told his father on the way out of the stadium, “That was the worst fireworks show ever.”
I’d have to agree, kid.
WASN’T THERE A BIG INTERNATIONAL MATCH RECENTLY IN WHICH A 2-0 HALFTIME LEAD WAS OVERCOME? Yes, in the Confederations Cup final, Brazil beat the United States 3-2 after trailing by two goals at the intermission. The crucial blow was Brazil’s goal in the first minute of the second half; everybody in South Africa knew the U.S. was in trouble after that. The Rapids had a similar moment on Saturday. About 15 seconds into first-half stoppage time, Rapids midfielder Terry Cooke crossed a ball in from the right wing that striker Pat Noonan headed toward the far post. But the angle of Noonan’s attempt was slightly off target, and the ball whistled wide. Had Noonan scored there, the entire personality of the match would’ve changed significantly.
DID THE RAPIDS EVER HAVE A CHANCE TO TIE THE SCORE? Yes, in the 86th minute. Conor Casey beat defender Bakary Soumare on the left wing and turned toward goal. Just inside the penalty area, Casey made a crisp turn and tapped the ball away from the feet of Chicago’s Baggio Husidic, who swiped at it but instead caught Casey’s shins. Referee Jorge Gonzalez opted not to recognize the foul. And it was clearly a foul. After all the bad juju of the evening, the Rapids could have pulled out an Independence Day miracle. They should’ve been given the chance.
MAN OF THE MATCH: Soumare and Conde did a fine job holding Casey in check, and midfielder John Thorrington was instrumental in Chicago’s ability to gain possession and maintain it. I’d give the nod to Conde because of the winning goal.
RAPIDS’ MAN OF THE MATCH: The fans voted for Peterson, and that was as good a choice as any.
SEEN AT THE STADIUM, PART I: Who better to watch the Fourth of July game with than Captain America? Yes, Claudio Reyna was at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park on Saturday.
SEEN AT THE STADIUM, PART II: Back at Invesco Field, a guy would paint himself black and blue and cavort around the field with RapidMan during Rapids matches. He stopped appearing at games about the same time as old No. H20 did. But on Saturday we saw The Blue Guy, an anonymous friend from the past, sans face paint and sans body paint.
MASCOT MADNESS: Speaking of mascots, the Rapids had their annual all-star mascot game at halftime. If you thought the Rapids had a lot of mascots (and they do: Edson, Jorge, Marco and Franz), it was out of control on Saturday. There was Chip from the University of Colorado and Cam from Colorado State. There was Prowler from Colorado College, and Ruckus from the University of Denver. There was the Colorado Force’s Lucky, the Colorado Ice’s Glacier and the Colorado Mammoth’s Wooly. Sox, the mascot of the Colorado Springs Sky Sox, was there. As was the Nuggets’ Rocky. And the Broncos’ Myles. And Klawz from the University of Northern Colorado. And Rowdy from Metropolitan State College. The Bird from the Air Force Academy. A moose. A banana. A shark. An ice cream cone. And more. It went on and on.
ON LEAVE, ON WATCH: Cory Gibbs received a yellow card and will miss Saturday’s game against Dallas (didn’t the Rapids just play Dallas?). Casey also was cautioned; he will be suspended if he receives another yellow this season.
WHERE WERE CUMMINGS AND CLARK? At the CONCACAF Gold Cup, of course. Cummings replaced Claude Davis in the 82nd minute of Jamaica’s 1-0 loss to Canada. Clark did not appear in the United States’ 4-0 victory over Grenada.
NOT JUST A NATIONAL HOLIDAY: Gibbs wished Zena Gibbs a happy one-year anniversary on the scoreboard.
IN CASE YOU HAVEN’T SEEN IT YET … Rapids broadcaster-ambassador Marcelo Balboa got a haircut for charity.
RAPIDS’ STARTERS: Pickens, Harvey, Gibbs, Ihemelu, Kimura, Mastroeni, LaBrocca, Cooke, Ballouchy, Casey, Noonan.
FIRE STARTERS (Ha! I’ve been waiting to use that one!): Busch, Woolard, Conde, Ward, Soumare, Pappa, Thorrington, Blanco, Husidic, McBride, Rolfe.
George Tanner is a former writer and editor for the Rocky Mountain News; the Greeley Tribune; The Daily Independent of Ridgecrest, Calif.; the Durango Herald; and the Boulder Daily Camera. He is a graduate of the University of Colorado and an associate professor at Metropolitan State College of Denver. E-mail him at ColoradoSoccerNow@gmail.com.
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Right as ever, George, though I would give the MOM to Thorrington. He was a problem all night, especially in that first half when his control in the mdifield helped them get the winning goals.
hard to argue with that, nick. i thought conde, thorrington and soumare all had special nights. cory gibbs had his best night as a rapids player when chicago came to town in 2008, but i thought conde and thorrington had the best games i’d ever seen either of them play on saturday.
The Chicago Fire played an excellent game, deserving the victory.
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About George: George Tanner fell in love with the Tampa Bay Rowdies and the North American Soccer League while living in the Tampa, Fla., area in the mid-1970s. He got his first taste of newspapering while following the Rowdies every day in the Tampa Tribune, and from there grew the seeds of a journalism career in which he has worked at the Colorado Springs Sun; the Daily Camera in Boulder; the Durango Herald; The Daily Independent in Ridgecrest, Calif.; the Greeley Tribune; and the Rocky Mountain News.
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