COMMERCE CITY, Colo. – One year removed from a 3-0 drubbing at Qwest Field in Seattle, the Rapids head to the Pacific Northwest this week in search of some much-needed points in a tight Western Conference race.
The next three games are against Western rivals, with matches against FC Dallas and San Jose on the slate in the following weeks. The Rapids and Sounders kick off Sunday night in the final league game before the MLS All-Star break next week.
“A Western Conference rival and a good opportunity to bounce back,” Rapids coach Gary Smith said. “A very tough game. Three Western Conference teams. Three good games, three extremely competitive games, three good opportunities to put a marker down.”
Smith’s group wants to bounce back quickly from the frustration of last weekend’s game against Kansas City, when the club needed a late Conor Casey goal to salvage a 1-1 draw. The frustration within the group, which led to a closed-door session between coach and players following the match, was more about a flat opening 45 minutes of the match than the end result.
“Expectations get so high when a group’s playing well, to then maybe come into a game and be below form creates huge disappointment for everyone,” Smith said. “I went away and thought about it. It was the first time in 10 or 12 games when we haven’t controlled proceedings and looked the better team.”
And that’s what gives Smith encouragement going into the next round of games. The Rapids believe the Kansas City game was more of a blip, and they believe they can beat any MLS team on any given day, home or away.
“We should have won it in the end,” Smith said. “There are too many good things going on for me, the group, to get too despondent. There’s still a lot of football left.”
The Rapids sit in fourth place in the Western Conference with half the season gone. Double the points they have right now and they would have 46 in total for the season.
And that’s enough for Smith, and enough to get into the playoffs.
