One of the reasons why a lot of us were disappointed when Smith got sacked at the end of the year was because he was fighting a losing battle near the end of the year on the injury front. Of course, we couldn't dispute that Smith basically waved away the CCL, but the regular season and playoff failure in the MLS Cup defending season were more due to a lack of depth and a lot of benched guys than anything else.
Well, that injury spat ain't nothing compared to what we've got now. As Chris Bianchi pointed out after Kevin Harbottle went down, we essentially are looking at a 19-man roster right now, and the majority of the guys who are currently out are guys who would start on an ideal day. It's gotten so bad that Oscar Pareja has had to change his entire formation because the preferred guys for the 4-3-3 are all gone, replaced by youngsters.
I, along with a lot of other Rapids fans, gave Gary Smith the injury out in a season that had fewer injuries than this one — albeit injuries that had far more of an impact simply because we didn't have a lick of depth. I feel that I would be a hypocrite for hanging the same albatross around Oscar Pareja's neck.
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Matt Pollard 