Colorado Rapids vs. DC United – A dent in the attacking optimism

Is the 1-0 win over Los Angeles Galaxy in mid-March going to be the 2016 season's version of that match? After the dismal showing that the Rapids put on against DC United last night, it might be time to ask that question and pump the brakes on the optimism for the Rapids actually being good on the attack this year.

Perhaps it was a blip in the radar, and I'm sure that the fact that Gashi was missing from the team will be held accountable for a lot of it, but there were many deeper issues there.

In short, the Rapids looked a hell of a lot like the 2015 Rapids during that game.

If the Rapids are to be good this year, the attack needs to be ages better than it was last year, because even with Tim Howard coming in this July it's unlikely that the defense will hold the same fantastic record they did the first half of 2015. (If they've dropped too many points in the fast and furious Western Conference, it might not even matter.) In the first two matches, the attack resembled Oscar Pareja's 2012 attack: messy but effective at getting shots away, though very rarely converting those rushes forward into goals. Yesterday it much more resembled last year's offense in all the worst ways. It cannot resemble either of those if the team is to succeed.

As has always been the case, the thing to watch on the Rapids this year is not Tim Howard, but Pablo Mastroeni's ability to get the offense clicking. It managed to pull a rabbit out of the hat against the LA Galaxy, but the DC United match should pump the brakes a little bit until we can see a consistent repeat of that sort of attacking mettle.