Tough Love for the Rapids

Chivas 2, Rapids 1. It was tough to watch that second half. The Rapids just collapsed after giving up the second Nagamura goal. For that, I think the whole team needs to work on their resilience. It was like they knew they were lucky to take the lead, and lost hope when reality caught up and they fell behind. The first half Rapids dominated, and deserved the Cummings goal. The second half Rapids panicked.

Now for the tough love. There are a lot of Kimura fans in Colorado. I am not one of them. I know you can't place blame on one player for a loss, but I cannot sit back and pretend Kimura is a reliable defender when I see his blunders lead to goals so often. When I saw him starting again on Saturday, I thought, here we go... but I will try to love him. He did ok, but it did not last. And neither did my hopes of trusting him this year. Let's go to the tape:



A Chivas cross goes harmlessly into the box with three Rapids around, no Chivas challenging for the ball . Kimura has lots of options: control-and-clear, head wide right out of danger, head-tap back to Pickens... but no. Instead, a nice soft head-pass, across the top of the box, to settle perfectly at the feet of Paulo Nagamura. Clear shot, easy goal. Appalling. Unacceptable.

Gary Smith has called for accountability and earning your spot every week. If that is true, he must hold Kimura accountable for these gaffes. Last year's last-minute Movsisyan RSL goal in that knocked us out of the playoffs was also a nice setup from KK. I noticed these things several times last year, and the problem has not been fixed. So, in the name of accountability, I am starting a tally sheet, tagged here for the first time as Kosuke Kimura own-goals. Somebody's gotta keep track of these things. I mean, I know its not literally an own goal, but a gaffe like that might as well be.

Kosuke Kimura 2009 Own-Goal Tally: 1

By the way, Soccer by Ives noticed it too. Ives has Kimura on his week 1 Worst XI, along with Zach "The Snack" Thornton who gave us a gift for the first goal.

I love you Rapids. That's why I rant.