Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Gomes Scores on Debut as Rapids Win in England

New signing Rafael Gomes was among the scorers as The Colorado Rapids ran out winners against English Championship side Ipswich Town 3-2 during the club's preseason tour of England. Gomes headed in a Terry Cooke corner to open the scoring in the first half. Nick LaBrocca and Jovan Kirovski were the other goalscorers as Ipswich twice battled back to equalize. I don't know what the Ipswich line-up was like - there was no mention of the game on the club's website at all. Whatever it was, though, this is great experience for the Rapids players. How often have I heard that the MLS is at a similar level to the Championship in England? Well, here's some evidence. I'm not sure you can really compare the two because the style of soccer is so different. I do think, however, that the Rapids will probably have been a fitter bunch of players overall. One other interesting note from the game was the performance of tryout Tom McManus. Apparently, McManus, a Colorado forward, joined the team in England for a tryout and had a good game. Could he be the answer to the age-old striking problem?

5 comments:

Unknown said...

or might omar cummings be the answer. omar had some moments in 2007, and he's seemed to get a lot of minutes in the preseason. i'd be interested in seeing what he can do with a legit shot at 60 to 90 minutes during the regular season.
George
FC Rocky

Nick Thomas said...

I agree George. Cummings could be a legitimate possibility to put it in the onion bag consistently. The McManus comment is a bit tongue in cheek because it seems a bit unlikely that a tryout will suddenly become the answer to all the prayers for a regular goalscorer. May he prove us all wrong. Thanks for the comment, much appreciated. Must return the favor on the Rockyblog. Nick.

Eric PZ said...

Ipswich played Sheffield United Tuesday night so it was probably the Town reserves and a few youth players that Colorado saw. Either way, Town play an attacking pass oriented style so I'm sure it was good run out for both sites.

http://www.itfcnasc.com/

Eric PZ said...
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Eric PZ said...

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