Rapids Escape With Point From Cow Patch

Well, that was pretty scrappy and crappy. But the Rapids escaped with a point. Conor Casey continued his amazing run of goalscoring with a penalty kick in almost the fifth minute of injury time to get the equalizer after San Jose had scored one of the softer goals the Rapids have conceded this season in the 8th minute.
The game suited the pitch. How can MLS players really be expected to play beautiful free-flowing soccer on a cow patch like that? I've seen better pitches in Denver rec leagues. There really wasn't much to notice in either half and the Rapids really didn't create too many chances in the whole game. The highly debatable penalty (aren't most MLS penalties that way?) gave the team their only realistic chance all night and Casey took it, albeit Joe Cannon got a hand to the shot.
There isn't all that much to say about this game. It was generally poor. The best thing to say is that the Rapids got the point and can now come home and play some soccer on a decent pitch and get three points Wednesday against the same opposition.
I thought Gary Smith would start with Scott Palguta and push Jordan Harvey up more as he had done in the second half against Toronto. I was right about Palguta but Smith pushed Kosuke Kimura up on the right rather than Harvey on the left. And I liked the experiment. Kimura combined well all night with Omar Cummings down that right hand side and it was there that most of the few attacking chances did come.
Nick LaBrocca deserves an honorable mention for running a marathon last night. He was everywhere on the field, particularly in the first half. Somewhat surprising not to see Greg Dalby get any playing time after Smith spoke highly of his performance in Canada last week. But it was good to see Facundo Diz get some more playing time, especially as he came on as a third forward for the last 25 minutes or so. Gary Smith could sense that San Jose were there for the taking but, in the end, it was down to the solitary penalty kick to get the point the team needed.
Thank God for DSG Park on Wednesday night.