Attendance It sucks we lost. What's up with an attendance of 1,300 at the Cotton Bowl? Did the Burn not advertise this match at all? The atmosphere must have been awful.
Attendance and result Only 1300? There are high school matches that get more than that! Bummed that we lost though. The Burn do indeed seem to have our number this year. I hope we don't meet them in the playoffs....
So you were at the game, Fashion? If so, how about a few comments on how they played? I'm assuming we went with only defensive subs because there wasn't anyone else on the bench (great decision, releasing Beckerman to the U23 Reserve Tour of England). Were Herdsman, Kingsley and Mastroeni tired or injured when they were subbed off? Was Palacios even there?
Keep in mind three things: 1. There isn't a very long timeframe between the time the match is announced until it's played. Not a lot of promo time. 2. MLS attendances start with your season ticket total. Open Cup, you're starting with zero. 3. Let's face it, while I don't have surveys for "proof" not the time to do so, your average soccer fan in the US does not know about the Open Cup for one reason or another. It's not a widely known tourney, save for the diehards and a few others.
Re: Attendance You know, it really wasn't. It was actually kind of fun. More intimate, and you could really hear the jeering and chants of the Burn supporters' group. It reminded me of the atmosphere of a Class A baseball game (much better than the majors, which I can't stand). As for the game, the Rapids just ran out of gas. Carlos was dead in the overtime. Garbage goal, but better to go out that way than penalties, I suppose...
So I take it the goal wasn't exactly like Ruiz's last night (brushed Goose aside, chips the ball over and around Conrad, solo breakin, perfect finish over Conway's left shoulder).
Re: Attendance Advertising...very little. I found out from bigsoccer and an e-newsletter. Atmosphere...better than one might think. Rapids players seem to enjoy their pre-game jeering from the supporters groups. Titus was laughing about it during introductions. Titus not only welcomed our taunting, he threw a little back at us! Nothing mean though. Overall, a very entertaining game. I hope we get another USOC game in Dallas.
I give you credit, Rapids you played well. I was there and it was exciting. I dunno why people don't follow the Open Cup (and you call yourselves soccer fans). The goal WAS NOT garbage, well not really. It seemed like a well timed run by O'Brien, and he finished it, what more can you ask for? Good game for both teams, you could tell Colorado was upset they lost but in a way glad it was over.
The Rapids had a few short weeks to promote the USA-Mexico game here, didn't seem to have a problem. Granted, that was two HUGE teams but getting the word out isn't very hard. The Burn knew quite a while ago that if they won their 3rd round game they'd be hosting the 4th round game. Not to mention, the Burn were offering $5 tickets. I think you just can't get around the fact that people just weren't interested. Not necessarily; the Burn could easily have included this match as part of their season ticket package. Most every team includes one or two extra tickets that can be used for playoffs or exhibitions -- certainly it could have been counted for the Open Cup match. And as long as the teams themselves fail to promote these games and educate their fans, it's not going to improve. Note that the Rapids hardly made a big deal of publicizing their Open Cup matches this year.
The Burn could have done these things, but it sounds like they didn't. I understand that they knew they'd host a 4th round game, but that's a coulda/will ya until they actually win (promotion wise). That's where I was getting the short promo time from. Maybe a better way to say it is they had a short time frame from when they had a guaranteed match date until the actual match. They're not going to promote the fourth round until they've won the third round, or at least I wouldn't think. Slightly different strategy than "pay for your playoff tickets in advance" with a one-off. I do agree it's up to the front office to get the ball rolling on making fans know about this.
Wasn't there, that was a sarcastic comment about the lack of a broadcast and the crappy tracker was horrible!
Yea, it would have been helpful to have Beckerman. Titus, Herdsman, Mastroeni were all good. Chung had a good game. Two impressions were that you missed Spencer because you had little direct play. Carrieri is not yet the star striker that gives you direct play. You had the ball a ton but did relatively little with it. Most crosses were cleared, and you didn't have a lot of success with one-touch combinations in front of goal. The Burn started out tired, and managed to play through it for the most part. It was a hard battle to run for some of both teams by the end. Kingsley was decent but was about to get tossed. Chivas was eating him up on his side with his speed. He got a yellow for holding, and the longer it went, the more likely he'd have gotten a second. It was excruciating to watch the Burn play 110 minutes knowing that the Fire game was only a few days away. Pareja, Rhine, Kreis, Morrow and Vaca all got shorter games though. Deering, Suarez, and Broome had to run the most. Chivas should have but he was either still tired or saving himself cause he decided not to make several runs he should have. Titus was fun, Henderson is so good these days, just could not connect.