We tied against Philadelphia today. We were trying to possess but we couldn’t do well as usual. We lost a ball in bad areas and we gave them chances to score. They had couple good chances in first half. I wanted to go up and provide width and help attacking but I could done only three times. With all three attacks I ended up crossing the ball but all three of them weren’t good delivery. I have been doing well in the training but comes to the game my delivery isn’t quality as in the training. I really need to train with game speed. If I can put more decent crosses, I think I will start assisting goals.
Second half we put one more midfielder to possess more but still they had more ball possession than us. We killed ourselves by making mistakes. We spent most of time defending in second half. After we scored they were still attacking. They weren’t breaking us down but they were just lunching long balls to forward over and over to get behind us. We couldn’t put enough pressure on their defenders who were kicking long balls so we had to drop a line to deal with it, but still one long ball got behind us and we conceded a goal. In this game my defense was pretty good but comes attacking I couldn’t provide enough compare to last game. When I get back to Denver I gonna work on crossing. I need to focus delivery area other than speed of ball. This was my first Philadelphia trip. Philadelphia is one of oldest city in U.S. Therefore there are many historical buildings and museums. If I had a time I want to do site seeing. And congrats to my captain Pablo Masteroni! He played most minutes for Colorado rapids in history! He is the man! I still gonna learn so much from him.
Kosuke Kimura
Kimura san, congratulations on your goal! I watched this game on a rebroadcast in Balad Iraq where I am deployed until the end of January. I am a Japanese American in the US Air Force. I don’t follow soccer, but this game caught my eye because my son is living with my sister’s family in CO while I am here. He enjoys soccer, and while we do not follow any particular team, I hope to find your jersey for him. Your speed and athleticism are phenomenal! I wish you and your team continued success!
Kosuke,
You are the man! I am a diehard Rapids fan and was sitting right behind you when you scored to send us through to the Championship! It was GREAT! On top of the goal, your defending was solid, you shut down the right side so well. I wanted to say congratulations. Your story is such an inspiration that a dream and hard work can carry you anywhere. Good luck against FC Dallas, I will be watching. Keep up the good work.
D.