Colorado Rapids 2008 Season Outlook: Defensive Strengths

These are a few of the adjectives that have come to be associated with the Colorado Rapids.

Are they fair? Mostly they are just sour grapes on the parts of other teams. Teams earn these descriptions either by being the biggest thugs in the league or the best defenders.

Colorado has been a bit of both at various times.

The Rapids have always had good keepers—Marcus Hahnemann, Adin Brown, Joe Cannon, and currently making a bid for his place among the greats is Bouna Coundoul. Coundoul's raw athleticism hides a lot of his mistakes, but it also makes for easy, often unfair criticism by folks who look at Victoria's Secret models and complain about a freckle here or a beauty spot there.

His job is to keep the ball out of the net, by hook or by crook, and he did a very good job of that last year. We shall be looking for improvement this year, but not a great deal. My fear is that Bouna will not be with the Rapids too long. He is too young, too athletic, and has too much upside for foreign money not to lure him away from Colorado.

Add to our history of good keeping a history of very strong center backs—Steve Trittschuh, Marcelo Balboa, Peter Vermes, Robin Fraser, Nat Borchers, and Aitor Karanka. This year's team will continue the trend with Mike Petke organizing the back line, alongside Fecundo Erpen who provides man marking, speed, foot skills, and a few red cards.

The outside backs have always been the question marks on the Rapids back line. Part of that has been an adherence to a formulaic approach that says the outside back must be able to attack without leaving a gaping hole for the opponent to drive through. The other part of it is a tradition of taking college kids who historically played midfield and moving them to the backline. 

This year the Rapids have their ideal left back in Jose Burciaga, a player who can join the attack and get back to defend. He was also out of favor in Kansas City for forgetting to close the barn door while attacking. 

The right side is less settled than the left. The Rapids have a platoon of speedy young guys to throw out there: Ugo Ihemule, Dan Gargan, and Kosuke Kimura. All are fast enough to miss a tackle recover and miss another before finally getting scored on.

Gargan is probably the most rounded of the three, but he is coming back from injury. Kimura has good attacking ability, but he is pretty easy to knock off the ball. Ugo is the strongest defender, but the least safe making a forward pass.

Too many people call themselves sports fans without understanding one of the fundamentals of all sports: defense. Rapids fans need to get behind and celebrate their defenders. We have a great history of strong defenses and this year may be the strongest over all.

It's not their fault that we have less to celebrate on the offensive side of the ball.