Sometimes when it rains it pours. Such is the feeling in Commerce City, Colorado. The “Iron Man” of the Colorado Rapids, Drew Moor, will miss the rest of the season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and lateral meniscus. Moor suffered the injury in the opening minutes of Sunday night’s 4-2 loss to DC United. The Rapids are also missing their other starting center back Shane O’Neill. With the loss of Moor, Colorado’s already porous defense just became the equivalent of a hole in the Hoover Dam.
Having given up 11 goals over the last four games, the Rapids have looked ill-fit for the remainder of the MLS season. Now they will have to rely on rookies Jared Watts and Grant Van De Casteele. With Watt’s inconsistency and Van De Casteele’s relative newness to the Rapids defense, he has not played a single minute for the team in 2014, Colorado will be forced to try and patch the gaping hole that is left in the middle.
What had been a pretty consistent backfield for the majority of the year will now become a rotating cast of characters unless Watts and Van De Casteele can take a big step forward.
Moor’s loss not only affects the defense, but the entire team. As the Rapids Captain Moor has lead the team, but now Colorado will need to find someone to jump into that role. Dillon Powers immediately jumps to mind as a replacement, but it could be argued that Clint Irwin may get tapped for that role as well. In either case they will have big shoes to fill.
Colorado currently occupies 7th place in the Western Conference just three points off of the final playoff position held by the Vancouver Whitecaps. They are in the midst of a four-match losing streak and have ten matches remaining but the schedule is not in the favor of the Rapids.
The Los Angeles Galaxy come to Dick’s Sporting Goods Park for a mid-week clash on Wednesday before matches with Seattle Sounders, Portland Timbers, Real Salt Lake and a trip to the Los Angeles Galaxy round out the next month.