A 2-0 lead with 20 minutes remaining and another whole-hearted display were not enough to see Rapid through to the next round of the cup as they went out 6-4 away to Vale Longo. Gardner Jimmy Rudd Martin Taylor Parke Orr Kingsbury Kobylecki Jones Weavers Subs: Kemp, M Plunkett Rapid made a decent start to the game, creating a couple of half chances to worry the home side. When the hosts looked to respond they came up against a solid and well organised defensive effort from Rapid. When possession was lost players were quickly getting back behind the ball and limiting the options of their opponents who often found their attacking moves fizzle out. The downside was that Rapid weren’t applying pressure at the other end of the pitch. The support to Weavers was often scarce and this point was addressed when the sides went in 0-0 at halftime. Rapid’s solid defensive performance had given them a good base to build from and early in the second half they put themselves infront. Good work from Kingsbury and Weavers saw the latter tee-up Kobylecki for a shot from the edge of the area that had too much behind it for the ‘keeper to deal with. Needing a goal Vale Longo started to commit numbers forward but were still generally finding Rapid a tough nut to crack. Taking advantage of the home team’s attacking intent Rapid made it 2-0 when Kingsbury played a superbly weighted through ball between centreback and fullback which Parke raced on to and finished clinically at the near post. For a brief moment things were looking very good for Rapid but the home side pulled a goal back almost immediately from the restart. They then managed another before the fulltime whistle to take the game to 30 minutes of extra time. Rapid were understandably disappointed to have let their 2-0 lead slip away but still felt they could go on to win the game. Unfortunately, it was the home side who gained the momentum in extra-time when they made it 3-2 from a freekick. They put themselves 4-2 ahead before Kobylecki once again found the back of the net from the edge of the area. 4-3 and it had become quite the cup game. Vale Longo made it 5-3 with a well taken low finish but Rapid came back again. This time Martin tapped in from close range following a scramble from a corner. Going into the second half of extra time 5-4 down Rapid knew the game was not lost but they had put so much into the game already tiredness was starting to take hold. They almost got themselves on level terms when Martin controlled the ball majestically but was unable to poke his shot beyond the goalkeeper. Instead the 10th goal of the game came for the home team. A fine finish into the far corner and by this stage, after almost 2 hours of football, Rapid had run out of time, energy and ideas. Much like last week it was a mixed bag of feelings after the game. A third consecutive defeat and 16 goals conceded in that time was a source of disappointment but it still felt like Rapid had given a good account of themselves. GP
Posted on: Mon, 23 Sep 2013 21:28:39 +0000
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