With five yellows and a red, referee Allan Chapman had a busy night
Colorado’s 0-4 romp in Texas earlier this month hung over the rematch like the environmental presence of a refinery over a south east Texas town.
For a while the Rapids looked decent and Dallas seemed to exhibit a sense of tentativeness. That passed and the first half was relatively equal though a pale shadow of the quality of their last encounter.
Fabian Castillo lit up a cold Denver night with a moment of supreme quality in the class that only Obafemi Martins has been producing so far. He waltzed through several bemused Colorado defenders with the ball seemingly connected to his foot by elastic.
He then glanced leftwards towards a packed penalty area and, ignoring all the men in better but more tightly marked scoring position, found Mauro Diaz who converted the opportunity.
Dallas were on course to restart their winning streak so sharply halted by Seattle, Portland and Colorado.
Just before the hour mark, referee Allan Chapman issued Blas Perez with a straight red for something he did to Drew Moor off the ball. Chapman had a clear view of the incident but the failure of the Univision coverage to show a second angle left users none the wiser. Perez’ right arm did appear to be stretched out to the full to make contact with Moor, and Chapman was well positioned. Neither did Perez receive much sympathy from Oscar Pareja and the bench as he went upstairs.
The on form and influential Nick La Brocca provided the equaliser after a long ball from Lucas Pittinari reached Dillon Powers. His header found LaBrocca who leveled.
Perez owes his teammates an apology. He cost them a win and will miss the Texas derby in Houston on Mayday. He should not be surprised if the MLS Disco extends that to the crucial Galaxy game thereafter. Their poor run of five points in five games may continue and they will watch Seattle and LA inch ahead of them after such a good start.
The Rapids will be disappointed that they did not take advantage of either the red card or altitude and this cannot be seen as a good result although LaBrocca’s performance will have pleased Rapids head coach Pablo Mastroeni.
They travel to NYRB and LA Galaxy for the next two games. For a side whose only win has been on the road this year, that might not be as bad as it sounds.
Attendance 12944
Gallery by Corbin Elliot
