Rapids Comeback to Beat Oklahoma City in the U.S. Open Cup

Rapids Comeback to Beat Oklahoma City in the U.S. Open Cup by Chris Brown

Colorado Rapids welcomed USL side Oklahoma City Energy to Dick’s Sporting Goods Park for Colorado’s first action in the 2017 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup.

Oklahoma earned a spot against the Rapids in the fourth round of the Cup, the first round to incorporate MLS clubs, by beating Colorado Springs Switchbacks 2-1 on May 31st.

Rapids Head Coach Pablo Mastroeni started a heavily rotated side against the Energy with eight changes from the starting line up that played against Columbus Crew ten days prior.

Rapids Captain and starting goalkeeper Tim Howard and defender Mekeil Williams were both ruled out as they return from international duty with the U.S. Men’s National team and Trinidad and Tabago. Shkelzen Gashi was held out as the winger recovers from a hamstring injury he sustained in Colorado’s dramatic 2-1 win over Columbus Crew on June 3rd and Caleb Calvert, a rotation player who should have played, was held out with a head injury.

Zac MacMath started in goal for the Rapids while Dillon Serna made a surprise start a left back for Colorado, an unusual spot for the midfielder. Dennis Castillo started on the right side of the back four while Sam Hamilton, Jared Watts, normally a defender, and Dillon Powers rounded out the midfield. Alan Gordon started as the man up top with Josh Gatt to his left and Ricardo Perez on the right of a 4-3-3 formation, a formation Pablo Mastroeni has rarely used in his over three years in charge of Colorado.

Colorado, expectedly, applied pressure on the Energy backline from the first whistle an had several decent chances in the opening 30 minutes with a Dillon Serna rocket into the side-netting the best the early efforts.

The Rapids looked muddled in attack with several players getting in each other’s way. Jared Watts in particular looked out of place playing outside his normal center-back position on the right side of midfield. Watts kept drifting deeper and more central in the pitch and Colorado was forced to build up through the left side of the pitch, though Dillon Serna and Ricardo Perez misfired on a number of simple passes.

In the 38th minute the match found a breakthrough though it wasn’t the side people were expecting to find it. After a failed Eric Miller cross was cleared out of the Energy box Oklahoma broke on a counter attack. The three on three counter was lead by Daniel Jackson who spread the ball out wide left to Daniel Gonzalez who had been the Energy’s best player to that point. Gonzalez cut inside fooling and wrong footing Dennis Castillo and was able to coolly slot a shot past Zac MacMath to the bottom right corner to give the underdogs the lead.

Just minutes after the goal Bobby Burling had to leave the pitch injured after clashing with an Energy player in the Energy area.

While Colorado were a man down the Energy took advantage to go up two goals to nil. Once again it was Daniel Jackson who provided an assist when he squared the ball from the right wing to the top of the box, picking out Philip Rasmussen who sent a side footed shot past the diving form of Zac MacMath into the bottom left corner of the Rapids goal.

At halftime the score was 2-0 in favor of the Energy and Colorado were reeling.

Pablo Mastroeni made some half time adjustments moving Jared Watts back into the centerback position where he’s far more comfortable, which made sense following the injury to Bobby Burling at the end of the first half.

In the 49th minute Colorado got one goal back through Dominique Badji. Alan Gordon found Dennis Castillo on the right wing and the defender sent in a lovely cross to Badji who was charging in at the six yard box and the Rapids forward calmly found the bottom right corner of the Energy goal to give Colorado a way back into the match.

In the 60th minute Pablo Mastroeni made his second change of the game bringing Marlon Hairston on for Jared Watts.

In the 66th minute Colorado leveled the match following a period of heavy possession in the Oklahoma City half. The Rapids earned a corner kick and Dillon Powers sent in a good ball to the far post where Eric Miller was able to get a boot on an Alan Gordon flick on from very close range and steer it into goal for the equalizer.

Following the goal the Rapids used their final substitution to bring on Kevin Doyle for Alan Gordon in the 67th minute.

Energy keeper C.J. Cochran did well again in the 88th minute, making himself big to stymie a Dominique Badji breakaway giving the Rapids a corner kick, but was unable to do anything on that ensuing corner when Dennis Castillo was able to get on the end of Dillon Power’s corner to nod Colorado in front. Castillo, short in statue, had no one marking him and had unlimited space to get on the end of the corner and kept his cool to score his first goal for the Rapids with just minutes remaining in the match.

The match ended with Colorado escaping a disastrous first half to score three in the second and escape with a 3-2 win in the fourth round of the U.S. Open Cup.

After the match Pablo Mastroeni talked about his team’s character saying “At halftime it was about a response, it was about making sure we went out and approached the game the right way. One goal at a time. And the guys were fantastic in the way they approached it.”

Eric Miller talked about his first ever goal for Colorado, the second Rapid goal that leveled the match in the 66th minute, “We’ve been dangerous on set pieces all year, Gordo [Alan Gordon] got a good flick on it and I got lucky I was at a great spot at the back post.” Miller acknowledged that the move had been one the Rapids had been working on that week in training and joked that “there’s goals to be had there. Guys try to flick stuff to the back post, you can score goals they way I did where you just get to tap it in. If, you have a guy like me there who can not miss from that spot.”

The Rapids will now prepare to face Portland Timbers Saturday evening at Dick’s Sporting Good Park as MLS action resumes for Colorado.