Rapids Skid Continues Against the Whitecaps

Rapids Skid Continues Against the Whitecaps by Chris Brown

The struggling Colorado Rapids hosted Vancouver Whitecaps in a Cinco de Mayo bash on Friday night, at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park.

The two clubs met three times in 2016 with Colorado winning once and the other two meetings ending in draws.

The last goal Colorado scored in MLS was at home in a loss to against Real Salt Lake on April 15th. A diving Kevin Doyle header put Colorado ahead early in the match only to see Real score twice in the final ten minutes of the match to end the Rapids 19 game home unbeaten streak. Since then Colorado has lost twice on the road to Minnesota United and Orlando City, failing to score in either match.

Vancouver had won two of their last three entering the match against the Rapids. On April 14th the Whitecaps beat defending Champions Seattle Sounders 2-1 at BC Place before beginning a four game road trip. The Whitecaps then lost 2-1 against the Timbers at Providence Park before topping Montreal Impact 2-1 at Stade Saputo on April 29th.

Tim Howard returned to action for the Rapids following the keeper’s three match ban earned on April 9th in a 3-1 loss to Sporting KC. Bobby Burling started at center back next to Jared Watts in place of Axel Sjoberg, who is still out with a hamstring injury. Mohammed Saeid started on the left wing, Shkelzen Gashi on the right wing, while Kevin Doyle dropped into the number ten role with Alan Gordon leading the line as striker.

Vancouver is still without Marco Bustos, Christian Dean and Kyle Grieg, but Brek Shea was listed as questionable. The Whitecaps starting lineup had plenty of attacking firepower as Christian Bolanos started as left winger while the ever prolific striker Fredy Montero started up top.

In the early stages of the match neither team seemed able to get a foothold. Errant passes in the attacking build up for both sides stymied any threat on goal and in the early stages and the match was bogged down in midfield.

Vancouver appeared more than happy to let Colorado’s offense have the ball and allowed them to progress as far as the final third of the pitch before any Whitecap defenders even thought about coming out to close down the ball. Colorado’s reputation proceeded itself and the Whitecaps were daring Colorado and their struggling offense to break them down.

Vancouver created a decent chance in the 20th minute after Tony Tchani played a clever one-two with Christian Bolanos and was in on goal from the left wing. Tchani looked to cross hard and low to the center of goal but his cross deflected and Tim Howard had to dive low to his near post to save the deflection.

Without Marlon Hairston or Dominique Badji starting on the wings Colorado lacked any kind of vertical threat and Vancouver found it easy to stay behind the ball. Mohammad Saeid playing on the left wing was ineffectual in the first half as he had little supply and little outlet to play the crisp passes he’s made his name on.

Colorado had a decent chance at the end of the first half when Saeid streaked down the left wing and crossed into Kevin Doyle, who was able to rise above his defender to get his head to the ball. Doyle is lethal when given space and time to head the ball but this time Jordan Harvey was able to get in Doyle’s way just enough that the Irish International’s shot rose high and over the bar.

At halftime the score remained level at zeros with neither team taking control of the first half and both clubs only managing a few half chances to take the lead.
Both teams came out of the locker room with no changes.

Christian Bolanos looked like the most dangerous player on the pitch for Vancouver and was able to dribble at the Rapid defense several times, always looking to pick out a teammate instead of attempting to shoot himself.

The Whitecaps were the brighter of the two sides coming out of the half an began finding space just outside the Rapid penalty area to play short passes and open the Colorado defense up, they just lacked the final pass to pick out an attacker in the area.

Colorado’s best chance of the match came in the 55th minute when Mikeil Williams cross was sent in to the box where both Alan Gordon and Kevin Doyle were waiting. Doyle rose to meet the ball but was hauled down from behind by a Whitecap defender. The ball landed at Alan Gordon’s feet only for Jordan Harvey to attempt to clear the ball, sending it on goal, but the ball bounced off the right goalpost and was cleared for a corner.

The match opened up significantly after that with both teams playing end to end soccer in search of the opening goal. Stretched, Colorado allowed the Whitecaps to play on the counter and Fredy Montero looked very dangerous making runs off the shoulders of the Rapid defense.

In the 62nd minute the Rapids nearly took the lead after Shkelzen Gashi, who was having a fine match, cut in on his favorite left foot just outside the Vancouver penalty area tried to curl the ball into the top left corner of David Ousted goal, missing just wide.

In the 67th minute Colorado used their first sub and brought on Dominique Badji to replace Kevin Doyle who had little effect playing behind Alan Gordon. Badji’s pace was a potential avenue for Colorado to open Vancouver up, especially with fresh legs late in the match.

Just two minutes later Brek Shea come onto the match in his first action since picking up an injury on April 5th.

Throughout the match both teams tried several shots from distance as the opposing defenses were happy to sit in tight and allow space outside the 18 yard box, but none of the long shots from either side troubled the keepers.

In the 73rd minute Marlon Hairston came on for Alan Gordon. Another pacey player that can stretch the Whitecap defense in an increasingly open match.

In the 84th minute the match finally found a goal when Jared Watts and Fredy Montero clashed in over a cleared ball. The ball bounced out of the 50-50 challenge and Sheanon Williams played a through ball to Brek Shea who recognized the opening and took off down the field. Shea was through one on one with Tim Howard and kept his cool to slot home into the right corner of the Rapid goal, past Howard who left his line to challenge Shea.

Colorado nearly leveled a minute later through a Dillon Powers shot that found it’s way through traffic, but narrowly went wide of the left post.

In the 88th minute further insult was added when Mekeil Williams received his second yellow card after a crunching tackle on Nicolas Mezquida and was sent off the pitch.

At the final whistle Vancouver had won 1-0 and Colorado skid continued.

The result means that the Whitecaps move to fifth in the Western Conference on 13 points ahead of the weekend’s matches while the Rapids stay rooted to the bottom of the Western Conference on 4 points from 8 matches.

After the match Pablo Mastroeni was complementary of Shkelzen Gashi saying he “Played his best game as a member of the Colorado Rapids,” and said it was his first “complete performance.”

Mastroeni also talked about the ball that struck the post for Colorado saying “We need a break, we need something to go our way.” He continued to say that “being opportunistic is a confidence thing and right now I think we’re missing that.”