Hurtado scores late as 10-man ’Caps draw Rapids
VANCOUVER — Erik Hurtado scored in second half stoppage time as the 10-man Vancouver Whitecaps salvaged a 3-3 draw with the Colorado Rapids on Saturday.
Shkelzen Gashi buried a stunning free kick after earlier converting to put Colorado ahead 3-2 midway through the second half.
After the Whitecaps had fought back to tie the game 2-2 despite being down a player in the 70th minute on Pedro Morales’ seventh goal of the season, Gashi curled a shot from 30 yards out over the Vancouver wall and past the outstretched hands of goalkeeper David Ousted in the 75th.
Gashi cooly sent Ousted the wrong way from the spot in the 57th minute to make it 2-1 after Vancouver defender Kendall Waston was shown a red card for bringing Rapids striker Badji down on a breakaway.
Badji scored in the first half for Colorado (12-5-12), while Waston tied it at 1-1 for Vancouver (9-14-8) five minutes before being sent off.
The Whitecaps have just one victory over their last 11 games in Major League Soccer (1-6-4) and likely needed to run the table over their four remaining league games to have any shot at the playoffs.
While not yet mathematically eliminated, the situation is bleak after starting the day six points back of the final post-season berth in the Western Conference.
The Rapids, meanwhile, are just 1-2-4 in their last seven games as they continue to fight for tops in the overall standings.
Badji took advantage of some sleepy defending to open the scoring in the eighth minute.
Rapids midfielder Sam Cronin played a simple ball over the top to a streaking Marlon Hairston after he got in behind Whitecaps defender Jordan Harvey.
Ousted charged forward in an attempt to cut off the chance, but could only take out Hairston, who fed Badji just before the collision for an easy tap-in for the striker’s fourth of the campaign.
The sequence was a microcosm of a season for the Whitecaps where critical errors at key times have cost them.
Colorado nearly doubled its lead six minutes later on a corner, but Eric Miller’s header rattled Ousted’s bar and stayed out.
The Whitecaps gave 15-yearold midfielder Alphonso Davies — the youngest player in North America’s top league — his first MLS start, and the teenager got B.C. Place stadium buzzed after a galloping run moments later, before firing a shot over Tim Howard’s goal.
The Whitecaps came out with renewed energy in the second half and tied the score in the 51st minute when Waston scored his third of the season on a header off a corner.