Mastroeni: “Nothing wrong” with defense
commerce city» Just when it seemed the Rapids were going to escape Vancouver with a rare road win last week that would have tightened their race with FC Dallas for supremacy in the Western Conference, they let in a bad last-minute goal that raised questions about suddenly inconsistent back-line play.
The Rapids have been the stingiest team in MLS all season. They remain the only team allowing less than one goal per game (0.93), but that is what made last week’s bitter 3-3 result surprising. They surrendered three secondhalf goals to a team that probably won’t make the playoffs, the equalizer coming on the last play of the game.
“That was devastating,” said center back Axel Sjoberg.
The Rapids had a 2-1 lead and a man advantage in the 55th minute but couldn’t hold that lead or another one at 3-2 after Shkelzen Gashi scored a gorgeous goal on a free kick. So, what’s wrong with the back line?
“There’s nothing wrong in the back,” said coach Pablo Mastroeni. “We’ve proven it over the course of the season that there’s nothing wrong in the back.”
There were defensive mistakes on all three goals, but Mastroeni saw the problem as one of momentum. For much of the game Vancouver looked powerless to score. Then momentum shifted.
“There’s no way to interject a certain momentum,” Mastroeni said. “If it was any other sport, I’d call a timeout. I’d say, ‘Bring it in, the momentum is going their way, this is what we need to do to reset.’ Soccer is very unique in that you have to have soccer intelligence, game intelligence. Players on the field have to be able to sense it, recognize it and affect it. When momentum starts going, it takes an unbelievable amount of concentration and collective understanding to thwart that and flip it going the other way.”
Colorado’s back line also had a subpar performance last month in a 2-0 loss at New England. Between that and Vancouver, the Rapids posted a pair of shutouts, winning 1-0 at Dallas and drawing 0-0 at home with San Jose.
“There have been a couple of performances when we haven’t played to our standard,” Sjoberg said. “I think we’ve been lulled sometimes into a false sense of security.”
Sometimes goals are a combination of defensive mistakes and bad luck. On Vancouver’s final goal that came almost three minutes into stoppage time, Vancouver’s Jordan Harvey crossed a ball into the penalty area with two men on him. Sjoberg tried to head it out of danger but the ball skimmed off his head and went straight to Vancouver’s Erik Hurtado, who was being marked by Marc Burch. Hurtado’s close-range header hit the cross bar, fell straight down and bounced into the goal in front of goalkeeper Tim Howard.
“They get a cross, it flicks off Axel’s head, Burch is a second late, Tim’s almost in a position, it hits his hand and goes into the goal,” Mastroeni said. “How many things had to go a certain way in order for that ball to go in?”