Rapids bad night began before game even started

To say the Colorado Rapids feel slighted about Friday’s controversial 3-2 loss to Sporting Kansas City in the MLS is Back Tournament might be an understatement.

The club’s evening-long feud with MLS officials started before the match even began, when Rapids officials say they were forced to stay on their bus for 30 minutes amid lightning strikes in the area while Sporting stretched and prepared for play in its locker room.

Because MLS wanted to start the game on time, the Rapids were allowed only a truncated warmup, with kickoff pushed back just five minutes. Players even had to dress on the bench with no time to get to their locker room, according to the team.

It’s hard to say this had any impact in the short-term, since the Rapids came out of the gates flying, and Kellyn Acosta scored six minutes in.

But it’s easy to see how the bizarre pregame could have negatively affected their moods from the start and maybe even contributed to the two red cards shown them later in the night.

The always feisty Diego Rubio made his first start of 2020, and 22 minutes in he was given a yellow card for unsporting behavior by referee David Gantar.

Rubio’s screams — as he drew five fouls against Kansas City — were echoed later by a frustrated Nicolas Benezet, who drew four fouls of his own as well as a caution when one of his stray elbows made contact with a Sporting player.

Danny Wilson was shown a red card in his 2020 debut for denial of an obvious goal-scoring opportunity 16 minutes into the second half. Leaving the Rapids down to 10 men, Sporting quickly leveled the match at 1-1.

Moments later, Kansas City was awarded a penalty kick for a VAR reviewed handball. “The ball made contact with Rubio’s right arm in the COL penalty area,” Professional Referee Organization (PRO) said in a post-match email to reporters. “The arm was raised and extended in an unnatural position creating a barrier for the ball.”

Sporting capitalized, taking a 2-1 lead and virtually flipping three points in less than 10 minutes. Following the restart, Rapids captain Jack Price decided he had enough and was shown a red card after screaming something at the official.

The Rapids went down to nine men for nearly 30 minutes after that, including stoppage time. They shockingly scored to even the match at 2-2 but conceded one more tally and dropped the contest.

Post-match, head coach Robin Fraser wouldn’t say much beyond that he did not agree with the call. Some players took to Twitter to voice frustrations. Andre Shinyashiki retweeted a meme that implied MLS commissioner Don Garber was in cahoots with Sporting, while Benezet tweeted directly at the commissioner.

“Hey @thesoccerdon next time try to get some real referees, no fake please,” his tweet read. “I never seen that in my life.”