Colorado has two goals called off in home opener
COMMERCE CITY>> The net bulged twice Saturday night, but the scoreboard still read zeroes after 90 minutes.
The Colorado Rapids looked dangerous at times throughout their home opener against Western Conference foe Sporting Kansas City, but neither team could score.
Midfielder Cole Bassett said the Rapids need to learn how to finish.
“We do need to do a little bit more, me and (Darren Yapi) were just talking about it moving forward. It’s a lot better performance coming off of last week, but, we need to be ruthless,” Bassett said. “We’ve got to do better in the attacking third because the defense did their job.”
For Rapids head coach Robin Fraser, it was a muchimproved defensive effort at the back from a seasonopening loss on the road.
“It felt like a disappointment that we couldn’t win at home,” Fraser said. “There were still a bunch of positives to take.”
The Rapids got off to a promising start through 18-year- old Darren Yapi, who was played in on goal in the opening two minutes, but SKC goalkeeper John Pulskamp made a brilliant save. In the 13th minute Yapi thought he scored his first-career goal as a member of the Rapids when he crashed the box on a rebound with Sam Nicholson in the box, but after Video Assistant Referee ( VAR) stepped in, it was clear Yapi was offside.
In the 27th minute, VAR had to intervene once again. On an attempt from Bassett, Yapi had a diving header but it deflected off of SKC defender Graham Zusi and the ball appeared to cross the whole of the line. On instant replay, however, VAR deemed it was inconclusive and it was waived off
Sporting Kansas City had two decent corner kick attempts but both went wide.
It went into halftime at 0- 0.
In the second half, both teams searched for a winner but with no luck.
First, it was Kansas City that had a corner kick in the opening few minutes. Keegan Rosenberry had to step in to block a shot from Daniel Salloi after he gave the ball away on a miss-hit pass.
“One of the things we talked about before the game was winning the duals in both boxes, defending in our box and with real bravery and making sure we don’t give people time,” Fraser said. “It’s very encouraging and we did spend a lot of time dealing with crosses in the box.”
Just after the hour mark, William Yarbrough made a pair of saves, first on Erik Thommy and then on Willy Agoda from pointblank range, but he was offside. Minutes later, Connor Ronan played a ball over the top to Bassett, but Pulskamp read the shot well.
Yarbrough was required again in the 71st minute after Kévin Cabral, who was making his first appearance at DSGP, was issued a yellow card and Kansas City had a dangerous free kick. Yarbrough denied two more shots in spectacular fashion to get the crowd to its feet. He finished with 11 saves.
“Will looked as sharp as he possibly could be,” Fraser said about the No. 1 goalkeeper.
Official attendance was 14,954. Colorado will hit the road to face San Jose Earthquakes next Saturday.
The game was marred by a clearly-heard homophobic chant in Spanish. It was heard on goal kicks late in the second half.
Additionally, it was heard on the Apple TV broadcast.
Major League Soccer made the Rapids aware that the chant had come through on the broadcast. Later, a club spokesperson made the following statement:
“The League has made us aware that it (was heard) on the broadcast. As a club, we obviously strongly condemn that sort of language. It has no place at our stadium, in the game, in the sport at all. We’ll be looking more into it.”