RAPIDS: Colorado comes up short with 3-2 loss to Vancouver in Conor Casey’s coaching debut.
COMMERCE CITY» Conor Casey’s coaching debut did not go as hoped. Named interim head coach on Wednesday, the Rapids legendary goalscorer could not help to stop the bleeding. Downed 3-2 by the Vancouver Whitecaps, the Colorado Rapids (0-8-2) are now winless in the first 10 matches of the season.
The Rapids came out hot, garnering a corner kick and a scoring chance in the game’s opening minute. Soon they cooled as the half wore on, the sun set and their hopes turned to despair. Vancouver kicked them right where it hurt, attacking a woeful backline, that even adjustments couldn’t save, as the Rapids issues compounded late and the Whitecaps stole three road points.
Colorado did have a flurry on each side of halftime that included two penalty kick scores from Kei Kamara, several corner kicks and several shots to boot. The flurry ended with Colorado going down a man on a red card in the 78th minute as hope was sucked out of the 10,794 Dick’s Sporting Goods Park for good.
The scoring got started in the 17th minute when Vancouver’s Fredy Montero slid one past Tim Howard far-side. Montero got a beauty of a ball from Lass Bangoura that caught Axel Sjoberg in a terrible spot leaving him all alone on goal in the box.
Eight minutes later Montero was deep in Colorado’s territory attacking from the left side of the box as the Whitecaps tried to capitalize on a two-on-two counter attack. Lucas Venuto got a step on a hustling Sam Vines and Montero beat Sjoberg. The forward laid a low cross around Howard that Venuto leftfooted to the top of the cage which gave them a 2-0 lead 25 minutes into the match.
A Rapids burst to end the first half which featured corner kick after corner kick eventually forced Montero to take down Kellyn Acosta inside the box. Kamara capitalized against his former club, faking left and striking right he cut the lead in half just before the break.
The start of the second half was a mirror image of the end of the first. Off of a corner, Brett Levis bumped Sjoberg out of the air and after video review was called for a penalty inside the box. Again Kamara took it for the Rapids and again he scored. This time beating Maxime Crépeau with a strong shot right to equalize the game at two apiece.
Diego Rubio received a red card in the 80th minute and the Rapids were playing with 10 men. Moments later Vancouver’s Bangoura put what appeared to be the go-ahead goal in the back of Colorado’s goal yet video review called it back due to offsides on Andy Rose. Rose made up for it though. Not but five minutes later Rose scored the game-winning goal for real in the 88th minute as he nailed a shot from the center of the box off of Howard and into the goal.