First win shows team has resolve
When rookie sub Andre Shinyashiki left-booted a one-touch strike past the Los Angeles goalkeeper in the 82nd minute of Sunday’s match, the emotions that followed were a long time coming.
“I don’t think relief is the right word,” Shinyashiki said Sunday. “We feel like we’ve been rewarded.”
The Rapids finally nabbed their first win of the season in beating the Los Angeles Galaxy 1-0. Their MLS-record 11 game winless streak to begin a season, which included a coaching termination, myriad transactions and general upheaval, is finally in the past.
“I’m incredibly proud of the guys. They’ve worked so hard this season, they haven’t quit, and tonight should give them a lot of confidence,” interim head coach Conor Casey said following his first win as the boss. “We’ve been working so hard, and they haven’t stopped believing in each other, and to pull through the way we did tonight showed a lot of character, and we have a lot of games left in the season, so it should help all those guys in that locker room have confidence in what we are doing going forward and that we will be a real threat to other teams.”
The Rapids’ win captured the club’s first points on the road this season and snapped an eight-game losing streak. With three of their next four games at home, they believe that their somewhat surprising win can spur something positive.
Whether it was Colorado’s two new additions — Jonathan Lewis and Lalas Abubakar — changing the mood or something else, even during the game there was a notable attitude adjustment.
“We weren’t clinical tonight, which is unlike us,” goalie Tim Howard said after his first shutout of the year. “The one thing we have been doing is scoring goals, so can’t fault the guys up front. We created a ton of chances. Quite honestly, that goal was coming and it should have come earlier. However, they were attacking and they were giving space on the wings and we exploited it.”
The boys in burgundy had chance after chance to go by the wayside, but as was seen in Casey’s coaching debut against Real Salt Lake last week, the Rapids kept their heads up. They did end up losing the RSL match, but there was no 10-minute window during that game where the team collapsed following a bad call or bounce. Colorado carried that same energy for 90-plus minutes on the road against a team that entered the weekend second-best in the Western Conference.
“It did feel like a complete performance,” Howard said. “Even when we got the lead, our ability to see it out and be professional about it. We didn’t let them play through us. We held a decently tight line in the back, and defensively we were rock solid.”