COMMERCE CITY — Two games into their season the Rapids are winless, scoreless and undefeated.
And although they still haven’t won since July 25, they were feeling good about themselves Saturday after a scoreless draw with New York City FC in their home opener before a sellout crowd of 17,692.
Colorado opened its second season under coach Pablo Mastroeni two weeks earlier with a 0-0 draw at Philadelphia and had a bye last week. NYCFC, one of two MLS expansion teams this season, featured David Villa, the all-time leading scorer for the Spanish national team.
“Home opener, there’s a lot of excitement, a lot of nerves,” Mastroeni said. “I think the guys really took the game on with the right mentality — pressed high, forced a possession team into playing a lot of long balls, picked up a lot of second balls in the midfield. What was lacking today was the final pass or the final shot.”
Despite the lack of scoring, it was an entertaining game played under a gorgeous blue sky with temperatures in the 60s.
NYCFC scored three goals in its first two games but couldn’t break down a Colorado back line with two new players, right back Michael Harrington and 6-foot-7 center back Axel Sjoberg. Goalkeeper Clint Irwin made two saves, both on shots by Villa.
“They really did a good job of being aware of where Villa was,” Mastroeni said. “All of those guys back there did a really good job of winning balls and playing them forward into the midfield where we could break. A lot of the attacks started from their good defending back there. Clint made a couple saves that kept us in the game.”
Villa won a World Cup with Spain in 2010, scoring five of his team’s eight goals, but the Rapids kept him in check.
“Villa is always going to get his chances,” said left back Marc Burch. “The shots that he did take were forced and Clint had the angles covered. As a unit we did a good job covering for each other. If anybody slipped up, we were there. We held tight, connected, and did the things we needed to do.”
NYCFC left back Jeb Brovsky, a Green Mountain High School grad, said his team was wary of Colorado’s creativity.
“Having guys like Dillon Powers and (Gabriel) Torres and (Vicente) Sanchez, guys who can beat you off the dribble or give that cutting pass that beats the defense, you’ve got to watch them,” Brovsky said. “They’re a good team and we’re very happy to get a shutout here in Colorado.”
John Meyer: jmeyer@denverpost.com or
