COMMERCE CITY — It was a familiar story for the Rapids on Friday night. They played well. They were entertaining and dominated play for much of the game. They created good scoring chances. They didn’t win.
And this one, a 1-1 draw to an FC Dallas team they beat 4-0 on the road two weeks ago, put them in the MLS record book. They now are winless in their last 10 home games, a streak that extends back to July 25. That ties the league record set by the Chicago Fire in 2011.
“These guys are winners,” said second-year Rapids coach Pablo Mastroeni. “We’re learning as we go. At the moment we’re not getting the breaks, but I promise you this: We put forth an effort like we did in that game, create as many chances as we did in that game and in the last few games, we will be a very good team in this league.”
Throwing numbers into the attack as they did last week in a 3-1 home loss to Seattle, the Rapids created two great chances in the first 30 minutes of the game. The first came when Nick LaBrocca hit the post with a blast from outside the penalty area in the 10th minute. In the 28th minute defender James Riley fed a beautiful through ball on the right wing to Gabriel Torres, whose cross presented Juan Ramirez with a chance on the doorstep of the goal, but he couldn’t get a good foot on it.
Some confused play on Colorado’s back line presented FCD forward Mauro Diaz with a wide-open shot 10 yards from the goal three minutes later and he coolly buried it to give the visitors a 1-0 lead.
Much of the credit for that goal belonged to Dallas midfielder Fabian Castillo, the MLS player of the week, who made a dazzling run down the right side of the pitch into the penalty area that pulled most of the Rapids defenders to him, leaving Diaz unmarked on the left.
The Rapids caught a break in the 59th minute when FCD forward Blaz Perez was sent off with a straight red card for a foul on Rapids center back Drew Moor, who wound up flat on the ground.
“He knocked me down,” Moor said. “The ref’s looking right at us. I saw him do it to James Riley as well. I’ve been guilty of doing stuff off the ball as much as anybody. It’s just a matter of him getting caught this time.”
With the man advantage, the Rapids pulled a goal back in the 79th minute when Vicente Sanchez nodded a ball to LaBrocca at the edge of the goal area, and he tallied the equalizer.
It was relief to avoid another loss – Colorado is now 0-2-2 at home this season – but still a frustrating result.
“We need to win games like this,” Moor said. “It’s my responsibility to say that as the captain of this team. Dallas is a good team. I thought even before the red card we were the much better side. But at home, you have to put a game like that away. It’s very frustrating.”
The Rapids now face a tough travel week with a road game against the New York Red Bulls on Wednesday and a game at Los Angeles next Saturday.
“We took control of the game early, had some opportunities to capitalize – one off the post,” Mastroeni said. “We did enough to get in front of that game and get in control. One or two plays caused us a little bit of havoc and they scored on one of the two plays that they were dangerous on.
“We felt we didn’t get what we deserved in that game.”
John Meyer: jmeyer@denverpost.com or
