COMMERCE CITY — With a deft touch of his right foot to control a pass by Marco Pappa, followed by another to flick it into the back of the net last Saturday, Luis Solignac helped lift the Rapids to their first winning record since July 2014.
Granted, it’s early in the season for the Rapids (2-1-1), and they barely hung on for a frantic 1-0 win over Toronto FC despite playing all but 13 minutes of the game with a one-man advantage, but they needed that win and Solignac needed that goal.
The Rapids are likely to need more from him over the next few weeks too.
The slender Argentine forward joined Colorado last season, spent much of it idled with a hamstring injury and had not scored until Saturday, when he took the place of injured striker Kevin Doyle, one of the team’s two high-priced “designated players.” Doyle is likely out for several weeks after suffering a deep gash in his leg while playing for the Irish national team two weeks ago, presenting Solignac with a big opportunity to help the team.
“Every new league (requires) an adaptation in many things — altitude, weather, social life,” Solignac said. “I think at this moment I’m getting there. I feel adapted with my teammates and the life outside the locker room.”
Solignac appears to have established a special rapport with Pappa, his road-trip roommate and the team’s creative force in midfield who is also from Latin America (Guatemala). Pappa repeatedly found Solignac in dangerous positions Saturday night.
“We have many things in common because we are from the same culture,” Solignac said. “He’s a really good player. He sees things that others don’t see. I’m aiming for those runs because I know he’s going to try to find me.”
Their affinity for each other’s movements is obvious, making both of them scoring threats along with those around them.
“Marco has an uncanny ability to pick out a very good pass,” said coach Pablo Mastroeni. “The focus was making sure Luis is threatening the back line and stretching that defense in order to create space underneath for guys like (Shkëlzen) Gashi and (Dillon) Powers and Marco. You can’t really teach that type of pass. I think Luis is getting more comfortable with the timing of his runs. It looks to be a pretty good partnership between the two of them.”
Solignac quickly became a starter after joining the Rapids last May but injured his right hamstring in July and spent nearly two months out of the lineup. He tried to come back after three weeks but was reinjured and missed another month.
“It’s sad because nobody wants to be injured,” Solignac said. “I came from Argentina, and if I am here, the only thing I want to do is to play football. If I can’t, I feel useless. It’s tough, because that’s everything what we do, we come here for that, so if you are off the pitch there is nothing to do here.”
It was tough for Mastroeni to watch Solignac go through that last year, as it is now for him to watch Doyle deal with his unavailability.
“These are the guys I’d want to play with,” Mastroeni said. “We have two of the most team-oriented forwards in Luis and Kevin Doyle. These are guys that you root for, because (they know) it’s bigger than them. They play like that, they train like that, and in the locker room they carry themselves like that. It’s an infectious mentality.”
Solignac said he trained hard in Argentina over the offseason to put the hamstring problem behind him and it feels good now. That could be key for the Rapids while Doyle is on the mend, because Solignac has a lot of talent.
“You know what he’s capable of, I think he just needed an opportunity,” Mastroeni said. “For him to step up was huge. I think he had a fantastic game beyond the most important thing, which was the goal.”
John Meyer: jmeyer@denverpost.com or @johnmeyer
