VANCOUVER, British Columbia — The 10-man Vancouver Whitecaps took advantage of Colorado’s late own goal to tie the Rapids 3-3 on Saturday.
Whitecaps striker Erik Hurtado’s header rebounded off the crossbar, deflected off Rapids defender Marc Burch and just over the line in the third minute of stoppage time.
Rapids head coach Pablo Mastroeni said the loss is the toughest the team has faced all season. Instead of three points for a win, the Rapids walked away with one point and a tie.
“I don’t think it was entertaining at all,” Mastroeni said. “I think we dropped two points. I think we had this game under control. Unfortunately, one of the things we take most pride in is defense, it let us down today.”
“Itap definitely been the toughest result we’ve taken all year,” he said. “Again, I think we played some fantastic stuff tonight, we really did, and I think coming to a place thatap very difficult to play, I think. Again, Gashi was fantastic, we had some good attacking play today, but the one thing that we pride ourselves in is being difficult to play against, and tonight against 10 men we were poor.”
Shkelzen Gashi scored twice for Colorado, making it 3-2 midway through the second half. Badji also scored for Colorado (12-5-12).
Pedro Morales and Kendall Waston also had goals for Vancouver (9-14-8). Watson was sent off with a red card for bringing down Badji on a breakaway in the 56th minute.
Rapids goalkeeper Tim Howard stormed off the field immediately following the match.
“I don’t blame (Howard),” midfielder Michael Ariza said. “I think we could have done a better job to close down the game. We were in control of the game, but we just didn’t close it down, so I don’t blame him to walk off the field.”
