COMMERCE CITY — In a week that started off so well for the Colorado Rapids, it all boiled over late Saturday night at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park.
A 2-1 loss to the Philadelphia Union took a turn in stoppage time, with a shoving match between both teams breaking out after Michael Barrios sprinted for a ball that went out-of-bounds for a goal kick and pushed Union goalkeeper Andre Blake to the ground. Even Rapids goalkeeper William Yarbrough joined the fray from the other end of the field.
It ended in a pair of red cards, one of which was for Braian Galván and, not long after, another home loss for the Rapids — just days after they won at Sacramento Republic FC in the U.S. Open Cup Round of 32.
Colorado (2-4-6, 12 points) is winless in MLS play at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park this season, with the only win at home this season coming in the third-round of the Open Cup. The loss, which brought an end to the nine-game unbeaten streak across all competitions, was confounding in a number of ways for Rapids head coach Robin Fraser.
“We’ve historically done so well here, it’s a head-scratcher. The level of the engagement on the road has been fantastic and you always know it’s a difficult proposition to play on the road in this league,” Fraser said. “When you come home, it’s supposed to be the comforts, your friendly environment. For whatever reason we haven’t played well here, St. Louis not withstanding.”
It was the first time Colorado played since midfielder Max Alves was removed from team activities after he was implicated in an alleged match manipulation scandal. As a result, the Rapids did not set up like-for-like as Jonathan Lewis slid in centrally, while Connor Ronan and Danny Leyva were double-pivots in central midfielder.
According to Ronan, the team had a meeting immediately after the news broke and then tried to practice normally the remainder of the week. When asked, he and Fraser both thought it didn’t have any bearing on the locker room psyche and disappointing result.
“No, I don’t think (it had an impact on the result),” Ronan started. “We’re a team full of professionals. … We got told what the situation was and we moved on from it and trained as normal.”
“I don’t think so?” Fraser started. “I haven’t heard anyone really talk about it at all, maybe they have when I’m not around it’s possible. But I think when we look at tonight we all really have to look at ourselves and how we approached it. I have to re-evaluate what we tried to do and they need to re-evaluate the ability to execute it.”
Philadelphia had the better start but couldn’t take advantage. Colorado got into the match at roughly the half-hour mark. In the 37th minute, a ball was played to Diego Rubio, who took a touch and was taken down. Initially, referee Victor Rivas pointed to just outside the penalty spot. However, the Video Assistant Referee intervened and reversed the call to make it a penalty kick.
Ronan stepped up to the spot and placed a shot into the top-left corner that Blake was unable to save despite diving the right way. It was Ronan’s first goal as a member of the Rapids.
However, Philadelphia responded. After a Union build-up in the second minute of stoppage time, Carranza played a pass to Kai Wagner, who struck it perfectly into the bottom-right corner to beat Yarbrough from 23 yards away to level the score.
In the second half, Philadelphia took the lead in a classic Union counterattack. The Union took the lead in the 52nd minute, as Oliver Mbazio found a cutting Carranza who made up for a surprising first-half miss and it took a bounce and beat Yarbrough to take a 2-1 lead.
In the 62nd minute, Blake made a pair of match-winning saves to keep Colorado from finding an equalizer. First, Rubio fired off a shot meant for the bottom right corner that Blake stopped, then Jonathan Lewis had a follow-up shot that Blake saved again. Kévin Cabral rushed in looking for a potential spill, but jumped over Blake, which drew a yellow card and set things off for the first time.
Colorado had a few chances off corner kicks after that, then one last dust-up in stoppage time to punctuate a disappointing evening. Union substitute Jesús Bueno was sent off for violent misconduct once everything was sorted out, while Galván left roaring up the crowd passionately, while also chirping at the Union bench.
Colorado will travel to face Atlanta United on Wednesday.
Footnote: Moïse Bombito, a first-round MLS SuperDraft selection, made his senior-team debut late Saturday night.
