Matt Wells’ Commerce City honeymoon is over.
The Colorado Rapids lost at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park for the first time in the new coach’s tenure on Saturday night, dropping a 1-0 result to MLS Western Conference dwellers St. Louis CITY. The win gave St. Louis its second win in 11 matches this season.
In MLS play, the Rapids have dropped their last two matches and have gone scoreless in both. They haven’t won a league match in nearly a month — the April 11 bashing of the Houston Dynamo, which Colorado won, 6-2.
Still early in the season, the Rapids now find themselves in 10th place in the West and out of playoff position, having played more games than most other teams in the conference.
According to center back Lucas Herrington, the match’s lone goal in the 26th minute was the easiest the Rapids have given up this season. It was on a long ball into a gnarly headwind, which found the head of Simon Becher for a flick to Jeong Sang-Bin. Sang-Bin beat Herrington with his speed, dribbled around goalkeeper Nico Hansen — in for an injured Zack Steffen — and scored an easy one.
“The wind was tough, it was pretty strong both ways. It was different, so we had to adjust, but itap just not good enough,” the 18-year-old Herrington said. “I’ve got to cover Rob (Holding) better, we’ve got to win first contact. Itap one of those where we’ve got to be better and it shouldn’t happen again.”
The bigger issue happened in the second half, particularly after the team went down to 10 men for the third time this season. Rob Holding received a straight red card in the 51st minute after pulling down Becher. The play was deemed to be a denial of an obvious scoring opportunity (DOGSO), and the video assistant referee did not intervene.
Wells sat calmly on his bench upon seeing the replay, confident it would go to VAR and be overturned. The stands reached a new decibel with boos. Holding headed to the locker room early anyway.
“I think itap an incredible decision. … On the sideline, I (wasn’t) speaking to any officials (in the moment) — I’ve learned quickly that itap one of the most pointless tasks,” Wells said. “For me, the bigger frustration is VAR. We might as well scrap VAR because if you can’t sit in a booth and look at that from different angles, … To have that upheld by VAR is puzzling.”
Then, contrary to logic, the Rapids got better after that point, just like they had the other two times they’ve been red card recipients. Most of the expected goals Colorado produced (0.9 of the 1.2 total xG) came in the second half. The biggest chance of the night was on a last-ditch corner which found Georgi Minoungou’s head from point blank range, but he put the header over the bar.
“With 10 men, I thought we were incredible, and to be honest, thatap my biggest source of frustration tonight,” Wells said. “I need to analyze as to how there’s another level to go to. (It should be) impossible when we go to 10 vs. 11 that we can improve in every aspect. … Everyone’s going to another level to compensate for the fact we’ve lost a man.”
The Rapids, who are going through a gauntlet of injuries, will travel to Minnesota for a match against Minnesota United on Wednesday. Colorado will be without Holding and defensive midfielder Hamzat Ojediran, who picked up a yellow card and will be suspended for yellow-card accumulation. That could spell trouble if Josh Atencio, the Rapids’ other defensive midfielder, remains out with a head injury he sustained against Houston last week.
