The Big Picture
Colorado Rapids 2 (1-5-1, 4 pts) fell to Austin FC II (2-2-2, 8 pts) for the first time during the MLS NEXT Pro regular season after a 1-2 result on Friday night. Colorado's Marlon Vargas found the back of the net in the 51st minute for his fifth goal of the season but was sent off with a red card just two minutes later, bringing the home side to ten men for the remainder of the match. Vargas' goal marked him as the fourth highest goal scorer in the league for 2024 and etched his name in the Rapids 2 history books, scoring the third-most goals (10) for Rapids 2 in club history.
Notable:
- GK Ethan Bandré made his first appearance for Rapids 2 since signing a MLS contract on April 25, 2024.
- D Steve Flores made his first start of the 2024 season for Rapids 2 after coming back from injury.
- D Steve Flores surpassed Connor Miller for the fifth-most regular-season appearances (35) by a Rapids 2 player in club history.
- M Marlon Vargas surpassed Oliver Larraz and Darren Yapi for the third-most goals scored (10 goals) in Rapids 2 history in tonight's match against Austin FC II. His season total now stands at five goals, placing him in fourth place in the league for goals scored.
- Rapids 2 broke their two-game scoreless streak with a goal from Vargas in tonight's match against Austin FC II.
- M Marlon Vargas was sent off in the 52nd minute with a red card.
Postgame Media Availability:
Select postgame quotes transcribed below.
COLORADO RAPIDS 2 HEAD COACH ERIK BUSHEY
On the match:
“Tough game. Credit to Austin FC for the result. I am proud of our players. I thought the fight in the second half was exceptional. I think we are deserved of more in the game but that is football. We will take the lessons from tonight and try to do better next weekend."
On the strides made by the team in tonight's match:
“There were signs of growth tonight. The guys in the back were good and they were pushing guys but obviously it is a collective. You look at the group and it looks like a team and that is from an organizational standpoint and a spirit standpoint. I'm not sure that we have had signs of those things over the course of the early stage of the season, but tonight the signs were stronger. For me, it gives us a foundation to now really begin. You can't play the game without passion, and you can't play this game without a team. You need everybody thinking those two things. We need everybody to be passionate players and we need everybody here and tonight we saw some good signs of that."
COLORADO RAPIDS GOALKEEPER ETHAN BANDRÉ
On the match:
“I mean obviously it's tough to go down, I think 52nd or 53rd minute, go down a man. I think we showed a really good response coming out of halftime. Honestly, when we went down a man, the guys showed a lot of grit, a lot of togetherness. We stayed compact and made it tough on them. Honestly, we had a couple of chances to score at the end, even going down a man. I am proud of the performance we put in and the response we showed in the first half."
On lessons learned in the early part of the season:
“Obviously, the second team is about development, so it's about younger guys getting opportunities. Honestly, it is about making mistakes and learning from those mistakes. It is just part of the process. Sometimes you will see mistakes in games, but we are growing from that, building from that and working every day to fix that. It is just part of the process."
