The Big Picture
The Colorado Rapids (15-7-10, 55 points) lost their penultimate road game of the regular season, 1-0, against the Supporters’ Shield-winning New England Revolution (22-4-7, 73 points) on Wednesday at Gillette Stadium. The match saw Drew Moor become the second players in club history to reach 200 appearances in Burgundy (Pablo Mastroeni). Colorado, who clinched a playoff berth last weekend, can still clinch home field advantage in the first round of the Audi 2021 MLS Cup Playoffs with a San Jose win or draw against Portland or a Sporting KC win or draw against LA Galaxy later tonight. The Rapids face another quick turnaround, visiting Houston Dynamo FC on Sunday, Oct. 31.
Notable:
- D Drew Moor made his 370th career MLS start, becoming the sixth outfield player in MLS history to reach the milestone. It was also his 200th appearance with Colorado, joining Pablo Mastroeni as the only players in club history to reach the milestone.
- M Cole Bassett made his 70th appearance in MLS, second-most by a Rapids Academy product in MLS with the club.
- D Lalas Abubakar made his 60th MLS appearance with Colorado.
- F Andre Shinyashiki tied a career high with his 18th start of the season.
- M Collen Warner made his 10th start of the season.
- Tajon Buchanan scored for New England, helping the Revs break the MLS single-season points record at 73 with the win.
COLORADO RAPIDS HEAD COACH ROBIN FRASER
On the match:
“I thought it was a pretty even game for the most part. Obviously they’re a good team, some very good attacking players. Their movement in the attacking end was very good. I thought we dealt with that fairly well for most of the game and then on the other side we created a few half chances, a couple of really good chances late. In the end, they were a little bit more clinical and that’s what led to the result. Lots of positive performances. Again, some lessons learned. Never too late to learn lessons, even this late in the year. Things that’ll certainly help us down the stretch.”
On Drew Moor’s performance in his first start of the season:
“Drew was really good. The only way that you can perform that well if you’re not playing consistently is professionalism and the way you approach training. Whether Drew’s playing every week or playing sporadically, he treats every moment in training like it’s the most important moment in the most important game. Because of that, he can step into games like this and do well.”
COLORADO RAPIDS MIDFIELDER MARK-ANTHONY KAYE
On the match:
“I thought we played pretty well considering we came here against the top team in the league in the standings. In the first half, the guys did a good job of really nullifying their attacks and also keeping the ball pretty well. In the second half, the game opened up a little more for both teams. It just came down to which team was going to be more clinical. When they got their chance, they got one chance where I felt like we actually did a good job in the box controlling Tajon [Buchanan], but he’s a good player and he got the shot off and scored. After that, and before that, we created some quality chances that we just need to see them go into the back of the net. At the end of the day, it’s unfortunate that we didn’t get the result that we wanted coming here but very proud of the way the guys played. Again, New England is a top team in the league and we went toe-to-toe with them, so that means something for us.”
On the impact of the substitutes:
“When you bring on players like Jonny [Lewis], [Dominique] Badji, and Mikey [Barrios], it gives you a lot of people who can run in behind and exploit the space behind their back line. That was definitely something we wanted to add when we were moving the ball side to side. In the first half, the guys did very well to get into the final third. We just needed some runners in behind. You think about Jonny and Badji and Mikey, they’re very attack-minded players who want to get behind back lines. I think it was a good adjustment from the coaching staff.”
