The Big Picture
The Colorado Rapids (3-11-10, 19 pts) fell 4-0 to LAFC (11-6-7, 40 pts) in their first game in over three weeks. New signings Rafael Navarro and Sidnei Tavares saw their first MLS minutes with the Rapids since joining the club during the Secondary Transfer Window. Colorado will next face Minnesota United FC on Wednesday, Aug. 30, in their second trip of a three-game road stand.
Notable:
- F Rafael Navarro made his MLS debut with the Rapids tonight, starting and playing all 90 minutes. The Brazilian Designated Player joined the club on loan from S.E. Palmeiras in July.
- M Sidnei Tavares made his MLS debut with the Rapids tonight, starting and playing 45 minutes. The U22 Initiative signing joined the club on loan from FC Porto earlier this month.
- F Diego Rubio surpassed 10,000 MLS regular-season minutes tonight.
- D Danny Wilson recorded his 119th start as a member of the Rapids, surpassing Paul Bravo for eight-most starts in club history.
- D Keegan Rosenberry recorded his 135th appearance as a member of the Rapids, surpassing Paul Bravo for ninth-most appearances in club history.
COLORADO RAPIDS HEAD COACH ROBIN FRASER
On the match:
“Disappointing in the fact that we talked about how dangerous they are in transition for a number of weeks now, and to give up goals in transition and chances in transition as we did tonight was really disappointing. I will say that I think that's one of the most talented attacking teams I've seen in the history of this league, and for us to compete, we needed to play with the right mentality. I thought the second half was much more urgent on our part, and we were able to disrupt them quite a bit. In the end, we needed to probably make a few better decisions in the final part of the field, but the urgency of the second half has to be the standard for us. And that was a big difference from the first half for me, but it's extremely disappointing, but if we, as I just said to the team, we have to learn from this, and that's the only thing that's acceptable is to play with that level of urgency that we did in the second half.”
On the club debuts of Rafael Navarro and Sidnei Tavares:
“Rafael is a really good player. He's a really good player. His mentality is first-class. He works unbelievably hard, showed that he can hold the ball under pressure. I mean, [LAFC defender Giorgio] Chiellini is as good and experienced a defender as there has ever been in this league and Rafael showed that his body positioning is good, his ability to hold the ball, his ability to combine. Certainly would like to have seen us get him more opportunities to actually go to goal, but his work rate was impressive, and I think he's a very, very good player. Sidnei [Tavares], it's a tough game to get thrown into. Obviously given the way and the standard of LAFC, it's a tough game to come into as your first game away. I thought he had some good moments. I thought he had some loose moments, but certainly we are continuing to work with him in his fitness and getting accustomed to the league and the players around him, and that sort of thing.”
COLORADO RAPIDS FORWARD RAFAEL NAVARRO
On the match:
“We did a first half that was below what we wanted to do, and we improved in the second half, but in the final actions, we have to do better.”
On Rapids midfielder Sidnei Tavares and his debut with the club:
“Sidnei is a very skillful player. Everybody that's here in the team is very skillful. That's why they're here. And he has a lot of potential to help us, but what was lacking was that we don't have the rhythm together after this long break, so like I said before, it's the final action that we need to improve so we have to go back to training and improve the final action.”
