Danny Wilson scored in the first half to help the Colorado Rapids (12-4-8, 44 points) pick up a 1-1 draw against Vancouver Whitecaps FC (7-8-9, 30 points) on Sunday at DICK’S Sporting Goods Park. Wilson picked up his second goal of the season when he headed home Jack Price’s corner delivery, giving Price his team-leading ninth assist of the season. The match saw Designated Player Younes Namli return from injury and make his first appearance since May 8. The Rapids extended their unbeaten streak to 10 games and are now unbeaten in their last 11 at DICK’S Sporting Goods Park.
Notable:
- Colorado extends its unbeaten streak to 10 games, its longest unbeaten run since April to July of 2016, when the Rapids went 8-0-7 (W-L-D) across 15 matches en route to their best regular season finish ever. The Rapids are unbeaten in their last 11 at DICK’S Sporting Goods Park.
- Danny Wilson scored his second goal of the season with a header in the 28th minute, tying a career high. Wilson made his 22nd start of the season, tying a Rapids career high set in 2018, his first season with the club.
- Jack Price earned his team-leading ninth assist of the season when he curled his corner delivery to Danny Wilson for the opening goal. Price’s assist was his 29th in MLS with Colorado, tying Ross Paule for third-most in club history. It is Price’s second consecutive match with an assist and his third in his last five games.
- The Rapids’ goal was their 10th off a set piece this season. Colorado leads MLS with 38 goals off set pieces since 2019.
- Keegan Rosenberry made his 150th career MLS start and his 74th since joining the club ahead of the 2019 MLS season.
- Kellyn Acosta made his 190th career MLS appearance and his 73rd since joining Colorado in 2018.
- Jonathan Lewis made his 30th career MLS start and his 24th since joining the club in 2019.
QUOTES: HEAD COACH ROBIN FRASER
On the club’s three consecutive draws:
“I’d be a lot more concerned if this conversation was: we scored three goals in the 90th minute to just barely get a tie. My point of that is that we’re doing a lot of things well. We’re creating chances. We’ve taken leads in all three games. It's really how you look at it, right? Glass half full, glass half empty. For me, we’re doing a lot of things really well and we’ve had a few breakdowns that have led to goals against us. I would much rather be in that position than [when] we’re scrambling, we can’t create chances, we can’t create goals and we just manufacture something at the end to eke out a tie. Can you imagine if these three games were that way and we’ve gotten the same amount of points? [T]he feeling would certainly be different. Right now the feeling is we do a lot of things really well. We are able to create some chances. We should probably score more goals, but we are able to create some chances and as long as you can create chances and not give away a multitude of opportunities, then you give yourselves a chance. I’ve never seen a team be really successful where everything just goes on a positive trajectory the whole season. So I look at this and go, we have to get better at certain things, but while we are learning these lessons, we are still acquiring points. Not as many as we want to be, but we’re still acquiring points.”
On the team’s mentality and impact from substitutes:
“I look at tonight and Diego [Rubio] and Younes [Namli] came on and gave us a lift. I thought Andre [Shinyashiki], in particular, did really, really well when he came on. Just so much energy. Won some balls defensively. Immediately got into two or three positions where he could’ve scored, created chances and I wholeheartedly believe that that is a strength of this team, is that there are so many good players with good attitudes who are prepared to give everything they have whether it’s 10 minutes or 90 minutes. You hear me say this every week, that’s what I love about this team is that there are so many guys who are not just talented, but are prepared to play and prepared to give their best every week and I think it’s a real testament to the mentality and to the personalities on this team.”
MIDFIELDER YOUNES NAMLI
_On making his first appearance after four months away:
“I feel good. I feel great. Of course, it’s different to get game minutes again. It’s been almost four months, around four months since my last game. Of course I could feel that but physically I feel really good. My ankle feels good. I just want to build on those minutes I got today. I’m grateful to be back with the group and I hope to get stronger every single week.”
On the team’s performance in the second half:_
“[I] think for me I could see that Vancouver got tired in the second half. Me and Diego [Rubio], we came in with the thoughts of just putting a lot of pressure on them and try to create as many chances as possible to make it difficult for them. Don’t let them breathe, put them under pressure. I think we did that. The whole team they did that before we came in so that’s why they were tired when we came on the field. When we came in we just tried to do our best. I think we did it. We created good opportunities to close the game. Second half, like I said, we just have to be more clinical. Hopefully next time we can get those chances in the back of the net.”
On the club’s third consecutive draw:
“It’s football, you know. Sometimes the ball goes in, sometimes it doesn’t. You can say, yeah we did draw the last three games, but we’ve been really close, especially today. If you look at the game, everybody has that feeling of, ‘How did we go out of here with a draw?’ It’s a problem when you don’t create chances, when you don’t play well and you just have to sit back and defend the whole game, then it becomes a problem. But we had plenty of chances. We created good chances, we played pretty well. We just have to be more clinical. We haven’t lost in a long time so that's a positive thing too.”
