The Big Picture
The Colorado Rapids held LAFC to a season-low two shots on target as they earned a point and extended their home unbeaten run against the defending MLS Cup champions to four games with a 0-0 draw on Saturday night.
Notable
- With their shutout of LAFC tonight, the Rapids continued one of the best home forms in MLS over recent years. Since 2021, Colorado is tied for the fewest home losses in the league (4).
- Tonight’s result extended the Rapids’ unbeaten run at home against LAFC to four games (3-0-1).
- GK William Yarbrough recorded his 87th appearance for Colorado, surpassing Joe Cannon for the fourth-most appearances by a goalkeeper in club history. Yarbrough recorded his 28th shutout for the Rapids tonight, which one short of the club’s all-time record currently held by Matt Pickens.
- D Keegan Rosenberry made his 200th MLS regular-season appearance. Rosenberry recorded 90 minutes tonight to reach 10,481 minutes as a member of the Rapids, seventh-most in club history and surpassing Omar Cummings.
- F Diego Rubio made his 100th regular-season appearance as a member of the Rapids, becoming the fourth forward in club history to reach this feat.
- Rubio recorded a pair of shots on goal tonight, tying him with Dominique Badji for eight-most shots on goal in club history (80).
COLORADO RAPIDS HEAD COACH ROBIN FRASER
On the match:
“I thought we started off probably showing a little bit too much respect, but they are obviously a very good team with very good expensive attacking players. So, I think a fair amount of caution was needed in the beginning, but we quickly found that there was more ability to play, more room to play maybe than we thought. And once we grew into the game, I thought we did a decent job of controlling large stretches of the game. Disappointed not to convert one of the set pieces because I thought we did a really good job, service was really good, runs were really good. We had opportunities to score there, so disappointed not to score off a set piece, but at the end of the day, to get a draw against the best team in league, reigning MLS Cup champions, there are certainly some things to be taken away from that. But at the end of the day, we're disappointed that we weren't able to convert one of our chances.”
On the center backs’ performance tonight:
“I thought they did a really good job. I think the more we see (Andreas) Maxsø, the more we realize how comfortable he is in these situations. And he's an incredibly responsible defender, and he is, unlike myself—I hated defending—he is a very, very conscientious defender. And I think there was confidence growing from him outward because he wins a lot of his battles. He wins his challenges. He wins stuff in the air. And then I think you made a good point, the communication between the three of them, they were extremely, extremely dialed in. And the attributes of the three players who play the positions for us right now are somewhat different, but it gives us different things in different parts of the field or different phases of play. Basically, Danny (Wilson)'s passing has been an important part of this team for a long time, and Lalas (Abubakar)’s tenacity has been an important part of this team for a long time. And I think when you look at the three of them on how well they're playing together, it's really about three good players learning to play with each other, having a good understanding of themselves and what is being asked of the team, so then, therefore they can transmit that information throughout the group.”
COLORADO RAPIDS DEFENDER KEEGAN ROSENBERRY
On the match:
“Yeah, I think the message after the game from Robin was we're in a much better place now and we feel like we're disappointed with a tie against one of the best teams in the league, if not the best team in the league. And I think that was a sentiment for a lot of people in the locker room tonight. I think I come away feeling like we could have definitely generated more chances to feel more dangerous, to feel like we could have scored more, but you know, we do keep a clean sheet at the end of the night again against one of the better teams in the league. So you know, there's a lot of positives to build on.”
On the team’s defensive effort tonight:
“Yeah, I feel like we built really well on last week in Austin. Another difficult place to play, a very good team, a very good attacking team. We felt like we limited them. I don't know the numbers exactly, but we felt like we limited them to very few golden scoring chances. We talked about a disappointing start to the year, and we talked about the only way to get out of it is to grind and to put the work in and to do the things that aren't easy and that starts with keeping clean sheets. Can't lose games if we continue to do that. I also think it’s all 11 of us. It's from the front, it starts with the guys up top. We talked so much about dealing with pivots who are the guys that can get on the ball and turn and make the game. [Ilie] Sánchez tonight is such an important player for them and our ability to limit the amount of time he has on the ball and the amount of times he can look forward and pick passes out to their most dangerous players that are behind us. Even such a small concept like that, the defending starts with the guys in the front, and I think they did a really good job and total team clean sheet for sure.”
