Michael Barrios scored his team-leading sixth goal of the season as the Colorado Rapids (12-4-6, 42 points) tied the LA Galaxy (11-8-4, 37 points) 1-1 on Saturday at DICK’S Sporting Goods Park. Barrios opened the scoring by heading in Andre Shinyashiki’s cross. The Rapids improve to 5-0-3 (W-L-D) in their last eight overall and are now unbeaten in their last 10 matches at DSGP. Defender Lucas Esteves played 90 minutes as he made his DSGP debut.
REMEMBERING 9/11
Prior to the match, 60 recruits and their instructors from the local North Area Fire Academy conducted a stair run at DICK’s Sporting Goods Park equivalent to 110 flights of stairs—the height of the World Trade Center towers—in remembrance of the victims of 9/11.
NOTABLE NUMBERS:
- With tonight’s result, the Rapids extended their unbeaten run against the Galaxy to seven games (5-0-2).
- The result also improves the Rapids to 5-0-3 (W-L-D) in their last eight games, the longest active undefeated streak in MLS. The Rapids’ 10-game home unbeaten run is the longest active streak in the Western Conference.
- Andre Shinyashiki earned his first assist of the season on Barrios’ goal. It was his first assist since Sept. 19, 2020, also against the Galaxy. Shinyashiki scored a goal and added one assist in 46 minutes across two matches against LA this season. Shinyashiki’s assist was the fourth by a Rapids substitute in the last four games.
- Collen Warner earned his first assist since joining the club in 2020. Warner made his sixth start of the season.
- Kellyn Acosta made his 160th career MLS start, playing 90 minutes.
- Dominique Badji made his 150th career MLS appearance when he came on for Michael Barrios in the 80th minute. It was Badji’s 95th appearance with the club, tying Marlon Hairston for fifth-most by a Rapids SuperDraft pick in MLS in club history.
QUOTES: COLORADO RAPIDS HEAD COACH ROBIN FRASER
On tonight’s match:
“Really kind of an interesting game. The conditions were extremely difficult—it was probably the hottest day I’ve ever felt in the stadium. It was tough for both teams, for sure, and I think you saw that early in the first half where both teams probably didn’t execute as well as they wanted to. Definitely I think fatigue and heat had something to do with that, but I was really pleased with some of the opportunities we created early. In the second half, I thought we did a decent job of probing and trying to find ways to wear them down and in the end it was a really well put together attack that led to the goal. You go from being pretty excited about this [being] a really tough game and we find ourselves in the lead and it’s disappointing to make the mistakes that we did to give up the second goal. But this is the way it is when you play good teams. Sometimes you get punished. Overall, I think a difficult day for both teams and probably a fair result.”
On the impact substitutes have made recently:
“We’ve certainly seen that a couple of times from us in the last several games where the guys who come in, come in and lift us. Today was no exception. There was certainly energy with Cole [Bassett] and Andre [Shinyashiki] the second they came in, you felt the tempo pick up again and from Kellyn [Acosta] to Collen [Warner] to Andre [Shinyashiki]—fantastic ball, really good turn and finish by Mikey [Barrios]. Andre’s contribution was immediate and immediately evident. We’ve seen this when our guys come in off the bench. They, as I said, they give us a lift. The thing that I think is lost a little bit with us is that we have a lot of really good players. When we make changes now, we’re bringing in fresh, good players replacing tired, good players and as a result we’ve been able to affect games with the guys who have been coming off of the bench. It doesn’t make me look super smart. They’re just good players.”
QUOTES: FORWARD ANDRE SHINYASHIKI
On what he saw during the play that set up the opening goal:
“I was realizing when I came in that they were really tired [and] that they were taking a while for them to close spaces. So when I received that ball, I think it was their outside back [Jorge] Villafaña, he was taking a while to close me and so I just took a touch. I know that Mikey [Barrios] makes those runs and I know that he’s going to beat them, beat any center back or outside back, to be honest, with pace, so I just tried to put it in a good space for him to attack it. I was fortunate that the ball went there. Credit to Mikey, too. It wasn’t an easy finish and he did very well with that.”
On the team’s seven-game unbeaten run against the LA Galaxy:
“I think that in past years, we played the big-name teams and we used to be scared, used to always be unsure of ourselves. This year, we’ve really taken that step where we feel like we can go toe-to-toe with them. I just think that that mentality coming into the game gives us a lot of confidence that we can always beat anybody on any given day and so that’s what we did. That’s what we did tonight and that’s what we keep doing every week no matter if it’s the Galaxy, Seattle—we play New England this year, they’re doing well. We believe that we can beat all of these teams and so that belief and that mentality is what has carried us here and hopefully that’s what’s going to carry us much further forward.”
