The Big Picture
Connor Ronan struck the bar while Moïse Bombito had a curling effort saved as the Colorado Rapids (2-7-6, 12 pts) were unable to overcome Dominique Badji’s first-half goal that saw Supporters’ Shield-leading FC Cincinnati (10-1-3, 33 pts) come away with all three points on Saturday night.
Notable:
- M Cole Bassett substituted into the match in the 77th minute of tonight’s match, marking his first appearance after suffering a hamstring injury during the Rapids’ match at Charlotte FC on April 15, 2023.
- F Calvin Harris made his first start as a member of the Rapids, earning the nod against his former club, FC Cincinnati.
- D Moïse Bombito made his third MLS appearance, substituting into tonight’s match in the 46th minute. Bombito was drafted with the third overall pick in the 2023 MLS SuperDraft by the Rapids.
- Rapids 2 midfielder Yosuke Hanya made his second MLS appearance, substituting into tonight’s match in the 46th minute.
COLORADO RAPIDS HEAD COACH ROBIN FRASER
On the match:
“Yeah, it’s disappointing in the end to not get a point out of it, but I just I can't speak enough about how hard this group is working and we're so thin right now and guys are doing 90 minutes every three days, and the effort was fantastic. A miscue led to the goal against and here we are. I mean, obviously they're a good team. They've been very good all year and they've been clinical in the moments they needed to be clinical. And they were tonight. I thought the first half we didn't play—we didn't really play, we turned the ball over too much, we put ourselves under pressure, we weren't really as threatening as we needed to be. And I thought the second half we were quite good. Had three fantastic chances, unfortunate not to score any of them. And we know that we have to turn those moments into goals if we want to be able to get results.”
On bad luck affecting the team’s morale:
“It feels like every single thing goes against you. I feels like every deflection goes to them, more into our goal. When we get deflections it goes out of bounds. So, it's again, I don't ever want to sound like I’m making excuses, regardless of our situation we have to get points. But it does—I think it's a good question. It's a really good question because when you're on this side of it, it feels like everything is going against you but you can't allow yourself to wallow and feel like ‘oh, the refs are against us, this is against us, that's against us.’ You can't really allow yourself to wallow, but I think if everyone does in the back of their mind [think], ‘ah we just need a break.’ But part of it is we know we have to earn the break. And we have to finish one of these chances and we have to execute defensively, and we did for the most part, and on that particular play we made a few poor decisions and didn't execute in the moment defensively. And for us to get out of it, the feeling is we have to be perfect. And while perfection is unattainable, it is absolutely what we have to strive for. We have to be as clean as possible defensively and in the moments where we create good opportunities like we did at times tonight, we have to have the composure to put them away.”
On being within a few games of a playoff spot:
“Yes, 100% because that's the important thing I think about, the feeling right now. It's not like, for as poor a start as we have had record wise, the league hasn't really run away from us. I know, every week it gets a little bit farther away. But I still feel like because we feel like we're in touching distance. I mean, before this stretch of losses we were so, so close to being right into the playoffs or above the play offline. And to be honest, I haven't looked recently, but it is something that we know that if we can and this is a—I don’t know if it's this league. I was going to say this is a funny league. You put together three, four, or five games in a row and then all of a sudden your world looks completely different. And right now, there is that feeling in the back of my mind, in the back of the players’, coaches’ minds that we know we're not that far away, but we have to—we can't stand still and watch the league run away from us. If the league is going forward, we have to now go forward and then be able to close the gap. But it is something that gives us—I don't want to say hope. It is something that that keeps us going knowing that we're within reaching distance, but we do need to do our part. It's not good enough to be there and be close. We have to do our part to narrow the gap and actually get there.”
COLORADO RAPIDS DEFENDER ANDREAS MAXSØ
On the match:
“Yeah, of course it's a tough one. I think we played a good game, solid game. We had the chances also today. I think we are a little bit unlucky. We have to dig deep right now and keep our heads high. Sometimes it's like that and we’re going to change it.”
On only conceding one goal to LAFC, St. Louis CITY SC and FC Cincinnati combined this season:
“Yeah you're right. When we play the top teams we get really close to getting points—yeah, we also get points. Right now, I think it's a different situation. We lost some games in a row and we have, as I said, to dig deep. We have to fight for every goal. But again, every team is going to have those periods and we can work hard. We as a group are just really good with each other and I know it's going to turn around soon.”
On the team’s mentality:
“The most important thing is not to point fingers at each other, to go into every training every day [with a] positive mindset to bring energy. I mean, again, I think this game today was really good. Again, second half unlucky by not scoring goals. But again, that's football, and sometimes the team is going to have those periods. Again, we're going to change it.”
