The Big Picture
Sam Nicholson and Cole Bassett scored in the opening and final minutes of Wednesday’s match, respectively, but the Colorado Rapids (2-8-6, 12pts) were unable to come away with a result against the Columbus Crew (6-6-3, 21 pts) in their first visit to Lower.com Field.
Notable:
- Colorado has scored six goals via substitutes in league play this season. Only Atlanta United have scored more (7).
- M Cole Bassett collected his 15th MLS goal tonight and his second of the season. Bassett has scored two goals across his last five appearances (last: March 18 against Minnesota United FC).
- M/F Sam Nicholson scored his first goal of the season and his sixth as a member of the Rapids (eighth in MLS). Nicholson's ninth minute goal is the fastest goal scored by the Rapids this season.
- F Calvin Harris delivered his first assist as a member of the Rapids, his second in MLS.
- D Moïse Bombito recorded his first MLS start and his fourth appearance in MLS tonight. The generation adidas defender was drafted third overall in the 2023 MLS SuperDraft by Colorado.
- GK Marko Ilić made his MLS debut and his first start for the Rapids in league play. The Serbian shot stopper joined the Rapids on loan earlier this year from Belgian Pro League side KV Kortrijk.
- M Marlon Vargas made his MLS debut, substituting into the match in the 79th minute. Vargas was on loan from Rapids 2, the club's MLS NEXT Pro side, on a Short-Term Agreement.
- F Rémi Cabral made his MLS debut, substituting into the match in the 79th minute. Cabral was on loan from Rapids 2, the club's MLS NEXT Pro side, on a Short-Term Agreement.
- Prior to tonight's match, the Rapids had a record of 2-0-1 when scoring the opening goal on the road in MLS this season.
COLORADO RAPIDS HEAD COACH ROBIN FRASER
On the match:
“I feel like a broken record now. Obviously, disappointed in the way it went, especially given how the first half went. I thought the team defended really well, and almost every time we went in transition, we seemed like we could have scored a goal. Disappointing not to be ahead at halftime, and then in the second half, I think we saw quite a bit of fatigue. It’s a tough stretch because we’re obviously playing a lot of games. I know all the teams are playing a lot of games, but we have guys playing 90 minutes every three days for four weeks. It’s going to take its toll, and as I said to them, I understand. It’s not an excuse; I understand and part of what we have to do is we have to find ways to dig and grind, and hopefully, as we get guys back, we can freshen the team up a bit. But again, I can’t fault the effort, but the concentration in both boxes, just even when we’re tired, needs to be better.”
On Marko Ilić’s and Moïse Bombito’s first MLS starts:
“To be honest, I can’t comment on the goal because I haven’t looked back at it. I’m not 100-percent sure how that all went down. I thought Marko [Ilić] did a good job. He had a huge save early in the game on and that’s certainly one of the things that we saw as we looked at him is his shot stopping can be very, very good. Overall, I feel like it was certainly a decent game. You give up three goals, I guess it’s hard to laud someone too much, but I do think that he made a couple of critical saves. His distribution with his feet was pretty good, so I thought he did well. And Moïse [Bombito] is coming, and we see Moïse coming. It’s obviously not his debut. It’s his first league start, and if we look at what we’ve done with Moïse, he’s played a number of different positions for us, and wherever he’s stepped in, he’s done pretty well. Like I said, young players, you’re going to get some good and some bad, and with Moïse, we’re getting a lot more good than bad, but it’s still a work in progress, and I’m pretty excited about his future.”
On the team’s physical and mental state amid the current run of form:
“I do feel that they are physically tired, and I think you hit the nail on the head. When you go through a string of results like this, people aren’t the same with zero losses as they are with six losses, and the problem is you start to question yourself and you start to have doubt. And that’s the thing that we can’t allow is for the guys to stop believing because I think in every game that we’ve lost in this stretch, with the exception of probably Atlanta, that we could have won, and again, being a little more clinical in both boxes. We could have given ourselves a chance to win, so really it’s about accentuating the positives, pointing out things we could do better, but really accentuating the positives. Tonight in the first half, I thought we defended really earnestly, and it was difficult. It was a grind, but throughout, even with that difficult defending assignment that we had, guys still had energy when we broke forward to really look dangerous in transition. So, it’s really continuing to highlight the positives and make sure we have this feeling because when you lose games, like I said, you question everything. You start to doubt yourself. You start to doubt your teammates. You start to doubt everything, and the key really for us, I think, is to keep pointing out the things that we’re doing well. And it’s just very fine margins for us right now. And when you’re on this side of things, and the margins go the other way, they look massive. But it’s really about fine margins and being, as I said, a little more clinical. If we finish a couple of chances, our confidence changes and that can certainly get us on the right trajectory. By the same token, when we defend, and we defend for long stretches, guys have to really dig in and concentrate. This is a good team. [Columbus] is a good team with lots of good players, and you can’t give them time. And I thought we limited that in the first half, and in the second half, we had just a few moments that we weren’t—our concentration—wasn’t good enough, and in those moments, players can hurt you. Good players can hurt you. So, it’s very much about pointing out the things that we are doing well. In every game, we’re doing things well, but we have to put the whole thing together.”
COLORADO RAPIDS MIDFIELDER COLE BASSETT
On the match:
“First half, you know, getting a perspective from the bench—I think we didn't have the ball as much, but I thought we were composed. We kept them away from a decent amount of dangerous situations. We did give up a few big chances, but for the most part, I thought we could have been up two or three-one, two or three-nil. It's just those fine margins about finishing those chances off, and then in the second half, like just coming from my perspective, not having an impact in the game when we come on, and right away two goals given up, and then we just put ourselves in the hole. It was tough in the second half. It's these little mistakes that we keep making that are putting ourselves out of games and then we have to chase the game. And we should be the ones in control.”
On his goal and getting additional minutes after returning from injury this week:
“I was feeling really good. I thought coming into the Cincy [FC Cincinnati] game last week, I was feeling very good. I had a couple of relapses which were tough during the process of coming back. And as an injured player, when you kind of have a timeline set and then you have little stuff that pops up along the way, it’s not always easy to deal with that mentally, but last week I felt like I was in a good spot. I thought I did well versus Cincy coming in. I felt sharp, quick with the ball and stuff like that, but tonight, for some reason, I just didn’t get into the game as well and I had a couple of turnovers, but obviously the goal does give you a little bit of confidence. It’s good to know even if you’re having a tough game I can pull out moments of quality like that so I just gotta keep pushing and be more consistent and get back to my old self. But I don’t think I’m far off. For Cincy, I felt exactly how I was before, it’s just one rough patch and hopefully by Saturday I can be starting the game.”
