The Big Picture
Diego Rubio scored against his former club as the Colorado Rapids (1-3-3, 6 pts) earned their first win of the season on Saturday night at Children’s Mercy Park. William Yarbrough recorded his career 29th regular-season shutout for the Rapids, matching the all-time club record held by Matt Pickens (29).
Notable
- F Diego Rubio opened his 2023 account with the game-winning goal in the 68th minute of the match. It was his 14th game-winning goal as a member of the Rapids, adding to the all-time club record he set last season.
- GK William Yarbrough recorded his 29th shutout for the Rapids tonight, tying Matt Pickens for the most shutouts in club history.
- The Rapids are unbeaten in their past three matches with tonight’s road win.
- Robin Fraser recorded his 100th regular-season game as Rapids head coach tonight.
- F Darren Yapi delivered his first MLS assist on Rubio’s game-winning goal.
COLORADO RAPIDS HEAD COACH ROBIN FRASER
On the match:
“Just really proud. Really proud of the team. I thought in the first half, we had some really good moments, but it’s a very, very difficult place to play. I’ve thought for over 10 years this is one of the hardest places to play. They’re a very good team. They’re very well organized, and the crowd here when they get rolling, this place is really, really tough to deal with. And they were rolling in the second half, so I was really proud of how we dug in and fought. Like I said, I thought we had some really good moments in the first half, and in the second half, we just fought, and sometimes, when you’re on the road, that’s what you have to do to get points, so really proud of the team. Really proud of their effort tonight.”
On Diego Rubio’s form:
“So, Diego was extremely good in preseason, extremely sharp—trained really hard, was really fit, looked really sharp in front of the goal. And then he gets his injury, and in that time period, while it wasn’t a very long injury, it’s still enough to lose your fitness, lose your sharpness. And I felt like when he came back, he was still working into this. I think I talked about this maybe after his first game, before he left for Chile for the national team, and he wasn’t as sharp as he was in preseason, which is to be expected. He had taken some time off. He’s coming off of injury. He hasn’t touched a ball much. I didn’t think he was particularly sharp then. I thought last week he looked more like himself, but really not back to where he was, and again, completely expected because he had been out for a while. And this week in training, to answer your question, he showed signs that Diego’s coming back, and he had some really good, really sharp moments in training this week. And I thought from the very first, I think it was the first touch that he had tonight, where he held the ball up and turned two guys and dribbled out of it. And I thought, ‘Hmm, Diego seems to be where he was.’ And throughout the night, really good moments of quality, very diligent in what he was asked to do defensively, and I cannot say enough about the goal—the effort to get to the ball, the composure, the choice, the actual choice of how to strike the ball. It was a real moment that I felt like Diego making a statement that he’s back, and for us, we’re really excited about that, really excited about having Diego returning to peak form because when he’s good, he’s really dangerous for us.”
On building off of the past two performances:
“I think without a doubt, it’s building on the last two performances. I thought we were excellent both ways against Austin. I thought we defended well against LAFC. We could have been a little sharper on the attacking end. I thought the first half tonight, we played well. Second half, they did a really good job of stepping up pressure on us. Our connections weren’t as good in the second half, but you play games on the road against good teams in tough environments, sometimes it looks like this. So, this win is every bit as gratifying as a win where we would have had 90-percent possession. In some ways, it’s more gratifying because if you play well, you feel like you should win. At times when you get pinned in, and I thought Kansas City did a good job in the second half of pinning us in, those are games that you can lose if you’re not really, really engaged, dialed in, focused, determined. I think you gain a lot playing really well and winning games that way, but I think you also gain a lot when you fight. And this is what we did tonight, absolutely fought, and against a good team, lots of good players, tons of service into our box, and our guys just didn’t flinch. We bent, but we did not break, and it’s a really gratifying feeling because at the end of the day, when you can work your way into a victory on the road, I think it’s another way of building confidence.”
COLORADO RAPIDS FORWARD DIEGO RUBIO
On the match:
“It’s very important to win. We always say, sometimes, especially away, that it doesn’t matter how we win. I feel like the defenders made a great game. I think some guys stepped up huge, especially after [Andreas] Maxsø has been starting every game, he had a head injury. That’s huge when one of your leaders goes down. It’s a huge impact to see him like that, but I think we won for him. We needed that win, so that’s huge. We defended well and we all did what we should do, away, so that’s good.”
On scoring the team’s game-winning goal:
“It meant a lot. I feel like if we didn’t win, we had the pressure. I think they had the pressure, too, to win this game. They haven’t been winning, playing very good, but we know how dangerous they are and how many good players they have playing here at home with their fans. As soon as I scored the goal, I was like, ‘I’m going to go and celebrate it.’ It was a team effort today. We always say forwards are meant to score. It’s a little bit more difficult especially in away games. I think if you saw the game, if you watched the game, we need to do a lot of defending, track the defenders. Max, Jon [Lewis], myself, need to track the sixes. It’s a lot. It’s a lot, but like I said, it’s a team effort today. I scored the goal, but it feels like we scored the goal as a team. The entire team, the guys who come to the game—Kévin Cabral, I know how difficult it is for sure for him to come in six, seven minutes and to give max effort. I feel like it’s not my goal, it’s the team’s goal.”
