The Big Picture
Colorado Rapids 2 (1-4-1, 4 pts) fell to North Texas (2-0-3, 11 pts) in a 0-2 results at the University of Denver Soccer Stadium on Sunday afternoon. North Texas found the back of the net two times in the dying minutes of the match to give the team its second win of the season. Rapids 2 found many opportunities throughout the match, outshooting North Texas 15 to 10 but the home team was ultimately unable to find the back of the net. Defender Steve Flores made his return from injury, making his first appearance of the 2024 MLS NEXT Pro season to tie him with former Rapids 2 player Connor Miller for the fifth-most regular-season appearances (34) in Rapids 2 history.
Notable:
- The Rapids First Team and Rapids 2 played their second doubleheader of the 2024 season, facing FC Dallas and North Texas SC in back-to-back matches over the weekend.
- Rapids Academy's Miguel Alvarado recorded his first start for Rapids 2 in today's match against North Texas SC.
- D Steve Flores made his first appearance of the 2024 season for Rapids 2 after coming back from injury.
- D Steve Flores tied Connor Miller for the fifth-most regular-season appearances (34) by a Rapids 2 player in club history.
- M Daouda Amadou was sent off with a red card in stoppage time of the second half.
Postgame Media Availability:
Select postgame quotes transcribed below.
COLORADO RAPIDS 2 HEAD COACH ERIK BUSHEY
On the match:
“Yeah, we have played eight competitive matches this year and that was the best of them. I am really proud certainly of the couple of wins we have had. The first one in St. Louis, the first Open Cup victory, but this game we were in control, really from almost the first minute until the last. We are young, we make mistakes but soccer wise, overall mentality, I leave with zero regrets and with great pride."
On what was missing in the final third during today's match:
“These are always tough questions because there is no magic bullet. In the first three, four minutes, we could have been up one, two- nil. Maybe we need just that little bit of momentum, but we have been scoring goals this season, not the last couple of games. It's a touch, obviously it can be a decision, like late in the game we showed opportunities with real composure in the box. Maybe if you are in the stands, you are thinking that they need to shoot it and we don't and we take the man on or make one more pass to get behind. That is the game, that really is football. That is why winning is great, that's why players make money. We will get it done. I believe that as a collective and I believe we will get the ball in the back of the net again. Today, it didn't go for us and that is unfortunate because we were deserved of more."
COLORADO RAPIDS MIDFIELDER WAYNE FREDERICK
On the match:
“I think it was a hard match. I think they disrupted what we wanted to do. I think we just had to keep playing our way, which I think we kind of let slip in the second half. They got a lucky call, and we went down to 10 (players) and it was kind of chaos from there. I think we just have to keep going and next week we have a break, so we will focus on practice and get those details right."
On where the team looks to find their confidence:
“I think just looking at the good things we do each game and focusing on making those plays more often. I think we just let details slip too much, too often in the games. If we just keep looking at those good things, those times we switch the ball, the times we get down into the box and get across, I think those chances we need to look back at and just keep doing those and we will find confidence."
