The Big Picture
Colorado Rapids 2 (4-10-3, 16 pts.) defeated North Texas SC (9-2-5, 36 pts.) in a 2-0 result on Sunday night at the University of Denver Soccer Stadium. The match was highlighted by a brace performance from Honduran striker Antony García and the team’s first clean sheet of the season.
The night kicked off early with a lovely team play in the sixth minute, starting with First Team player Jasper Löffelsend in the midfield. Löffelsend found Darren Yapi on a through ball, which Yapi took a light touch on to play García on his run to the box. García collected the ball with ease and opened the team’s account in the first half.
Rapids 2’s attacking efforts continued in the second half after four substitutions were made to Erik Bushey’s side. Midfielder Marlon Vargas came on and immediately made an impact, splitting the defenders to find García for his second goal of the night in the 74th minute.
The team ended the match with 10 players after García went down with an injury in the last 15 minutes of the match. Goalkeeper Bandré did well to keep his composure, ending the night with three saves and his first clean sheet for the club.
Rapids 2 will have a bye week before taking on MNUFC2 on Friday, July 26. Kickoff is set for 6 p.m. MT at the National Sports Center Stadium.
Notable:
- First Team goalkeeper Ethan Bandré recorded the team’s and his first clean sheet of the season during the match against North Texas SC.
- F Antony García scored his fifth and sixth goals of the season in tonight’s game against North Texas SC, earning him the second most goals on the team so far this season.
- García’s two-goal performance in tonight’s game marks his second brace of the season with his first coming against Houston Dynamo 2 on June 23.
- Academy forward Noah Strellnauer recorded an assist in tonight’s game and continues to lead the team with six total this season.
- M Marlon Vargas recorded his fourth assist of the season, the second most on the team.
- First Team midfielder Jasper Löffelsend recorded his first assist for Rapids 2 and his second overall for the club during tonight’s game.
- First Team forward Darren Yapi recorded his first Rapids 2 assist of the 2024 season during the match against North Texas SC.
- M Daouda Amadou wore the captain’s armband for the first time this season during tonight’s match against North Texas SC.
- M Daouda Amadou made his 40th start for Rapids 2, surpassing Robinson Aguirre and Marloin Vargas for the second-most starts in team history.
- Colorado Rapids 2 scored its earliest goal of the season in tonight’s match with Antony García putting away the opening goal in the sixth minute.
Postgame Media Availability:
Select postgame quotes transcribed below.
COLORADO RAPIDS 2 HEAD COACH ERIK BUSHEY
On the match:
"Well, clean sheet and three points, so we are happy. I think we were deserved of it tonight, but the happiness is really in regards to, though it doesn’t equate, the many points that we have probably been more deserving of in the past weeks. For us to get the result tonight, to get a performance tonight, and really a team performance, a collective, was nice to see. I hope the guys feel good, they have earned it against a good North Texas team, so we are pleased.”
On the differences between the team’s first and second games against North Texas:
“They were different games. I thought we should have won the first game. We made a few errors, we got punished. That happens when you are playing against good teams. Tonight, we eliminated some of those obvious errors. Tonight, I thought defensively we were pretty good. I thought we kept the lines tight, we were tough to break down and their efforts to get behind us might have come from a bigger diagonal ball, maybe an early ball out from the keeper, that maybe we didn’t rotate hard enough early on. Their opportunities to go through us were few and far between. We were a bit more secure on the ball this game perhaps than last game. Both games I thought were deserved of victory, but tonight was a little bit more comprehensive. We had to regain control really after the first 20 minutes of the second half. Ultimately, Antony’s injury, which was regrettable and we will see him out for a bit, but it gave us a bit of a break, it gave us a chance to breathe, it took momentum away from the game. Even though we went down a man because we utilized all of our substitutions, it forced us to get back together, to get back to doing what was helping us be successful in the first place. Though keeping the ball became a bit more difficult, the level of discipline that I thought we showed was really positive. I much rather have Antony for the next set of games, but the way it worked out, it forced us to come together again and see out and get the result.”
COLORADO RAPIDS GOALKEEPER ETHAN BANDRÉ
On the match:
“Yeah, it was a great team performance. I thought we moved the ball really well. We stayed really compact as a unit defensively. Credit to the guys when we went down to 10 men at the end with the injury to Antony. We did really well to stay compact and it was a great team performance from start to finish.”
On his first clean sheet of the season:
“Like I said, I am going to be redundant. My mindset doesn’t really change, it is all about putting in work each and every day and eventually things will kind of turn. It’s obviously nice tonight to get that bit of sweet reward of, ‘Hey I have done all this work’, and you get a clean sheet. At the same time, credit to the guys in front of me, they made my job pretty easy. Three saves on the night and a clean sheet on the night is a pretty easy game for me, so credit to the guys in front of me.”
