The Big Picture
Colorado Rapids 2 (12-2-5, 45 pts) suffered its second loss of the season in tonight's match against Sporting KC II (9-5-5, 35 pts). This is only the second time this season that Rapids 2 has been held scoreless in a match. Midfielder Jackson Walti was the highlight of the night, making his debut with Rapids 2 after subbing on in the 71st minute of the match.
Notable:
- Rapids 2 suffered its second loss of the season in tonight's match against Sporting KC II. The team's only other loss this season came at the hands of Tacoma Defiance in a 2-1 loss at the University of Denver Soccer Stadium.
- Midfielder Robinson Aguirre passed the 1,000-minute mark in tonight's match against Sporting KC II.
- Midfielder Jackson Walti made his first appearance for Rapids 2 in tonight's match against Sporting KC II, subbing on during the 71st minute.
Postgame Media Availability:
Head Coach Erik Bushey
Rapids 2 Midfielder Dillon Serna
Select postgame quotes transcribed below.
COLORADO RAPIDS 2 HEAD COACH ERIK BUSHEY
On the match:
“Yeah, obviously it was a disappointing result. Kansas City did a good job, came out strong, put the ball in the back of the net and punished us for our errors. That is what we expect from this league. It was a long, hot first half that became just a bit longer and hotter on the heels of a week that we expended a great deal of energy if you go back into the Austin game. These things add up. Where we were disappointed to give up two goals, we tend to believe we can come back from games. With just a slightly shortened second half, we tried to put together a game plan or set guys up where we could get some success. The soccer had some really bright moments. Obviously, as we push, we may leave ourselves vulnerable. We did and if we made mistakes in how we protected the ball, these guys (Sporting KC II) punished us. They had a couple guys that were more than capable of doing that. They had one player that might be the best attacker we have seen this year. It is a difficult game to swallow, but a wonderful game to learn from."
On the team's performance in the final third:
"Kansas City deserves credit. They got their bodies in the way. They got crucial deflections, crucial blocks. They got a lot of people back to protect the goal. When they needed saves, they got them. I think they deserve a great deal of credit because we had some pretty good attempts and certainly some nice chances. Again, when you are in the box, it is an inch or two one way or another, maybe it's a half step or two in terms of timing. I think some of the chances we created, I wouldn't fault our players for it. I give them (Sporting KC II) credit for their defending. Ultimately, if one of those goes, I think the game can change. We probably could have scored three, four goals and we could have lost the game 6-5 because it was pretty wide open and too wide open for our liking in the second half. That is the game. Today we didn't put the ball in the back of the net, so we feel a little bit worse because of that."
On the lessons learned from the loss:
"Well, there are positives everywhere if we talk about us learning. It is better to have a difficult setback tonight than in October. The positive is that we got humbled. The positive is if we didn't know already, we are forced to learn and forced to become better to finish out the season. I think we knew that games are going to get progressively more difficult because teams are improving, and the season is getting longer. I would give the guys maybe just a little bit of slack perhaps just this one time. I think they have worked so incredibly hard that on a night that things don't go our way, fair enough. The game of winning is not meant to be easy. They will be hurt, but they will rebound. They really don't have any other choice and they are too good of players with too high a level of character to let this set them back too far. It is a difficult result to swallow."
COLORADO RAPIDS 2 MIDFIELDER DILLON SERNA
On the match:
“Obviously, it is a disappointing result. We have gone down multiple times this year and have had to come back. I think that not many people are going to think we are going to come back every single time. I think we need to get off to a better start and not allow them to score the first one, two or even three goals. In reality, we are not going to come back from many of those games. We have done it a lot this year and those have been good results for us. I just don't think that is a sustainable game plan. We can't rely on coming back every single time."
On the team's mentality at halftime and after the weather delay:
“Coming out of halftime down 2-0, like I said, we have been in that position before and we were confident in the first five to 10 minutes. Coming out of halftime was very positive and then the same thing coming out of the rain delay. We were creating multiple chances. I think we were playing very well the first 10 minutes after the rain delay. I think them just getting that third goal just really killed the game. At that point, it was always going to be an uphill battle from there. The first five minutes after the first half and the first 10 to 15 minutes after the rain delay was very positive, so we will look to build on that."
On the lessons learned from tonight's match:
"Yeah, I think it is obviously a lot easier to look at last week and say we can come back from 3-0 down and win the game. Like I said, that is not going to happen every week. From the first whistle, we have to be organized, we have to be clean and just don't allow ourselves to get into that hole. From the beginning, we need to be clean and it's a lot easier when we can get that first goal. I think the week after the Tacoma game was one of the best weeks we have had of training. I expect that to be the same this week. It is a little bit of a shorter week since we play on Saturday, but we are at home, and we are definitely looking forward to getting three points."
