Photo Credit: Corbin Elliott
Colorado Rapids welcomed Steven Gerrard, Robbie Keane and L.A. Galaxy into Dick’s Sporting Goods Park for Colorado’s home opener of the 2016 MLS season.
Match day 1 saw L.A. claim 3 points against D.C. United while Colorado fell, away, to San Jose Earthquakes.
The atmosphere inside Dick’s Sporting Goods Park was fantastic. 17,000 fans came out to see Colorado take on the star studded Galaxy, and they didn’t leave disappointed.
Colorado set the tone from the first whistle, Dominique Badji sent in a tantalizing cross in the second minute of play that fizzed through the box. Although no one connected with the cross the statement was clear. Colorado was coming out guns blazing.
Throughout the first 20 minutes of play Colorado had the better of possession but were unable to convert time on the ball into chances.
There were several attempts early on to send long balls over the top for Kevin Doyle to get on the end of. Whenever Rapid defenders had time on the ball they seemed to take a second to lift their heads up a locate Doyle, often sending balls his direction. Those attempts proved to be fruitless, and neither team was able to establish any true rhythm until around the 25th minute.
At that time that L.A. began to gain possession and to push the Rapids defense and midfield around a bit. L.A.’s best chance of the game came during this spell, when Steven Gerrard sent in a tantalizing ball from a free kick. The ball seemed to break hard and curve as it reached the six-yard box, finding Belgium defender Jelle Van Damme’s head. The header careened off the cross-bar only to be captured by Rapid keeper Zac MacMath. Colorado was lucky to escape the set piece without conceding.
Every free kick that Gerrard took over the course of the match looked dangerous, whether from 40 yards out or from off to the side of the box.
There were two yellow cards at the end of the first half as both Steven Gerrard and Colorado’s Marc Burch were booked.
At half-time Colorado presented their most recent signing, Jermaine Jones to the 17,000 plus fans at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park.
The second half began with Colorado pushing greater numbers forward. In the 53rd minute Shkelzen Gashi saw a great shot miss narrowly to the left as the Rapids looked the far more dangerous team. In the 64th minute Rapid defender Axel Sjoberg had a great chance to put Colorado up, but the chance missed again.
The midfield duo of Dillon Powers and Sam Cronin was powering the Colorado attack. Almost every chance the Colorado had was created by one of those two players.
Photo Credit: Corbin Elliott
After scoring no goals in the first 3 halves of play this season, it seemed like Colorado was ready to forget about caution and throw greater numbers forward. Colorado’s full-backs were pushed up past the halfway line at times, constantly looking for the overlap or providing support for the Rapid attack. Against an L.A. side that has an exceptional counter attack, especially with Robbie Keane in the side, it could have easily gone against Colorado. Rapid Head Coach Pablo Mastroeni was animated on the sidelines, waving his defenders forward in attack.
In the 66th minute Colorado took Dominique Badji, who had a much better game than he had had against San Jose a week earlier, off for Marco Pappa.
Colorado continued to dominate the match, especially in midfield. Colorado had a string of half chances, and the game became a little bit chippy as each side had several players booked.
Marco Pappa, much like he had against the Earthquakes, provided a spark for the Rapid attack. Pappa constantly drifted between channels making himself available and was all over the pitch, getting on the ball and playing threatening passes to his teammates. It was everything L.A. could do to keep the ball out of their 18 yard-box.
The game became increasingly chippy, defender Emmanuel Boateng received a yellow for L.A. while Jared Watts was booked for Colorado. In the 90th minute there was controversy as Kevin Doyle was booked for pushing Galaxy keeper Brian Rowe. A few minutes earlier Doyle questioned the ref about the amount of time that keeper Rowe was holding onto the ball, indicating to the match official that he believed Rowe was wasting time.
Frustration seemed to boil over for Doyle in the 90th minute when Rowe again appeared to be deliberately wasting time, Doyle and Rowe appeared to exchange a few words as they came together, then Doyle pushed Rowe who attempted to make the most out of the situation and fell to the ground quite easily. The official raised the yellow card for Doyle, who may have been lucky to escape without seeing red.
Five minutes of stoppage time were added to the end of the match and those five minutes proved to be pivotal in deciding a winner. In the 95th minute, Pappa send in a ball to Kevin Doyle on the edge of the 18 yard-box, which was deflected into the air in the middle of the box. Galaxy defender Daniel Steres attempted to head the ball clear, but instead the ball came down directly in Pappa’s path. Pappa didn’t even let the ball touch the ground, volleying it toward goal. The ball thundered off the bottom of the cross bar before ending up in the back of the Galaxy net.
It proved to be the decisive kick, as well as the last kick of the game. Colorado claimed 3 points and the Galaxy will head back to the west coast empty-handed.
The game seemed to have been won in midfield. L.A. has superior midfielders, but they weren’t able to boss the game they way there were expected to. The reason may have been tactical. L.A. came out in a 4-4-2 formation while Colorado played a 4-3-3 that acted as a 4-5-1. That extra man in midfield for Colorado seemed to make a huge difference. Either Dillon Powers or Sam Cronin always seemed to be free, ready for a pass and ready to make a run though the midfield.
Both Rapids midfielders created a number of chances for their team, often dropping deep to take possession of the ball and then having a clear lane to dribble up field and play a threatening pass.
In the 77th minute, Galaxy boss Bruce Arena took off last week’s MLS player of the week Mike Magee, but instead of fortifying his midfield opted to introduce another attacker in Rafael Garcia.
It was decisions like that substitution that allowed Colorado to continue to attack, as they had for the majority of the match.
In the end Colorado deserved the three points they took away from the game. The Rapids had eight shots on goal to the Galaxy’s one, and they kept the pressure on until the very end. If the game had ended in a tie Colorado supporters would have felt hard done. Colorado attacked all game long, showed a lot of quality in midfield against a team that is, at least on paper, far superior. Rapids fans will feel encouraged that an off-season signing helped give the Rapids three hard fought points.
