Dominique Badji put the Colorado Rapids up early against the New England Revolution on Saturday (photo credit: Corbin Elliott)
March 4th, 2017 – Major League Soccer is back and the Colorado Rapids welcomed New England Revolution to Dick’s Sporting Goods Park for week 1 of the 2017 regular season.
Last year Colorado exceeded expectations finishing second in the Supporter’s Shield standings and exiting the playoffs in the Western Conference Finals, but the majority of experts are expecting the Rapids to regress in 2017.
New England just missed the postseason in 2016 finishing level on points with Philadelphia Union, just missing the final Eastern Conference playoff spot because of goal differential.
Colorado started the match with the same 4-5-1 formation they employed to great effect in 2016 with Kevin Doyle leading the line and Dominique Badji and Marlon Hairston playing on the wings. Dillon Powers started in Jermaine Jones’ spot as creative midfielder and Zac MacMath started in goal in place of the still injured Tim Howard. Dillon Serna was named as a substitute for the match, earlier than expected, after coming back from an ACL tear that saw the young midfielder miss half of the 2016 season. Shkelzen Gashi wasn’t named in the line up as he continues to deal with an Achilles issue that has plagued the Albanian International since last season.
New England started with a 4-3-3 formation with Kai Kamara playing as the right forwar. Kamara didn’t reach the same heights in his first season with New England as he had with Columbus Crew in 2015, but a new year, after having time to gel with his new team, could mean greater returns. New England’s talisman and captain Lee Nguyen started on the right side of midfield.
Both team had weapons on the bench as Teal Bunbury will be an option for Jay Heaps and Alan Gordon starts the match on Colorado’s bench.
Colorado started brightly creating a chance on goal in the 2nd minute when Kevin Doyle crossed hard and low from the left wing just leading Marlon Hairston a little too as the winger was unable to o latch on to Doyle’s cross.
Six minutes later some lovely circular build up play from the Rapids saw Hairston square the ball from the right wing to the top of the box where the on-rushing captain, Sam Cronin, saw his first time shot spray wide left of Cody Cropper’s goal.
Colorado held possession well early on and New England struggled to penetrate the stout Rapid defense.
The first yellow of the math came in the 14th minute when Revolution midfielder Chris Tierney hauled down Dominique Badji after the speedy winger got around him following a goal kick and was barreling down on goal.
Kei Kamara had a couple of quality chances against the Rapids on Saturday but was unable to convert (photo credit: Corbin Elliott)
New England’s first chance of the match came in the 16th minute after Jared Watts got caught ball watching and Kei Kamara who drifted off the defender’s back shoulder to the far post and was picked out by a lovely cross from Kelyn Rowe on the right wing. Kamara brought the cross down and took a touch before firing on goal. Zac MacMath stood his ground and got a strong palm on the shot to deflect it away.
In the 37th minute Colorado nearly scored when Marc Burch crossed from the left wing and picked out Kevin Doyle at the near post. The Irishmen headed his effort toward Cropper’s near post but the keeper got his fingertips to the ball and pushed it wide.
Marlon Hairston, listed as a defender in 2016 and re-designated as a midfielder for this season, was by far the most dynamic player on the pitch in the first half. Hairston’s speed and movement as well as his vision were the creative force for the Rapids attack and he looked a threat anytime he had the ball in the attacking half.
The match went to halftime level at zero but Colorado will feel they should have been ahead. At halftime the Rapids had 56% possession an had outshot the Revolution four shots to two.
The second half began where the first half left off with Colorado keeping possession and looking the more dangerous.
Following a Revolution foul near the right corner Dillon Powers sent a free kick into the box and picked out Kevin Doyle. Doyle nodded the ball toward the far post only for it to careen off the post and back into the center of the box. Jared Watts, up from defense for the free kick, kicked/shinned the ball into the air and Dominique Badji rose to meet the ball on it’s decent, heading it past Cropper for the opening goal.
After the Rapid goal New England finally grew into the game and maintained possession in the attacking third for the first time in the match. Kai Kamara stationed himself in the center of the box and New England peppered the Rapids with crosses from the wings looking for Kamara’s iconic hairdo, but were unable to get past the twin towers of Axel Sjoberg and Jared Watts.
In the 64th minute Colorado thought they had gone up even further when Sam Cronin sent a cross to the far post and Badji headed the ball down to Doyle who slotted the ball home into the right corner. Dick’s Sporting Goods Park erupted in celebration only for the referee to disallow the goal because Badji had gained an advantage through a push in the back.
The game continued to open up significantly and both coaches exhausted their substitutes. Dillon Serna saw his first action since tearing his ACL and Alan Gordon came on, to chants of “Gordo” in the 83rd minute for his Rapids debut.
Je-Vaughn Watson came on late and was excellent attacking for New England. Watson’s pace and clever skill on the ball gave the Rapid defense problems and he worked give and go’s well to allow himself to send dangerous crosses into the box, but Sjoberg and Watts were able to keep the crosses from causing Rapids Keeper Zac MacMath any problems.
After four minutes of extra time the whistle blew and the Rapids came away with a 1-0 victory in their 2017 home opener. It was very much last season’s formula working again for Pablo Mastroeni’s men. Grab the lead and then shut down the game with a solid defensive performance.
Colorado were the better team on the evening and deserved to come away with all three points.
Rapids coach Pablo Mastroeni as always looking dapper in his Saturday best (photo credit: Corbin Elliott)
After the match Pablo Mastroeni was asked about his teams play in spite of injuries to Shkelzen Gashi and Tim Howard. “It’d be nice to have a full roster to select from, but what we’ve been able to do as a group is root each other on when we’re not there, believe in each other and really fight hard for one another. And I think that’s cliché, I think it’s kind of cheesy, but it’s old school team, it’s old school team. Everyone understands their roles really well and understands their responsibilities and understands how not living up to that standard can cost us a game. I think the guys today were fantastic and it was a very good performance to build on.”
