Six Straight Ls: Colorado Rapids Blow Lead at Columbus Crew, Lose 3-2

The Colorado Rapids needed something to go right. Coming off five straight losses, they traveled to Columbus Crew for a Wednesday night game.

Colorado again had nine players unavailable. Marko Ilić and Moïse Bombito made their first starts in MLS. Sam Nicholson and Bryan Acosta brought energy back from suspension for yellow card accumulation. They played in advanced roles with Jonathan Lewis up top.

The Crew had 68% possession and twice as many shots in the first half, but the Rapids were lively in transition. Nicholson scored against the run of play just nine minutes in. The Scottish winger picked off a poor back pass from Philip Quinton, ran unopposed on goal, and finished.

Lewis had several close calls where he was almost off to the races, including a no-call a half hour in in which Lewis went shouldered to the ground by Quinton.

Columbus kept finding space on their right, usually through Cucho Hernández. He found Darlington Nagbe in the 36th but the header was off the mark. Lucas Zelarayán would make it 1-1 moments later on a similar play. Yaw Yeboah got open and found him in the middle of the box for the first time finish.

Nicholson had a great opportunity in transition, missing the bottom left corner in the final minute of the half.

The Rapids lived dangerously to start the second half, especially on corners. Danny Wilson had the ball go off his arm just minutes in, but not before taking a deflection. No penalty was called. Cucho hit the crossbar in the 54th. Columbus finally took the lead, on a corner, in the 62nd. Halftime substitute Sean Zawadzki got a step in the box and headed the ball between Ilić and Nicholson to make it 2-1.

Cucho finally got his in the 72nd, combining with Zelarayán. It was a nice finish with pressure coming.

The match ended 3-2 with Cole Bassett getting a consolation goal in stoppage time.

Rapids blow lead after counter attack drops off:

The first half was in many ways one of the best of the season from the Rapids. Yes, they played like the smaller team in putting numbers behind the ball. But they created danger and capitalized on the mistakes of the opponent. That’s good preparation and execution.

It all dropped off in the second half. Zawadzki subbing on for Quinton calmed things down at the back and made Columbus better going forward. Colorado couldn’t adjust as the exploitable weakness was addressed.

There wasn’t enough of a reaction after any of the three goals conceded. It was nice to see Bassett be positive off the bench again, but it was too little too late.

“It’s not much consolation. A loss is still a loss. A 3-2 loss feels less bad maybe than a 3-1 loss. What a fantastic strike. The benefit of Cole’s goal will probably show itself in the weeks to come rather than the game tonight,” said Fraser of Bassett’s goal. “Knowing Cole, that will only fill him up with more and more confidence.”

Defending can’t outlast DPs:

Zelarayán and Hernández are one of the best Designated Player pairs in MLS. Cucho caused problems on the flanks against the more physical Abubakar. Zelarayán could only be denied for so long. Sometimes you just have to say touché.

“We absolutely have to stop conceding in those moments. It’s broken our backs so many times,” said Fraser.

Connor Ronan did well to start. Colorado’s center backs are flawed. The injury riddled midfield can only do so much to help that. Even with a 9th minute goal, the margins for error were small.

“We have to find ways to dig and grind. I can’t fault the effort. But the concentration in both boxes, even when we’re tired, needs to be better.”

“I was sloppy personally. I gave away three or four balls before the goal at the end. I don’t think our impact was good enough from the start. There were a couple goals in between. That lost our momentum from there,” Bassett added.

Bombito was a bright spot at both ends in his first MLS start. Ilić could have done better on the second goal. Saving either of the other two would have been fantastic, even for William Yarbrough.

The time for moral victories is over:

Six losses in a row. Saturday’s game against San Jose will mark the halfway point in the MLS season. This team has obvious flaws that aren’t going away anytime soon. MLS teams are easily taking advantage of those flaws.

“These two weeks have sucked. Every three days coming back pissed is not how we want to be. We go into every game wanting to win. We have the players and the coaching staff to do it,” said a frustrated Bassett.

They need to get healthy. They need to start taking advantage of the few good things they get, like scoring early when the opponent has the better start. They need results. This team and this reporter are becoming a broken records.

“We’re just putting ourselves in a hole right now. We’re going to have to start winning games at the same rate that we’re losing them right now.”

Photo Credit: Mark Shaiken.

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