Raining Offsides: Rapids Have Three Goals Called Back in 2-3 Loss to Quakes.

COMMERCE CITY – Pregame rain. Former Rapid goalkeeper William Yarbrough back in town. The San Jose Earthquakes are chaos merchants. Of course this game would go full MLS After Dark.

Chris Armas returned to the 4-2-3-1 despite last game’s success. Djordje Mihailović started despite being listed as questionable, expecting his first child. Omir Fernandez started at right wing after taking a step forward last week. Connor Ronan and Jonathan Lewis made the bench, coming back from injuries. Lamine Diack was not in the team. For San Jose, new DP Hernán López started in midfield. Yarbrough was in goal for the visitors in his first game back at DSGP.

The first half was one of the wildest in recent memories for the Rapids Community. Colorado had three goals disallowed. After the visitors had a good start, Oliver Larraz pulled out some Barcelona dribbling to send Rafael Navarro on goal in the 7th minute. He chipped Yarbrough to open the scoring but was rightly called offside. Omir Fernández appeared to open his account in the 26th on a quick free kick set up by Mihailović. VAR had Natalie Simon go to the monitor. Kévin Cabral was called offside in the buildup for impeding a defender from an offside position.

Colorado finally opened the scoring legally in the 33rd. Navarro scored with the outside of his foot on a corner from Mihailović. Fernandez finally opened his account in the 42nd. Colorado did well holding onto the ball off a busted restart. Andreas Maxsø found Fernandez with time and space. He wrong footed Yarbrough to make it 2-0.

Two minutes later San Jose pulled one back. Amahl Pellegrino pounced on a clearance in the box and shot the ball of Sam Vines to make it 2-1. Navarro could have had a hat trick in the fifth minute of first half stoppage time. He finished on a cross from Cole Basset but was ahead of the ball and offside. López opened his account in the seventh minute of stoppage time on a volley off a corner. The half ended 2-2.

The second half started back-and-forth with both teams getting chances. Cristian Espinoza took the lead in the 66th. Vítor Costa de Brito switched the field to find him in space with the Rapids backline too narrow. He beat Steffen far bottom corner. Colorado was unable to get a quality chance to tie the game and the match ended 2-3.

William Yarbrough’s Respectful Return:

What a few weeks the former Rapids keeper has had. He was thrust into starting after injuries. The Quakes were struggling. He gets shelled in a few games. Colorado comes to town and beat his 3-0. He makes big saves last week in a 3-1 win at LAFC in front of a big crowd at Levi’s Stadium. Then he comes to Colorado and gets a comeback win in an emotional game.

“Playing back here when I played here for an extended period of time, that’s where it becomes a bit emotional,” Yarbrough told Burgundy Wave in an exclusive postgame interview.

“I have great memories here. I love the people here. They’ve treated me with the utmost respect. Just the relationship I felt like I built with the organization, with the fans, with the city. I tried to not let that get in away of tonight’s game. Enjoyed playing in front of this crowd.”

Yarbrough had some nice moments before and after the match. He defended the southern goal in the first half. He clapped for C38 in Section 117 and got some cheers. He did his signature crossbar kick, which many Rapids fans got used to.

“I’ve done it for years. It just happened. It’s something that the people picked up on. I didn’t know what was going to happen when I did. I have the utmost respect for C38. It was a lot of fun playing back here.”

Most of the comeback was about attacking opportunism. But Yarbrough, ever the defensive organizer rather than the master shot stopper, was a net positive as they grew into the second half.

“We came in at halftime. We had to have a hard chat with ourselves as players. We need to start with the solid foundation defensively and build from there.”

The 35-year-old was unceremoniously cut from the Rapids last year. Marko Ilić was brought in and it seemed inevitable he’d replace Yarbrough. An injury at the end of the year made it easy for them to trade his rights to San Jose for pennies on the dollar. He came into this game with no bad blood. Yarby’s relatively zen by keeper standards. Revenge was a dish best not served.

“The only revenge part was they went to San Jose and smacked us 3-0. The revenge we wanted was to come and get those three points they took from us at home.”

Are goalkeepers allowed to be Goonies? Yarbrough has Goonies energy that the Wondo and the Bash Brothers would approve of.

It’s rained offsides. The Rapids never recovered.

The three offsides calls were correct. Navarro is well off on the first one. Burgundy Wave submitted a pool reporter question on the second one and agree with the explanation. Navarro is offside by less than a foot on the third one if that. But the AR is right in line with the ball when Bassett crosses it. Have to give the benefit of the doubt there. It’s a tough break, but the calls were right.

Credit to Natalie Simon. She’s the first female referee to be the center ref in an MLS game at DICK’s Sporting Goods Park. She had some big calls to make and got them all right.

The Rapids were devastated by those goals getting called back. By their own admission, they didn’t respond to those calls. It cost them to the game.

“We played some of our best football in the first half. We have to give San Jose credit there. They hung in there. They had a plan which they executed. They forced some coincidences with some direct play. Emotionally did we ever recover from it? Not sure. We really didn’t bring our best stuff in the second half. We’ll all be disappointed with that third goal we gave up. Very unlike us,” said Armas. “You’ll never hear an excuse out of me nor the players hopefully,” he added.

“Most of it was results of really good football. Two of them were probably really close. One of them, Kevin bumps a guy from an offside position and looks like some embellishment. If you’re in an offside position and touch a player? Looks like he gets hit in the stomach and he’s holding his neck.”

“I don’t think we recovered from the goals being called back. It was a 0-0 game at the start of the second half. Our message (at halftime) was to come out and start with the same energy. We failed to do that. Couldn’t get into a rhythm,” Keegan Rosenberry added.

Most epic collapse:

The season opener aside, this was the worst half in the Armas Era. The team did not react well emotionally. For a game that was tied 2-2 at half, the two teams had very different halftime talks. Colorado appeared positive, trying to repeat what had worked. The Quakes were hard on themselves. As a result, there was only one team in it.

“One’s a set piece. That one hurts. the most frustrating one is the third one. I don’t think we’re in the right spots. We talk about rest defense. We weren’t in the spots to prevent that. In the first half, it was just a couple plays where we switch off. Both of them happen soon after we score. Those five minutes after a goal is scored (even a called off one) are really important. We have to stay hyper focused. Part of my job (as captain) is to do that. We paid the price for it,” said Rosenberry.

Armas went off the wall tactically in the final 10 minutes. It led to no shots on goal.

“Things look a little flat. Trying to get the offense going. Took off both fullbacks. Went three at the back. We’re in a 3-2-5. We have two wingers on. We can defend with five, two 6s, three defenders. Occupying the five lanes up the pitch, two strikers. We’re trying to bring all the attack we can possibly do with some structure,” said Armas.

Quick turnaround with reinforcements back:

Colorado were in position to stomp the Quakes. They would have had momentum going into a big week. They host Vancouver Whitecaps on Wednesday. Then they are at RSL for the second leg of the Rocky Mountain Cup. Now they have to regroup quickly.

“Good teams are able to put this past them. We said after the Cincinnati game, ‘good teams respond on their next game.’ We’re all eager. We need to respond. We know the derby’s coming but we have to get those three points on Wednesday,” said Fernandez.

He and Navarro were fantastic. If they replicate that and stay onside, they can absolutely get two results next week. It’s gut check time.

Also Mike Edwards finally made his MLS debut. He earned it.

Photo Credit: Colorado Rapids

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