Hansen Howler, Mihailović Penalty Miss: Rapids Lose on 4th of July

Commerce City, CO – Colorado’s largest outdoor 4th of July firework show was preceded by a soccer game that had fireworks of their own. Unfortunately for the Rapids, some of those fireworks were duds. A must-win game against Sporting KC saw a performance that was undermined by big mistakes in critical moments.

Lineup wise, Djordje Mihailović and Cole Bassett were back from their ankle injuries. Djordje started and Bassett was on the bench with younger brother Sam. Connor Ronan made his first start since May 14, with Oli Larraz dropped to the bench. The lineup was otherwise as expected. Keegan Rosenberry and Jackson Travis started at fullback with Reggie Cannon suspended and Sam Vines out with a groin.

Daniel Salloi was on the bench to start for the visitors. A bit surprising. Erik Thommy and Dejan Joveljic were up top. Bright spot Manu Garcia was in midfield.

The start of the match was a disaster for goalkeeper Nico Hansen. Four minutes in, he was pressured and tried a hospital ball to center back Andreas Maxsø. There wasn’t enough pace on it as Thommy easily picked it off. One short pass to Joveljic for a tap in and it was 0-1 Sporting.

Colorado had a flurry of chances starting in the 29th. Mihailović won a penalty on goalkeeper John Pulskamp. Djordje beat the keeper to a rebound on a Ted Ku-DiPietro shot. The No. 10 took the penalty, sending it off the bottom of the left post and out.

In the 34th, Mihailović had a great slide tackle on Jansen Miller. That sprung a counter attack that saw Rafael Navarro get a shot from inside the six that was just wide. Two minute into first half stoppage time, KDP found a late arriving Mihailović who hit the right post with a shot outside the box. The half ended 0-1.

It should have been 1-1 a minute into the first half. Calvin Harris ran down a long ball and squared it to Navarro. Pulskamp came off his line and made the point blank save.

In the 53rd, Pulskamp pinged a long ball into the Rapids half. Thommy won the battle with Rosenberry. The German dribbled through the defense and beat Hansen to the bottom right corner. It was 0-2 SKC.

Colorado were flat for the next 20 minutes. Sub Darren Yapi gave them a puncher’s chance in the final minute. He ran down a through ball from Rosenberry, cutting inside on Ian James. The 17-year-old went for a slide tackle, giving Colorado their second PK of the game. Navarro took this one. His stutter step sent Pulskamp the wrong way and it was 1-2. Colorado couldn’t find an equalizer and the match ended in a loss.

Costly mistakes > overall performance. Is there doubt or patient hope?

The performance on the whole of the 90 minutes was good. There were five or six critical moments and only one of those went Colorado’s way. Shot attempts were 25-5 (9-2 on goal). Corners 10-2. Per FotMob, xG was 3.64 to 0.82. Even without the penalties, Colorado should have scored at least two.

At the same time, you can’t concede four minutes in. Hansen’s bad pass to Maxsø when he’s under pressure just made it too easy. That’s his second big mistake this season after the soft goal against Orlando. Djordje missed a penalty, uncharacteristically. Rosenberry took responsibility for the second goal.

On the stats sheet and balance of play, they’re closer than it feels. At the same time, a loss in front of 17,576 (the club called that a sellout) isn’t helping grow the support.

“Our challenge is going to be continue to get better at the things that win you gets and avoiding the things that can cost you games. We’re going to keep learning from these games. The overall performance is something we can feel good about,” said head coach Chris Armas.

“When you coach a young team, it’s helpful if you have patient coach. We don’t play the blame game around here. It’s never one moment or play, whether it’s New England or tonight. There is this thing about not giving it away. A little more intensity, being sharper in moments, it’s going to come.”

“I feel like more than anything we let the fans down. This match on the 4th is one of my favorite fixtures. Look at the stats, it’s a convincing game. It didn’t look like those mistakes affected our mindset. I hold my hand up on the second goal. We keep playing games like that, we’re going to come out on the right side of results,” said Rosenberry.

Who should take penalties?

This was a second Mihailović penalty miss of the year. The other was May 14 at San Diego. It wasn’t a bad take though. Hit with pace. A half foot inside and it’s probably off the post and in. Pulskamp did guess right and got close to it. Navarro took the second one well, but his run-up is well documented. One of the downsides of winning so many penalties is opposing goalkeepers have lots of film on them.

Mihailović was masculine melancholy walking off the pitch at full-time. It’s been these two in training with Mihailović as the first taker. There is flexibility for the players to decide amongst themselves on the field who takes it. It was a good decision to have Navarro take it.

Do we see Mihailović bounce back? Should Navarro take them going forward? Does Bassett finally get back in the mix? The answer will decide the game the next time Colorado wins a pen.

Trouble playing from behind:

The Pids are now 0-7-2 when conceding first this year. After the two Portland games, the word is out on how to play Colorado, especially in Commerce City. Play compact and force them to break you down. There will be space to play direct in transition. Time wast to frustrate them. Maybe they make a mistake. Score first and you’ll get a result.

“It makes it more difficult. The other team grows a bit. They can waste more time. That’s frustrating but it’s a reality that we have to face as we try to put teams in fast games,” Armas said.

The team has used Mihailović as a crutch in these situations. They’ve done better recently. Calvin Harris has had an excellent three games. KDP has played direct. Ronan was excellent pinging long balls in this game. He does it as well as anyone else on the team. They need to be more decisive and clinical. They also need to do better not getting in these situations to begin with.

Colorado’s next four games are at LAFC, vs Vancouver, at Seattle, and vs Philadelphia. That’s really tough. They need to tighten the belt of marginal gains as Armas would put it if they’re going to get results.

Photo Credit: Mark Shaiken and Matt Pollard

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