Rapids Work Over Fire In First Full Warmup

Saturday afternoon the Rapids decided to shift from fitness and learning roles to actually playing to win.  And win they did.  In a game they controlled from start to finish, only a early defensive lapse gave the Fire any hope.  In the end a dominating 4-2 win gave Colorado its first result over another MLS team in preseason and has made it seem like they my pick up where they left off in 2019.

The Rapids started out with pretty close to their first-choice lineup:

Colorado controlled play from the opening whistle, but the Fire got behind the defense, first by beating Moor in a foot race, then by slipping inside Abubakar, for the first goal.  After that Chicago played on the back foot the rest of the way.  15 minutes after the Chicago goal Namli slipped a nice ball to Shinyashiki to level the match.  Things would stay tied to the break, but the Rapids were doing their best to score before it.  Rubio and Mezquida subbed in for Kamara and Namli at half and the team kept up the pressure.  Nicholson owned the first 15 minutes of the second half, scoring on a rebound and then setting up Acosta for a third goal.  The Rapids would sub 7 more players around the 75th minute, leaving only Price and Irwin to play the full 90 minutes.   The Rapids allowed a goal off a corner, but struck right back as Mezquida would get the final goal for the 4-2 scoreline.

We also found out on Saturday that Benezet broke his nose in Wednesday's scrimmage, which means he'll be out 2-4 weeks.  That most likely rules him out as a starter in DC for opening week.  The Rapids play LA tomorrow in what was a closed-door scrimmage, but apparently LA is streaming it on their website.  However its geolocked to LA.