Colorado Rolls To A Much Needed Win

Well that's what the doctor ordered for the Rapids.  A relatively easy 3 goal win using our backups sets us up well for our final 8 game run to the playoffs.  Austin had one really good look (which we'll get into later), otherwise our defense kept them quiet and our offense finally found its shooing boots (with some help from Austin's defense).  With the win the Rapids go to 48 points, within 10 points of their all-time record.

Random Observations:

• Lets talk about that Austin attack that somehow didn't result in discipline of some sort.  Abubakar got beat and reached out to throw the Austin striker off his shot.  Live I thought for sure it should be a PK and card.  Watching the replay I'm pretty sure it should have been a foul just outside the box and a card.  I think the ref got that wrong.  Its probably a red card for Denial of an Obvious Goal Scoring Opportunity, but you could make the case that Trusty was close enough to cover.  That, along with it being just outside the box (probably) is why VAR didn't get involved, because the no-PK call was correct and the lack of a red was not a clear and obvious mistake.  But it was a missed call without a doubt.
• The Rapids took that gift and ran with it.  Lewis got on the board with the last kick of the half, but I don't know how that didn't stay an own goal on Austin.  Maybe on replay you can make the case that Lewis' header was going in but I think its a stretch.
• Then right after half Austin's keeper set up Mezquida nicely with a pass right too him while he was outside his goal area.  Easy shot and score for Nico.
• Finally the Rapids got a goal without Austin's help, with Trusty heading in a Price corner kick.
• The only real negative from this match was injuries.  Both Yarbrough and Esteves went down in the second half.  Yarbrough got back up after treatment and finished the game, and we could have subbed him out at 3-0 up if we were really concerned about him.  Esteves went down in stoppage time and hobbled through the last couple of minutes, we'll have to see how he is.
• Fraser rolled the dice a bit on this one, putting out a B lineup.  He was betting our B squad could beat Austin and/or our rested A squad could beat Seattle in Seattle on Sunday.  As long as he got one of those bets right he was fine, and he did.  If he gets both right he's a genius.  But had he missed on both then he'd have some questions to answer.
• Right now FSL is in 5th and is on pace for 49 points.  So one more win in our final 8 should pretty much clinch a home playoff game.  Portland is in 4th, on pace for 54.  So we need at least tat least wo wins to feel good about finishing top 3.  (Especially if one of them is against Portland).  Its likely the top 3 positions are going to come down to the final games.
• As mentioned, next up is Seattle in Seattle, a tough place for us to place historically.

Man of the Match:  Jack Price.  2 assists, including his team record 11th game winner of the season.  He's already only the third Rapid to have multiple seasons with 10+ assists (Paz, Cooke).  He's the engine for this team right now.