Yapi Hour Indeed

Colorado blew out S. Louis Sunday night.  As expected they couldn't handle the altitude at the end of the game and the home side made them pay.    Up until the last 15-20 minutes though the visitors were using their counter-attacking strategy to good effect.  Despite the Rapids generally having the possession and momentum advantage, St. Louis had as many shots on target as Colorado did and only one less hot overall.

Both teams benefitted from the counter in the first half, with all3 goals coming quickly after control changed hands.  Kevin Cabral deserves significant credit for scoring the first goal and setting up Bassett for the second (returning what Cole did on the first).  The St. Louis goal was a combination of Ronan being completely faked out (and once again not showing defensive intensity in recovering) combined with Larraz (and to a lesser extent Edwards) losing track of the goal-scorer.

Once Lewis converted Harris' cross for the third goal all fight was out of StL.  They had been struggling for 10 or so minutes before the score but after it they were done.  That set up the best moment of the match and arguably the moment of the season (at least at home) so far.  Darren Yapi finally getting his first MLS goal.  That has been a long-time coming and he's been snake-bit on his chances but one finally paid off, and it wasn't an easy goal.  You can see how much it meant to the team as everyone, including bench players and coaches, ended up in the celebratory dog pile (not Steffen, but that's a long run for the goalkeeper only to have to turn around and run all the way back, so I don't blame him).  I think Chris Armas beat the rest of the staff down the sideline.  Hopefully getting the first one through opens the floodgate for him.

Colorado goes into the final week before the Leagues Cup break with an outside shot of driving the Bodmer Line to 0.  They need 7 points to get to the average total points for a 9th placed team.  They have a road trip to the Galaxy sandwiched by home games with RBNY and FSL.  If they can win two and draw the third then the post Leagues Cup run-in will be about fighting for playoff position. 

But really at this point I think every Rapids fan would trade losses to Red Bull and LA for a win over FSL and a reclaiming of the Rocky Mountain Cup.

Man of the Match; Darren Yapi.  Yeah, Bassett was probably the actual Man of the Match, that's who they gave the oar to, but he turned around and gave it to Yapi as the one who had earned it.  So who am I to argue with that?