As expected the game on Saturday night was chaotic and the visitors did wear down in the altitude. What I didn't expect was how well we would take advantage of that. An eary goal set the sage as Darren Yapi was tripped up in the box by the San Diego keeper. Some fans (certainly some SD fans but even some Rapids fans) have suggested this was a weak penalty but I don't see it. If a goalkeeper comes out like that and goes to ground but doesn't get the ball he's going to be called and that's what happened here. Yapi was knocked off balance after ticking the ball away from the keeper. Djordje easily finished it for a halftime lead.
Once again though the Rapids fell asleep around halftime. 5 minutes after the break San Diego levelled it. Maxso gave de la Torre way too much space and he uncorked a shot from the edge of the 18 that went to the upper corner of the far post. Steffen had no shot to save it. Maxso quickly made up for his mistake though, getting on a Mihailovic corner kick and heading it back in front of goal where Awaziem knocked it down and Yapi got a foot on it to finish it and retake the lead in only 3 minutes.
7 minutes after that the Rapids had their best looking goal not only of this season but possibly the last couple of seasons. A quick series of passes from Yapi on the left side, through Djordje, to Rafa, over to Bassett, and then back to Navarro for an off-balance finish left San Diego spinning and down by 2. Of course this is the Rapids so they can't make it easy. In the 89th minute Angel found himself with a lot of space at the top of the box and fired a similar shot to de la Torre's, though in this case it was more the lower corner of the far post. Suddenly a fairly relaxed ending was a very tense 6 minutes of stoppage but Colorado held on for the 3 points.
Credit for this one should go to Chris Armas. He rolled out a 4-2-2-2 formation and put the wingers on the bench to give Bassett and Djordje more space to work with, and at least against San Diego's possession, play out of the back style it was successful. We kept San Diego under pressure all night and ran them ragged in the altitude. While not everyone had great games (Maxso was marking space on both San Diego goals, Rafa set up Cabral with a no pressure shot from the penalty spot and Kevin out it off target) nobody had a really bad game. As much as I groused about the space San Diego got on both their goals they took two great shots to put them away.
This is an up and down season so far. We look horrible against 1st place Vancouver and 4th place Portland, but we handle 3rd place San Diego and 2nd place Charlotte fairly easily. The key going forward is to consistently play at the Charlotte/San Diego level. No coincidence that the success in those games have come when Mihailovic and Cole have been given the tools to succeed.
Man of the Match: Darren Yapi. Drew the PK and scored the second, and forced the ball into dangerous positions all night. MLS named Rafa to their Team of the Matchday and I don't get it. No offense to NAvarro but Yapi was the better striker on Saturday.