Chaos, Not Points, Awaited Colorado in KC

That was a mess last night.  The same sloppy Rapids team we've seen on the road most of the season made the I-70 drive (ok, they actually flew) to KC and came back with more red cards than goals and points combined.  Defensive blunders cost us the game, losing our heads might cost us the next one.  I can't say KC deserved their 2-1 win, but I can't say Colorado deserved any points either.  For the record, the Rapids are still winless on the road in all competitions this season, with the only non-loss being the draw in Houston.  In those games we've scored 5 goals (2 of them in our last 2) and have a -11 goal differential.

Random Musings:

• The Rapids actually had more shots, more shots on goal, and more than double the xG of SKC.  They just folded at critical moments.  Its fair to say they out played the Sporks, but what matters are the numbers on the scoreboard.
• Both goals were team failures.  Its easy to pick out one person, and we'll get to him, but really there were multiple players failing to perform at the same time.
• On the first KC goal Danny Wilson commits a foul, then after the whistle blows turns his back to the play and calmly retreats.  KC decide to quickly restart and play Salloi into space.  By the time Wilson realizes it he's out of the play.  Salloi was Abubakar's man, and he had already been skinned by him a couple of times in the first 24 minutes.  Lalas got beat again.  Price is hustling to cover for Wilson's absence but gets there a second late.  To wrap up the general failure Yarbrough commits a cardinal sin of goalkeeping and gets beat near post.  Don't get me wrong, Lalas is largely at fault for the goal, but if Wilson is paying attention or Yarbrough forces him to go wide there's a decent chance they don't score (I don't blame Price for being a bit late trying to cover for Wilson)
• The good news is that the Rapids bounced right back and forced KC into their own defensive blunder.  A great cross field pass from Wilson spring Lewis, who put in a cross along the ground that caused a KC defender to collide with their keeper.  Zardes couldn't turn on the ball but knocked it back and a crashing Esteves finished the job.
• Coming right out of half the Rapids broke down on defense again.  This time it was combined with bad luck.  This time a cross-field pass to Salloi was slotted behind Abubakar to where Salloi was in space.  Lalas was able to turn on it in time to get his foot on it, but just popped it up into the air where it continued to the KC attacker.  The unmarked Salloi took one touch and beat Yarbrough for the goal.  While Abubakar was the Rapids defender directly involved in the play, he was not really at fault.  He was tight on his man, and when he saw Salloi in space about to receive the ball he made his best attempt to stop it.  The failure here was Rosenberry ball-watching the whole play and letting KC's best attacker get into open space behind him.
• After that things got chippy, then they got violent.  7 yellows and 4 reds were given put by referee Drew Fischer (named today as a VAR for the World Cup) and its hard to argue with many of them.  But obviously everyone wants to talk about the red cards.
• First of all, Trusty has to be smarter.  In the third minute Fischer showed Acosta a yellow for time wasting for kicking the ball away after a foul call, something that ahs been emphasized by PRO this year.  So why did Trusty think he could get away with it in the 74th?  Then while on a yellow he gave a decent body check to a KC attacker.  It was the type of foul that some refs wouldn't have pulled a card on, but Fischer had just given out two other cards in the last 10 minutes and clearly wasn't willing to put up with much.  Dumb decisions by Auston.
• The game ended with a cheap shot from Salloi on Mezquida that (eventually) got the red it deserved.  Taking out the plant leg of a player from behind on a free kick restart is pure violent conduct and should result it a longer than one game suspension.  Some KC fans are trying to justify the frustration by claiming that had Fischer whistled Barrios for a foul a couple of seconds earlier it would never have happened.  While true, the missed foul was iffy at best, Barrios did take down the KC attacker but he nicked the ball while doing it and the foul, if there was one, was due to feet getting tangled while making the play.  Its the run-of-the-mill type foul that gets called half a dozen times per game.  No malice, no violence, and borderline clean.  No justification for getting frustrated din a game you're winning 2-1 at the end of stoppage time.
• The cheap shot on Mezquida brought an immediate response as Esteves gave a full force shove to Salloi's back (just beating Kaye to him) sending him flying to the turf.  KC jumped right back in, with Fontas putting a choke hold on Rubio literally as Rubio was standing complaining to Fischer's face about the Salloi foul.  Easiest red card in existence.
• In the end Salloi had his yellow upgraded to red via VAR and Esteves and Fontas were both shown red immediately.  Clearly the right calls all the way around and the game finished 9 on 9.   This is only the third time in MLS history that a game finished with 4 red cards, and the first since 2000.
• My only complaint about what happened is that Esteves really could have been smarter and realized we're without Trusty on Sunday, we couldn't afford to lose him.  That said, I can't complain about sticking up for a teammate like that.
• So we come home to face Seattle on Sunday without Trusty and Esteves, and probably without Zardes.  Lost in the colorful ending to the game was that Zardes had to leave the match in the 64th minute with a non-contact hamstring injury.  That's the cherry on top of this wonderful sundae from last night.

Man of the Match: Jack Price.  He only played the first 45 but we were a notably better team with him than without him.  Getting him back to full fitness is going to be important to figuring out the rest of the season.  If Danny Wilson hadn't fallen asleep on the first KC goal he would have had a good shout for the MOTM honor.