Gritty at home. Lazy around halftime. Up and down, but stabilizing. For better or for worse, the Colorado Rapids continue to show exactly who they are.
The Seattle Sounders have been one of the more low-key bogey teams for the Rapids in recent years, but the two teams shared the points on Saturday night with a 1-all draw at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park.
The Rapids are unbeaten in their last three games, but after conceding a late equalizer in Houston a week ago and having a winner called back against Seattle, coach Chris Armas is happy with his team finding a bit of consistency, but ultimately is left wanting just a bit more. The Sounders are unbeaten in the same run of games.
“We’ve challenged our group for consistency and performance that looks like us: a team that plays with intensity and real aggression and the whole bit,” Armas said. “Quite honestly, we probably did enough to get the win tonight. We score a goal, the whistle is blown, we’re not sure that’s a foul.”
Deadlocked at one goal apiece, the Rapids seemed to have a winner in the 86th minute, when substitute Kévin Cabral lofted a cross to forward Rafael Navarro, who knocked in a header. Navarro was ruled to have fouled a Seattle defender on the way up, but the season-high 16,312 Rapids fans in attendance disagreed vehemently when the replay was shown around the stadium.
“(I) saw the ball coming and (I) jumped to head it. (I) touched the ball and it went in. For (me), it was a natural motion,” Navarro said through club language specialist Andre Hilf. “(I don’t) understand why the foul was called, but (I) respect the call, but it was a natural motion.”
Navarro’s body blocks view of the contact on the broadcast replay, but there seemed to have been some slight contact with outstretched arms on Seattle’s Yeimar Gomez, after which Gomez goes down rather easily. The play was blown dead before Navarro’s header entered the goal, which meant it couldn’t be reviewed by VAR.
Midfielder Djordje Mihailovic was within a couple of feet from the incident when it happened, then was one of the three Rapids intensely protesting to referee Alexis Da Silva.
“(Da Silva) said that he sees a clear foul, but he calls it in a split second. The ball goes in the back of the net, but he calls a foul before. It’s impossible,” Mihailovic said. “Why have VAR? There’s no chance for them to review this play.
“It seems like the free kick leading to their goal is not even a foul. I really don’t know what this guy is seeing, but at the end of the day, these are not excuses for why we don’t get the win.”
Mihailovic got the opening tally for the Rapids in the 54th minute. Oliver Larraz drew a foul inside the D, then Mihailovic snuck a low drive under a jumping Sounders wall to beat longtime Seattle star keeper Stefan Frei. It was Mihailovic’s fifth goal of the regular season (seventh in all competitions) and his third straight match with a goal.
The Sounders got on the board first in the 45th minute. On a free kick around midfield Mihailovic alluded to, Seattle went quick and caught the Rapids snoozing on what became a counter. Jesus Ferreira found Kalani Kossa-Rienzi on the right wing, where offside shouts were ignored, and he put in a low cross to Danny Musovski, who almost couldn’t have missed.
Musovski, who was subbed out at halftime, has now scored in each of his last three games for the Sounders.
Cabral was denied a header of his own by Frei in the 90+4th minute, which was the last action of regulation. The following corner was punched away by Frei.
Conceding in the 45th minute continued a troubling trend for the Rapids, who struggle in the few minutes on either side of halftime. Of the 14 goals given up in MLS play this season, eight have been in the final five minutes of the first half or the first five minutes of the second half. Of the remaining six, a few have been in the final five minutes of games.
“I don’t want to look too far into it. I also don’t want to say it’s a coincidence, either. I think it’s important — you look around the winning teams all over the world, they know how to manage certain moments in the game,” Mihailovic said. “I think we’re going to learn from these experiences and then know that in the most important games — playoffs and the time before playoffs — come, that we know how to manage certain moments. Also, part of that is that we’re responding the correct way.”
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