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Colorado Rapids disappointed with scoreless draw against Sporting Kansas City

By Vinny Benedetto August 7, 2021 | updated 4 years ago

COMMERCE CITY — It went down as a disappointing draw for the Colorado Rapids on Saturday at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park.

With Sporting Kansas City, the leaders of Major League Soccer’s Western Conference, in town, the Rapids recorded the only shots on goal of the night but settled for a scoreless draw, while the visitors rested a few key players and got outshot 13-6.

“The mood in the locker room is disappointment,” Rapids coach Robin Fraser said. “Listen, they’re a fantastic team, and it’s always going to be a challenge in preparation for them and dealing with them within the game, but as the game wore on, I think our group really believed that they could create chances, score goals, control the game.”

Lalas Abubakar thought he gave the hosts the go-ahead goal in the final minutes, heading a corner kick past Kansas City goalkeeper Tim Melia, but a foul negated the goal. Abubakar also anchored the defense in a clean sheet by marking Kansas City strikers Wilson Harris and Alan Pulido.

“Sometimes in the way that we press, our back guys are going to end up being one on one and Lalas did a really good job putting pressure on the strikers,” midfielder Mark-Anthony Kaye said after playing 90 minutes in his Rapids debut. “It allowed us to backtrack to win the ball on the second phase. We know Lalas is a strong, strong defender, and when he has games like this, it makes it easier for us to turn around and go back the other way. I’m happy with the performance. I wish we could have got a goal from his good play.”

The Rapids last chance fell for Diego Rubio, who pushed his header over the crossbar. That followed chances for Kaye, Michael Barrios, Cole Bassett and Jonathan Lewis.

“We certainly wanted to get more out of the game, but credit to them. They were very, very tough and resolute in how they played and certainly made things difficult for us,” Fraser said. “I’m really proud of how we grew into the game and were able to create a number of really dangerous chances on the night.”

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Though there were no goals in the first half, there were plenty of chances. The Rapids owned a majority of them, posting eight shots to Kansas City’s three. Jack Price and Kaye produced the most threatening moments, but Melia was up to the task both times.

“Tim’s a hell of a goalkeeper,” Fraser said. “I’ve been watching him do that for oh, I don’t know, probably 12 years now at least. He certainly made a huge, huge difference for them tonight.”

Kellyn Acosta, part of the United States’ victorious Gold Cup squad, missed the game due to safe and healthy protocols.

The Rapids will take a 8-4-4 record, good for 28 points and fourth in the Western Conference, when they return to action next Saturday at Houston Dynamo.

“I think for the most part we controlled the game and did what we wanted to do. We created a lot of opportunities to score. It’s unfortunate the ball didn’t go in the back of the net tonight, but there’s some positives to take from this. We pushed the tempo of the game and put it on our terms,” Kaye said.

“I’m very happy with how the team played tonight, unfortunate not to win.”

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Vinny Benedetto

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