Up 3-0 with 33 minutes to go, it seemed the Colorado Rapids were on the way to a winger renaissance against the New England Revolution on Saturday night.
But an epic mental collapse in the second half turned a convincing win — with star midfielder Djordje Mihailovic out with an ankle injury — into a haunting 3-all draw midway through a rollercoaster season.
“This is one of those draws that feels like a loss,” Rapids coach Chris Armas said. “But it’s a point on the road, so we’ll take it.”
On an otherwise solid night defensively, — goalkeeper Nico Hansen made a career-high eight saves and the Rapids fended off 11 corners — an own goal by Sam Vines, a cheap penalty conceded by Sam Bassett and a stoppage-time header by Revolution forward Maxi Urruti conjured a magical three-goal comeback for the Revolution.
It was the first time in Revolution history that it came back from three or more goals to draw.
“Those guys (Vines and Bassett) know the message will eventually be, ‘It’s got nothing to do with the individual plays in this game,’” said Rapids defender Keegan Rosenberry, who subbed in late for his first appearance in a month and half. “It’s much more about the way we respond as a group and that’s part of maturing and learning as a team.
“You can look back and be disappointed in yourself, but it’s so much more than that. Those guys will learn from it. It’s not what’s top of mind coming out of that.”
Rapids winger Ted Ku-DiPietro finally opened his Rapids account with his team’s third goal of the night, a 55th-minute strike from distance which beat Revolution goalkeeper Aljaz Ivacic to the near post. Winger Calvin Harris, who scored against the L.A. Galaxy on Wednesday in his first start of the year, started and scored again, blasting a rebound into the top netting to open the scoring in the 29th minute.
In the 40th minute, forward Rafael Navarro beautifully chopped the ball back from the left toward the right side of the box, then split three defenders with a shot to the far lower corner. It was the Brazilian’s second masterful move of the night, having lost a defender with a spin move in the buildup of Harris’s goal.
20-year old forward Darren Yapi assisted Navarro’s and Ku-DiPietro’s goals, his first two assists of the season.
“It’s great that although we give up a lot of possession (New England had more than 70%), we’re the more dangerous team for good stretches on the night. That was the plan, to punish them in transition and take away a lot of what they’re good at,” Armas said. “The big part of it is late in the game, maybe (the 60th minute and beyond), we need to play more. We need to keep the ball in moments, control the game with the ball a bit more because it just ends up being too much pressure.”
The common thread between the three Rapids goals was that they didn’t collectively overthink opportunities, “upgrading shots” by passing to open teammates until the defense sets completely. Instead, every goal was punctuated by taking shots when they were open, even if it wasn’t necessarily the best shot on paper.
The result was just the third game this season the Rapids scored more than twice.
Mihailovic, who leads the team in scoring with eight goals in his 19 games this year, is a big part of making that scoreline more common. Armas said he should be good to go by Friday, July 4, when the Rapids take on Sporting Kansas City at home, but the club decided to sit him mostly due to Gillette Stadium’s turf field.
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