Entering Saturday night’s game in Colorado, Colorado Rapids was the only team in MLS with fewer than 10 points. It was tied for the second-worst goal difference in MLS at minus-10. It hadn’t outright won a game since April 14, including a loss to USL side Nashville.
Minnesota United found a way to lose to this team, in increasingly pathetic fashion, 3-2 with the final goal coming in the 97th minute. Miguel Ibarra was sent off in an extremely questionable decision after Colorado tied the game at 2, and United’s pathetic road form continued.
This was supposed to be the game for the Loons to get themselves back on the right foot in the league.
They’d been off for a couple weeks with the distractions of the U.S. Open Cup, but a game against the league’s worst team, away or not, had to be viewed as an opportunity to right the ship. From the start, they looked up for it, and a typically bright start from Darwin Quintero had the Rapids defenders chasing shadows. United looked the faster and better side, and while the short passing moves eventually gave way to long balls over the top, a long ball from Rasmus Schüller helped open the scoring.
Schüller’s ball found Quintero in the box, open enough to get a shot right at Tim Howard. Darwin’s shot squirmed through Howard’s legs, and Ibarra was quickest to the ball spinning on the goal line for the opener. United had the goal that their opening momentum deserved, and looked more than capable of picking up three points.
The warning signs were there in the closing minutes of the first half.
The Loons had become casual in possession, with Colorado able to build long spells with the ball and draw several corner kicks. While Dominique Badji was unable to truly threaten the goal, his pace and ability had moments of question for the defense.
United even started the second half well, with a chance at goal within two minutes of the restart. It looked like they could be well on top of play, and then Colorado’s first equalizer came, a rocket from nowhere by Édgar Castillo. The shot was perfectly curved into Bobby Shuttleworth’s top corner, the scores were even, and Colorado was into the game.
Colorado’s offense became more and more threatening after the goal, with the possession and corners of the first half now moving at greater speed and with greater accuracy. This was no longer the cakewalk that it might have been, and United required a response.
The second goal was just what was needed, and the combination of Ibarra and Quintero set the table for the third piece of the attacking trio to get his goal. Christian Ramirez was perfectly positioned six inches from the goal line as Ibarra’s cross set him up for a simple finish, and the lead was back in the 65th minute.
Colorado had the confidence of the goal behind them, even after falling behind again. They continued to press forward, and the turf at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park worked in their favor at just the right moment.
Players had been slipping and falling regularly all evening, and when Brent Kallman fell to the turf as Joe Mason ran past him to tie the game, he had no help from an opponent.
The goal in the 74th minute was just the beginning of a catastrophic sequence for Minnesota. It began with Kallman’s fall, and was followed by Ibarra losing his temper while attempting to restart play by getting the ball. Ibarra moved aggressively, and was pushed away by a Colorado player, falling to the ground.
The incident caused both teams to come together and exchange some words, and the referees went to the video review. The decision came back was a red card for Ibarra, an extraordinarily harsh decision given the circumstances of the altercation, and no punishment for the Colorado retaliation.
United had lost the lead, lost a player, and had the final 20 minutes of the match to play at altitude. Heath’s choice to substitute Quintero for Wyatt Omsberg acknowledged that the draw was now the best United could get, and they couldn’t even properly manage that.
Colorado streamed forward, chance after chance coming their way. Even as United thought they had survived the six minutes of stoppage time, the Rapids got one last corner kick, their thirteenth of the night. Shkëlzen Gashi found Tommy Smith’s head, and the ignominious defeat was complete.
The goal came well into the seventh minute of six minutes added on, and the questions for the refereeing crew on the evening were more than fair between that and the Ibarra decision.
However, United have absolutely no one to blame but themselves.
Colorado, whose poor form was clear, had twice as many shots as United. It had 13 corners to United’s three. It won possession, had better passing accuracy and twice as many crosses.
Not all of that comes from 20 minutes of playing up by a man.
The questions after this game will not come as loudly for any individual player, as many individuals played decent games, not least Ibarra, whose attacking play was great before his dismissal. This kind of result will put pressure squarely on the shoulders of Heath, whose comments on Monday will not have done him any favors.
Heath’s comments after the loss to Houston, via the team, were the following:
“I thought it was a little bit too late. I learned a valuable lesson today about this group, both individually and collectively, that will certainly help us moving forward. We’ve got to the stage now where we have to start to make some difficult and hard decisions on people and that is what we will do. I think tonight will turn out to be a really good night in the long term.”
Heath played 10 of the same 11 players that started that game on Saturday night, and the one change was his first sub in that game, Alexi Gómez at left back. What was the valuable lesson that was learned on Monday?
What good did it do the team on Saturday?
United have won one game on the road this season, on March 10. They have now lost seven straight, and for all the words said about Colorado’s position before this game and United’s decent start to the season, the Rapids are now just four points behind United.
What will the changes be to fix these results?
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