The Colorado Rapids (4W-9L-3D) played a “bend but don’t break” match on Canada Day as they came to town to take on the Vancouver Whitecaps (6W-7L-5D) that saw them head home with a 1 nil victory in front of 20,038 fans.
The match saw the Caps control over 70% of possession time managing to outshoot Colorado 25-9 that saw Vancouver make five changes to the roster, but unable to get one past Howard who played exceptional making 10 quality saves in the match.
The Whitecaps saw the return of Captain Kendall Waston played a stellar role on Vancouver’s defense managing to shut them down on several attempts, but it was too little too late.
Waston started the match (game) at center back but was forced to leave the game in the first half with an undisclosed injury.
Vancouver entered the match (game) with three (3) suspensions to the roster namely Jose Aja and Yordy Renya each serving one game suspensions for a yellow card, in addition to Cristian Techera who was handed a three (3) suspension for language directed against match Referee in the 4-0 loss to Philadelphia.
Colorado enters the match having won only three (3) games this season coming into the match with a 3-3-9 record sitting in the bottom three lower teams of the Western Conference.
They played a 5-4-1 formation having many wondering if they were happy to go home with a draw.
Playing on Canada’s Birthday saw Vancouver played one of their best games of the season managing to dominate their opposition from the opening kickoff – but the end result saw them drop the match.
Whitecap’s Marcel de Jong and Alphonso Davies both had stellar game’s creating several chances managing some impressive crosses to the penalty area finding front runner Kei Kamara and Nicolas Mezquida in great scoring chances only to be robbed by Colorado “keeper” Tim Howard.
Brian Rowe robbed Joe Mason of the Rapids after Yannick Boli rang one off the crossbar and the ensuing rebound was directed in off Caps defender Marcel de Jong into the back of the Vancouver goal for a 1-0 lead for the visitors at halftime.
In the second half despite the own goal against them Vancouver continued to the Rapids as they continued to fire on all cylinders on this day and could have scored a half dozen goals only to robbed by Tim Howard who kept kept his team in the lead.
Counting from the press box saw Kei Kamara have a four chances or opportunities for what many thought were a sure-fire goal, but Rapids “tender” Howard kept Vancouver scoreless.
Both Techerra and Davies had several chances but simply were unable to solve Howard sending the 20,038 fans home disappointed.
Vancouver falls to 6-5-7 tied for 4th in the western conference with 23 points while the Rapids recorded just their first road win of the year and saw their record go to 4-3-9 sitting at 15 points three ahead of last place teams Seattle and San Jose in the west standings.
Vancouver host’s the Chicago Fire July 7th with a 7:30 pm kickoff.
MATCH DETAILS
Budweiser Man of the Match: Felipe
Statistics
Possession: VAN 71.6% – COL 28.4%
Fouls: VAN 19 – COL 11
Corners: VAN 7 – COL 3
Saves: VAN 3 – COL 10
Duels won: VAN 56 – COL 65
Shots: VAN 25 – COL 9
Shots on Goal: VAN 10 – COL 3
Offsides: VAN 2 – COL 0
Tackles won: VAN 10 – COL 14
Thanks to Bruce Nolte for part of the story
