Leading 1-0 on the road just before halftime, the Colorado Rapids were struck by a Brandon Servania thunderbolt and never recovered Saturday night, ultimately falling 3-1 to FC Dallas.
Servania's swerving long-range strike from 30 yards beat Rapids goalkeeper William Yarbrough and gave the home side a jolt of life when they had little. FC Dallas would add two more through Jesus Ferreira en route to a home win to end Colorado's unbeaten run at four matches.
The Rapids dominated long stretches of the match, generating 16 shots and eight corners while holding 65% of the possession and had the 1-0 lead when forward Diego Rubio capped a beautiful build-up in the 30th minute. The move, ending in Rubio’s third goal of the year, started with Keegan Rosenberry who switched it to the left side, Lucas Esteves then played it all the way back across to winger Michael Barrios who cushioned it into the path of Rubio who finally slotted past FC Dallas goalkeeper Maarten Paes.
“I am sort of scratching my head a little bit. A little bit lost for words because like I said before, I thought we played really well tonight when we go back and look at it. Again, it is not disappointment because we had 65% of the ball and created really good opportunities in the game," Jack Price told the media after the match. "Like I said, another day we could have had three or four. At the moment, we are probably just not as ruthless as we would like to be because that is three games in a row now where we should have picked up a lot more points than we have.”
The Rapids looked in control during the first half after tallying a 7-1 shot advantage among the chippy action that included five yellow cards.
After the half, Dallas built on the momentum that had given them life just before the break, as Jesus Ferreira made the Rapids pay for a turnover as he spun and slotted a right-footed shot home in the 51st minute.
Robin Fraser made his first change on the night in the 70th minute, bringing Jonathan Lewis in for Max Alves. Andre Shinyashiki subbed on for Rubio in the 82nd minute. The Rapids continued to push for an equalizer and were beat in behind as Ferreira added his second beating Yarbrough one-on-one.
“It feels a bit like a broken record to talk about being disappointed about results when we’ve played well. That seems to have been the story over the last couple of games. We seem to have moments that are really, really good and when we have control of the games, we just want to reward ourselves and be able to really enjoy the fruits of our labor," Fraser said in his postgame press call. "I look at the first half and I think we played extremely well. Giving up a late goal at the end of the first half, even the way we gave the goal up wasn’t the worst in the world. It was a wonder shot. What a fantastic strike that pretty much came out of nowhere. We come in 1-1 at halftime and then we go out and have a slow start in the second half and we give up a goal. Then, we go back to having pretty good control of the game. We talked last week about efficiency in the final third and taking care of our chances. It just feels like another situation in which we have pretty good control of the game, but we don’t come out with the result we want.”
The Rapids return to action next Saturday as they head to Minnesota for a second consecutive road match. Kickoff is set for 6:00 PM MT.
Notable:
Saturday marked the 100th MLS regular season appearance for Lalas Abubakar.
Michael Barrios’ assist on Diego Rubio’s goal was the 54th of his career and third of the season.
Diego Rubio’s goal was his third of 2022 and the 37th of his career.
The Rapids have scored a goal in five straight matches.