The Big Picture
Atlanta United FC (6-4-3, 21 pts) struck three times in the final ten minutes as Colorado Rapids (2-5-6, 12 pts) fell 4-0 in their visit to Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Wednesday night.
Notable:
- F Calvin Harris made his Rapids debut when he substituted into the match in the 79th minute.
- D Lalas Abubakar surpassed 9,000 minutes as a member of the Rapids tonight. He joins Keegan Rosenberry, Jack Price and Danny Wilson as the only active members of the team to have a minimum of 9,000 minutes played with the club.
- D Moïse Bombito made his second consecutive appearance tonight. The third overall pick in the 2023 MLS SuperDraft made his MLS debut against Philadelphia Union last Saturday.
- F Jonathan Lewis made his 105th Rapids appearance when he substituted into the match in the 64th minute. Lewis joins Lalas Abubakar, Jack Price, Keegan Rosenberry, Diego Rubio and Danny Wilson as the only active members to have recorded a minimum of 100 appearances as a member of the club.
- M Yosuke Hanya made his MLS debut when he substituted into tonight's match in the 88th minute. The 2022 Rapids 2 Player of the Year was called up on a Short-Term Agreement ahead of tonight’s match. He currently leads MLS NEXT PRO in scoring with seven goals, while adding on two assists through seven games.
- Tonight's result ended the Rapids’ unbeaten run of six matches on the road across all competitions (3-0-3).
- 10 Rapids players were unavailable for tonight’s match due to injuries, international duty and suspension.
COLORADO RAPIDS HEAD COACH ROBIN FRASER
On the match:
“Early on in the first half, I felt like we hung on quite a bit. We didn't get our numbers right to get pressure, so we ended up defending really, really deep. Obviously disappointing to give up the goal, but I thought in the second half when we came out, we looked a lot more controlled, put together some good attacks and I think what we're seeing is a combination of things. Obviously, Atlanta has some really, really good players—some very, very good individual players—and I think we are definitely a bit fatigued. Guys in midfield have been putting a lot of minutes in and covering a lot of yards, and I feel like throughout the group, we just looked a little bit tired today. Having said that, I felt like, I said the early part of the second half, was quite good and promising, and we felt like something was coming. And probably the biggest thing that the team has to learn from this is that, sometimes things don't go your way but one goal can't turn into four goals. And it's something we've talked about for a while and a lesson that we still have yet to learn.”
On the sentiment in the locker room following the match:
“It's disappointment. It's disappointment because they know they can do better. It's disappointment because I think up to about the 80th minute, it was still one-nil. But I thought the second half was decent, and a lot of our problems occurred from our own turnovers. So, I think there is disappointment that we know that we could have done better. There's disappointment that we gave up too many goals in the dying moments, and it's one thing to chase a game, but to chase a game and give up a goal might be one thing, but to chase a game and give up three goals is not okay.”
COLORADO RAPIDS MIDFIELDER RALPH PRISO
On the match:
“I think the first 30 minutes in the second half were pretty good. I think we create two or three chances that, on another day, probably go in, but also the last 10 minutes are no good. So, I think there are takeaways, but I think it's also just one, obviously you want to take a look at it, but it's also one you want to just forget and get on to the next one.”
On the upcoming Rocky Mountain Cup match against RSL:
“Yeah, the good thing about the period that we're in is that there's games coming fast and there's no time to dwell on bad results. I think we have two derbies coming up, so it's easy to get up for those, and we know those are two must-win games, so we'll be ready for them.”
