The Colorado Rapids played their hearts out for their Great Dane on Saturday night, that much was clear. It resulted in the team’s first win of the 2023 campaign.
Designated Player and Danish center back Andreas Maxsø had to be substituted off with concussion-like symptoms in which he was down injured for many minutes late in the first half. In the second half, the team took chances on the counterattack as Diego Rubio found a 68th-minute winner against his old club. The defense held on and Colorado earned its first win at “Blue Hell”, Children’s Mercy Park, since Sept. 2019.
“It was a shock for everybody at that point (when Andreas was down). But, we (won) for him today,” Rubio said in his postgame comments. “That’s all I wanna say is, we made that effort for him. We know how hard he works for us, for the team. It’s a great big effort and a great win.”
Colorado (1-3-3, 6 points) started off well as the team was able to create a few half chances and looked comfortable defending Sporting Kansas City, as Max Alves and Rubio came out aggressive for Colorado early on.
“This week in training he showed signs that Diego is coming back,” Rapids head coach Robin Fraser said. “He was really good, really sharp at training this week. I thought from the very first touch he had tonight where held the ball up and turned two guys and dribbled out if it and thought ‘hmm, Diego seems to be where he was’ (before his knee surgery).”
On an SKC free kick, Maxsø nicked the head of defender Dany Rosales, but his head hit the ground hard. Rapids players immediately notified trainers and doctors to come onto the pitch.
He was surrounded by medical staff for minutes as Children’s Mercy Park went silent. After six minutes of game clock time, he did sit up while looking severely dazed, but was able to scoot his body on his own onto a stretcher and was taken off the field with a head injury. Club officials confirmed he was not taken to the hospital and underwent additional tests with league medical personnel inside the stadium.
In the second half, Colorado was put under significant pressure, however, Steven Beitashour made sure to fill in for Maxsø and played valiantly with yeoman’s work against Alan Pulido, Daniel Salloi and other dangerous SKC attackers. William Yarbrough was forced into a few key saves and with the clean sheet, is now tied atop the club leaderboard in clean sheets with Matt Pickens at 29.
Sporting Kansas City (0-3-4, 3 points) continued to add pressure as Johnny Russell, who was back from injury, forced both of his fellow Scotsmen in Danny Wilson and Sam Nicholson to be shown yellow cards with dangerous runs into the box. However, the Rapids their its bend-not-break approach.
“All of the defenders had to deal with a lot tonight,” Fraser said. “They fought, they dug in and … I though those guys, Danny, Keegan, Lalas and Maxsø before he went out were all fantastic.”
In the 68th minute, Rubio found the answer every Rapids fan was looking for. He bullied Remi Walter into slipping and losing the ball and he was quickly in a two-on-two situation and went on a solo run. From beyond the 18-yard box, he sent SKC goalkeeper Tim Melia the wrong way and found the bottom left-hand corner.
“The effort to get to the ball, the composure, the actual choice of how to strike the ball, it was a real moment that I felt like Diego making a statement that he’s back. For us, we’re really excited about that.”
Colorado was able to see out the rest of the game albeit under pressure, the work rate carried the team to the final whistle.
In the 11th minute of play, the game came to a halt at sundown and defender Lalas Abubakar, a practicing Muslim, was able to break Ramadan fast as part of a league-wide in-game moment and trainers gave him energy gels and fluids. Ramadan runs until April 21.
Colorado will remain on the road as it will face its first Eastern Conference opponent, Charlotte FC, at 5:30 p.m. April 15 at Bank of America Stadium.
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