Rapids collapse at New England, turn three-goal lead into draw

Up - with minutes to go it seemed the Colorado Rapids were on the way to a winger renaissance against the New England Revolution on Saturday night But an epic mental collapse in the second half turned a convincing win with star midfielder Djordje Mihailovic out with an ankle injury into a haunting -all draw midway through a rollercoaster season This is one of those draws that feels like a loss Rapids coach Chris Armas stated But it s a point on the road so we ll take it On an otherwise solid night defensively goalkeeper Nico Hansen made a career-high eight saves and the Rapids fended off corners an own goal by Sam Vines a cheap penalty conceded by Sam Bassett and a stoppage-time header by Revolution forward Maxi Urruti conjured a magical three-goal comeback for the Revolution It was the first time in Revolution history that it came back from three or more goals to draw Those guys Vines and Bassett know the message will eventually be It s got nothing to do with the individual plays in this encounter disclosed Rapids defender Keegan Rosenberry who subbed in late for his first appearance in a month and half It s much more about the way we respond as a group and that s part of maturing and learning as a unit You can look back and be disappointed in yourself but it s so much more than that Those guys will learn from it It s not what s top of mind coming out of that Rapids winger Ted Ku-DiPietro completely opened his Rapids account with his association s third goal of the night a th-minute strike from distance which beat Revolution goalkeeper Aljaz Ivacic to the near post Winger Calvin Harris who scored against the L A Galaxy on Wednesday in his first start of the year started and scored again blasting a rebound into the top netting to open the scoring in the th minute In the th minute forward Rafael Navarro beautifully chopped the ball back from the left toward the right side of the box then split three defenders with a shot to the far lower corner It was the Brazilian s second masterful move of the night having lost a defender with a spin move in the buildup of Harris s goal -year old forward Darren Yapi assisted Navarro s and Ku-DiPietro s goals his first two assists of the season It s great that although we give up a lot of possession New England had more than we re the more dangerous unit for good stretches on the night That was the plan to punish them in transition and take away a lot of what they re good at Armas disclosed The big part of it is late in the encounter maybe the th minute and beyond we need to play more We need to keep the ball in moments control the competition with the ball a bit more because it just ends up being too much pressure The common thread between the three Rapids goals was that they didn t collectively overthink opportunities upgrading shots by passing to open teammates until the defense sets utterly Instead every goal was punctuated by taking shots when they were open even if it wasn t necessarily the best shot on paper The effect was just the third meeting this season the Rapids scored more than twice Mihailovic who leads the club in scoring with eight goals in his games this year is a big part of making that scoreline more common Armas revealed he should be good to go by Friday July when the Rapids take on Sporting Kansas City at home but the club decided to sit him mostly due to Gillette Stadium s turf field