Contrary to what your grade school teachers taught you, defeat is spelled D-R-O-G-B-A.
At least, that was the case for the Colorado Rapids, as they fell to the Montreal Impact 1-0 this past Saturday in their final home game of the season.
The former Chelsea striker and Ivory Coast native Didier Drogba scored the only goal of the match, cashing in on a free kick from 30 yards in the 15th minute, as seen here:
https://youtu.be/LwGw_C-hayo
“This guy has been scoring at the Premier League level for all these years and that’s what millions gets you,” said Rapids coach Pablo Mastroeni. “It’s the goal in the critical moment, so he’s a world-class player.”
Midfielder Lucas Pittinari nearly tied the game in extra time, but his shot was tipped aside by Impact keeper Evan Bush.
“You can’t ask much more for that,” Impact defender Donny Toia said of Bush’s late-game save. “It’s hard for him to see because everybody’s right there at the top of the box blocking his view, but he got a hand on it and that saved the game for us right there.”
The Rapids out-shot the Impact 10-6, and also dominated possession (65.9%), but were unable to produce enough quality scoring chances, which has been a theme for the team this season. Of the 20 MLS teams, the Rapids are dead-last in scoring, with 30 goals.
“I think we created some chances, we just weren’t as clean as we needed to be in the final third,” added Rapids defender Axel Sӧberg.
“On the field, we had some really good opportunities, but it’s about goals,” echoed Mastroeni. “Today again, I thought we had two or three really good chances to finish and on any other given day it’s a different story.”
The loss drops the Rapids to 8-14-10 overall, though they were already eliminated from the playoffs after last week’s loss to Real Salt Lake. For the penultimate game of the season, the Rapids head east to play Sporting Kansas City next Wednesday, Oct. 21.
Calvin Jouard is an intern at Mile High Sports and a student at the University of Denver
