July is looking like a turnaround month for the Rapids after a 3-1 win over Real Salt Lake on Saturday and a Fourth of July win over Vancouver the week prior. The Rapids scored both wins in front of the home crowd at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park.
Following Saturday’s dramatic win, head coach Pablo Mastroeni, forward Charles Eloundou and defender Jared Watts spoke with the media. These are the highlights…
Mastroeni: It was by far one of our best displays of football this year. That’s a combination of going through hardship during the year and a group of guys believing that they are going to win the game. It was a great attacking performance being on the front foot and the guys in the back and the midfield working their tails off. It was one of the best wins that I’ve had here (at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park) as a coach and possibly as a player.
Eloundou: I think when you are on the bench; the coach relies upon you to make a difference when you come into the game. It was a dream moment for me to give two assists. I feel very happy to help my team and do a good job for my teammates. I have too much confidence now but I have to keep it balanced through work and making the most of my chance.
Watts: With the type of player that he (Eloundou) is – so dynamic going forward, getting in dangerous situations with fresh legs; one could just tell he added a little spark. We see it every day in practice; he’s working hard and doing the right things. I’m really happy for him to come in and really make a difference.
Mastroeni:When we scored the (tying) goal I said, ‘Let’s go for it.’ We are in a situation where we have to win but at the end of the day, the guys on the field are the ones that make the decisions when the game was on the line. We went for it with a bit of momentum after two or three great performances at home.
Watts: I think that once we got that goal, we weren’t satisfied and we were feeling the momentum. This game is all about momentum and we pushed for that. You have to give credit to those guys up top, they never stopped running and putting themselves in dangerous positions. Our job back there is a lot easier and the goal that we gave up was tough. We have to give credit to all the guys, nobody dropped their head, and we got after it and got those three points.
Mastroeni: I want to keep consistency in the lineup as much as we can. We haven’t been able to do that for a number of reasons and this game really showed that the guys are getting in sync. We’ve been playing some good stuff all year and in the last week we started to believe that we can score some goals. There are going to be a lot of options moving forward, the important thing is we do it the right way and we do it together.
The Rapids have one more July match to make a perfect MLS month. July 18 at 8 p.m. in Seattle, they will face the No. 1 team in the Western Conference, the Sounders.
Sabrina Naccarato, a Mile High Sports intern and MSU-Denver student, contributed to this report
