FRISCO, Texas – The Rapids came into Toyota Stadium Friday night and hammered FC Dallas 4-0. Colorado ended their 18 game winless streak, scoring their first goals of the young season.
Colorado (1-1-3, 6 points) came into the game (3-2-1, 10 points) with one big change to the starting 11. Defender Drew Moor who has been out the past eight months after a season ending ACL injury, returned to his normal position along with wearing the captain’s arm band. Moor played all 90 minutes in the shutout, and looked to be in normal form.
“Being back here in Dallas, the stadium I know just as well as my home stadium back in Denver, it’s a good feeling. I’ve been emotional ever since the injury occurred. I’ve got my family here tonight and I’ll spend as much time with them as I possibly can. I have been emotional about it, and I’m fighting it off right now as we speak,” Drew Moor said postgame.
The Rapids got on the board early and often in the win. Rookie Dominique Badji found the back of the net on a cross from midfielder Dillon Powers just two minutes into the match. The pass from Powers found Badji streaking in the box between two defenders and Dallas goalkeeper Chris Seitz had no time to react to the shot from the young striker.
“It felt great. It’s a huge weight off my shoulders and off the shoulders of the team. Obviously you think about it before the game but once the game gets going and once we were in the moment, it was just another goal,” Badji commented on scoring his 1st career MLS goal.
Colorado doubled their lead just before halftime in the 43rd minute when Marcelo Sarvas received a pass and found Powers cutting through the penalty box, striking a low shot past Seitz.
Powers had this to say after scoring his 1st goal of the season: “It feels great. You always want to get going, and it has to start somewhere, and the longer it goes, the harder it is sometimes. To get that going, I feel really good about it. I didn’t realize it was my first goal against Dallas, but I had a lot of friends and family I was playing in front of, for them to see me score and do well makes me happy”.
FC Dallas Head Coach Oscar Pareja started the second half with Kyle Bekker and Atiba Harris coming in as subs. The subs brought some added energy from the home team and forced Rapids goaltender Clint Irwin to make a few key saves.
Colorado didn’t stop their attack and added an insurance goal in the 70th minute as Powers led the attack from the left side and found an open Juan Ramirez in the penalty box, who while falling down would feed an open Gabriel Torres for the easy open shot.
The Rapids scored their fourth and final goal when three minutes after subbing in for Dillon Powers (84′), Colorado Homegrown midfielder Dillon Serna had plenty of space from 30 yards out and fired a left footed shot just over the outreached hands of Seitz into the back of the net.
Acting head coach Claudio Lopez, who was filling in for the suspended Pablo Mastroeni, had this to say postgame: “Today the most important thing is the goal is open. We can take this confidence for shooting and making plays, and finishing. I hope that we can keep working in this way and show a few more things every week and win some games”.
Colorado returns home next Saturday night as they welcome in the Seattle Sounders to Dick’s Sporting Goods Park at 7 p.m. You can catch that game on Mile High Sports Radio AM 1550| FM 94.1|96.9 in Boulder.
Jesse Trujillo is a producer and writer for Mile High Sports. He can be emailed at jtrujillo81@gmail.com and followed on Twitter @Jtrujillo1981
