May 2, 2022 – Major League Soccer (MLS) – Colorado Rapids News Release
When Diego Rubio was handed his marching orders on Saturday, with 63 minutes gone, the Colorado Rapids were 1-0 up courtesy of a crackerjack goal from the Chilean striker.
But the Rapids still had 27 minutes to play (34 with stoppage time added), against a Portland Timbers team which had been very much second best up to that point, yet presumably saw a slight crack in the door and an opening back into the contest.
As it happened, the Rapids continued to surge forward and ought to have added to their number before Mark-Anthony Kaye did bury one in stoppage time to add some shine to the scoreline.
This was not the first time the Rapids were the better side when playing a man down. They actually trailed at Minnesota last October before Danny Wilson saw red, and went on to score three unanswered through Cole Bassett, Michael Barrios, and Lucas Esteves for a 3-1 win.
And so, with those two games in mind, when the opposition had a man advantage but were still no match for Robin Fraser’s side, I thought to look through the record books to see how often the Rapids have won games when having players sent off. (I did not include games in which both sides had a player sent off).
In 825 regular season games, the Rapids have suffered 103 dismissals. The first one in club history doesn’t count in this instance, as it was actually head coach Bob Houghton – so not a player.
That incident was May 16, 1996 at Giants Stadium, by the way, against the Metrostars. Houghton was sent off after 18 minutes for abusive language and the Rapids lost 3-0. All three Metrostars goals came from Giovanni Savarese, who today is the head coach of Portland Timbers. It was the second-ever hat-trick in MLS history, coming just one day after the first was registered by Steve Rammel of D.C. United.
Anyway, back to the task in hand.
The first player to be sent off in club history was Jean Harbor, in a 3-1 home loss to San Jose Clash on…
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