May 16, 2022 – Major League Soccer (MLS) – Colorado Rapids News Release
In a week like they’ve never experienced, the Rapids faced a postponed game, Open Cup loss, delayed flight, countless hours of uncertainty and a 2-0 victory over the Western Conference leaders, LAFC, at home. The Burgundy Boys have shown unparalleled resiliency in the past five days to prove that yet again, they are a force to be reckoned with in the league.
“I’ve talked about the character of this group forever,” said head coach Robin Fraser after the shutout on Saturday. “And we knew we were in a tough situation and we didn’t shy away from it, we didn’t make excuses. Considering that we were playing 48 hours ago, I can’t be more proud of the group.”
Wednesday
After departing for Minneapolis on Tuesday afternoon post-training, the Rapids had already spent over 24 hours in the Twin Cities getting ready for their first 2022 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup matchup with Minnesota United FC. The first 19 minutes on the field saw two goals scored, the opener from the Loons’ Abu Danladi in the eighth minute, followed by a 15th minute equalizer from Nico Mezquida to level the playing field.
The Burgundy Boys had limited time to celebrate their goal, however. Just moments later, the first shot of lightning hit the Minneapolis sky, delaying the game by 30 minutes. It was a trend that would last the rest of the evening, as both sides could only wait in locker rooms and watch from the tunnels as lightning flashed and Allianz Field quickly turned into an unplayable lake of a pitch.
“From what I gathered, MLS still had a stake because it’s two MLS teams, but it’s U.S. Soccer’s Open Cup event so they wanted to get the game in,” said Team Operations Coordinator, Boyd Kirk. “From their standpoint, they were really pushing [to play] because technically we were allowed to kickoff up till 10:59 and the weather was almost opening up, so it was just unfortunate that we had to stay there.”
The Rapids and Loons waited on…
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