The Colorado Rapids became the latest team to run riot over the struggling San Jose Earthquakes, surging to a 5-0 win at Dick's Sporting Goods Park on Wednesday night.
Colorado dominated possession throughout the 1st half and might have found themselves up by a couple of goals early on if not for a nice pair of stops by Daniel Vega. And, in fact, it eventually got one past Vega in the 29th minute through Kellyn Acosta's pretty right-footed strike outside the box, but Video Review showed Jack Price was offside on the buildup.
The next one Vega let in would surely count, though. In the 35th, Price served up a perfect ball from outside the box to Cole Bassett, who headed it home to put the Rapids on the scoresheet.
It didn't take long into the second half for the hosts to double the margin. In the 50th minute, Acosta received the ball just beyond the top of the box and played a pretty ball to Jonathan Lewis, who drew Vega out of the net and cued it past the Quakes keeper for his 5th of the season to make it 2-0.
San Jose came very close on a corner kick routine in the 63rd to cut the lead in half, but Danny Hoesen's attempt from right on the doorstep saw William Yarbrough make himself big to preserve the shutout. An own goal by the Quakes' Tommy Thompson in the 70th iced the match away as the Rapids would cruise to its 3rd win in 4 matches, adding two more for good measure in the latter stages for the match's final margin.
Goals
- 36'—COL—Cole Bassett | WATCH
- 50'—COL—Jonathan Lewis | WATCH
- 70'—COL—Tommy Thompson (OG) | WATCH
- 79'—COL—Nicolas Mezquida | WATCH
- 84'—COL—Andre Shinyashiki | WATCH
Three Things
THE BIG PICTURE:
Woof. As if things couldn't get worse for Matias Almeyda and company, they give up five on the road to Colorado. If you're scoring at home, they've now let in 11 goals in 2 games and have allowed 38 goals over 13 matches. The seat was already hot for
El Pelado
, and after this latest showing, it won't get any cooler. Meanwhile, the Rapids pulled closer to the top of the Western Conference table with the win and now sit at 19 points with 13 matches played. That's three wins in the last four outings for Robin Fraser's crew, with a key match on Sunday against
Sporting Kansas City
looming.
Next Up
- COL: Sunday, September 27 vs. Sporting Kansas City (8 pm ET | MLS LIVE on ESPN+ in US; DAZN in Canada)
- SJ: Sunday, September 27 vs. LAFC (10:30 pm ET | MLS LIVE on ESPN+ in US)
