It wasn’t quite desperation time, but after being bounced from the Concacaf Champions League and then losing to LAFC, 3-0 on MLS is Back weekend, the Colorado Rapids needed a positive response in their regular-season home opener and got an emphatic one in a 3-0 victory over Atlanta United.
The key to the bounce-back performance against Atlanta's high-octane attack? A hard-working defensive effort, according to head coach Robin Fraser.
“I thought we worked extremely hard in our individual battles and I thought collectively we did well and you have to be able to stop teams that are good attacking teams,” Fraser said after the match. “And as a result, we won balls in some good areas, which helped set up some of our attacks, but I can't stress enough how well we worked collectively. And if we do that then we're very difficult to play against.”
Leading that effort, according to Fraser, was Diego Rubio, who also opened the scoring and assisted on Jonathan Lewis’ insurance goal early in the second half.
“The first one is his diligence to his defending and his willingness to get into spots to help us win balls back. I thought it was really good,” Fraser said when asked about what stood out to him about Rubio’s performance. “And then I think about some of his decisions around the field, holding the ball for us, being able to – under pressure – get us off one side, get into the other side. It was a very, very mature performance from Diego. And then finally, his stuff in front of the goal. The header, fantastic goal. And the ball into Johnny [Lewis] for the assist, the second goal, was absolutely fantastic as well.”
Lewis said an emphasis at training leading up to the game was finishing chances in transition, which helped the 2021 Western Conference regular-season winners get three massive home points.
“We're all learning how to attack, we're getting better at attacking out of, you know, not just getting out wide and just crossing, like finishing our chances in transition,” Lewis said. “I think once we got used to the field and how it was playing, I mean, we figured it out. We started connecting our passes. We started to play off each other really well.”
