Sam Vines’ own goal in first half summed things up Saturday night for the Colorado Rapids.
Calvin Harris’ back-post goal via header on a corner kick early in the second was too little, too late. Colorado ultimately could not climb Everest to get back into striking distance, losing 4-1 to the Portland Timbers in the season opener Saturday night in Portland.
After one half, both the Rapids and Timbers had 0.7 expected goals on Saturday night. Portland instead led 4-0.
In some ways, it felt like a case of everything going Portland’s way while the Rapids’ chances never found finishing touches, perhaps with a bit of misfortune. In other ways, the scoreline couldn’t help but bring up memories from last season’s opener at Seattle.
Here are three takeaways from another nightmare start to a season:
Defensive woes still present
Call it individual moments of Portland brilliance. Call it shortcomings by the Rapids’ defense. Either way, four goals in a single half is way short of acceptable.
Two of them (one ended up being Vines’ own goal) were on swift Portland counterattacks. One was on a lingering pass inside the box, where Eric Williamson calmly buried it to the top left corner with a first-time shot while no Rapid closed out on him.
At halftime, new coach Chris Armas made some adjustments, but he’s aware of the struggle on defense and knows it must improve quickly.
“(The goals are) not lucky,” Armas said. “We did get punished for a few lapses. We have to look hard at that and we’ll learn from that.”
Chances come and go
Another reason this match felt like an extension of the 2023 season: some good chance creation, but no finishing touches aside from Harris’ 55th minute header.
The best chance that didn’t end up in the back of the net was midway through the first half, when a teasing ball was played point blank from goal. Rafael Navarro and Moïse Bombito could have put it away, but it was instead knocked away by Portland keeper James Pantemis.
While it can be frustrating for fans and players, Armas isn’t too concerned with it at this point, but is “encouraged” by the chances. Defender and captain Keegan Rosenberry feels the irritation, but knows the focus needs to point elsewhere after a performance like this.
“(Not finishing chances) is always frustrating, and it’s fresh in our minds from last year as well,” Rosenberry said. “But I think the defenders, the way we conceded, we’re looking at that first before looking at missed chances. Of course, if we capitalize on chances, then it’s a different game, but the way we want to play, we can’t concede four goals and expect to be in the game.”
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Imperfections are fixable
If anything is salvageable from the loss, it’s the fact many of the shortcomings can be adjusted by the time the Rapids play their home opener against Nashville next Saturday.
As for the high defensive press, which was good for the first stretch of the game, can be dialed back a little bit as it was in the second half against Portland. Effort and willingness to win the ball back deeper in defense can also improve.
“Defending in a 4-2-3-1, we can win some more second balls and overload the midfield so we can have more support for second balls, duels and tackles,” Armas said. “So part of it was a structural adjustment, part of it was getting guys to be more up for the tackles and duels and come out ahead.”
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