Game Recap: Minnesota United 1, Colorado Rapids 0

The Colorado Rapids played their first game at Allianz Field tonight and lost to Minnesota United 1-0. The two clubs last met on June 8th in Commerce City and the Rapids won 1-0.

The first half wasn’t very exciting. There were multiple fouls on both sides and the Rapids were having a tough time getting anything going. They were making bad passes and letting Minnesota control the game. It was not a great strategy.

In the 36th minute, MNUFC was awarded a penalty kick. Yes, Danny Wilson extended his arm and Chase Gasper went down, but you could argue it was soft. DP Darwin Quintero took the penalty and Clint Irwin saved it fairly easily.

Three minutes later, Quintero perfectly timed his run to avoid the offside and found himself one-on-one with Irwin since no one was tracking him.

He scored, putting Minnesota up 1-0.

Neither side made any changes going into the second half.

Minnesota effectively shut down Kei Kamara and Diego Rubio tonight and the ‘Pids finished with only three shots on target compared to the Loons’ nine.

The biggest opportunity for Colorado in the second half was off a corner kick in the 65th minute. Lalas Abubakar got a head on it, but it was deflected out to Sam Nicholson who barely missed wide.

At the end of the day, the Rapids didn’t necessarily play poorly, but they also didn’t do anything particularly well, with the exception of Irwin. The back-up keeper was fantastic and kept Colorado in the game with eight saves, but it wasn’t enough in the end. Also slightly puzzling was Conor Casey’s choice to only use two subs in this game.

Tonight’s loss was the first time the Rapids have been shut out since Casey took over as interim head coach.