COMMERCE CITY – The Colorado Rapids bounced back on Saturday night after giving up an own goal and impressed in their 6-3 home victory against the Montreal Impact. Coming off back to back losses against New York City and San Jose, Colorado needed to find a way to keep themselves from falling further down the Western Conference standings.
Montreal’s first goal came in the 18th minute when striker Kei Kamara turned out a header from the corner that bounced past the keeper, his Rapids teammate Tim Howard. Immediately afterwards on the other side of the pitch, the Rapids tied the game in the 21st minute on a set piece where Kamara bounced it off keeper Evan Bush for a Montreal own goal.
Montreal tried to play a possession game but the Rapids applied pressure on defense until they could exploit some mistakes. In the 36th minute, Tommy Smith was smothered in the box which prompted the referee to check the video replay, which concluded the ruling of a penalty. Kamara would convert and give them the lead but they were not done there.
Just before the first half whistle, Kamara scored another goal on a rebound followed by a Diego Rubio header to make at 4-1 at the half.
Montreal chipped away at the Rapids defense in the 2nd half and goals from Maximiliano Urruti and Saphir Taider cut the score to 4-3 in the 76th minute. However, the Rapids once again found a way to respond to a goal on the very next possession. This time scoring from a Jack Price corner headed in by Andre Shinyashiki. Price created 7 chances on the night and finished with 3 assists.
The Rapids capped off the night with a Kamara header over the keeper for a hat trick and taking the three by points by a final score of 6-3. Tonight was Kamara’s second hat trick of his career and the six goals for the Rapids are the most in club history.
On his performance, Kamara said, “It was a good day. We’ve been struggling — we had a good streak for a while, but it’s been five games since we’ve put something together. Today was a good day to really get back to it — not just that, getting three points, but putting that many goals on the board helped boost the fans that came to support us.”
With eleven games remaining in the season, Colorado will look to feed of the attacking energy from tonight and give themselves a chance at a playoff spot. They’ll start up again at home this coming Saturday, August 10th against the San Jose Earthquakes. The Quakes defeated Colorado in their last meeting on July 27th.
On the upcoming matchup, Rapids Head Coach Conor Casey said, “Execution, really — we created a lot of chances, we had good energy coming out. We were unlucky to have the own goal to start, but the energy from the team was great to start. To come in at half time with four goals shows the desire that they came out with today. We scored six, but we also left a couple on the table. It was a great job from our team. Obviously, a lot of them came from set-pieces, so we were clinical again in set pieces. Again, set pieces have been a big part of our success so far this season and a lot of positives to take away from tonight.”
Written by Paul Fritz
(Image Credit: Colorado Rapids)
