It had been three games since the Colorado Rapids last walked away with points, but it only took them a matter of moments to reverse that momentum thanks to Dillon Serna’s opening goal 51 seconds into their 1-0 win over the Chicago Fire on Saturday night at Toyota Park.
“Anytime you score that early in the game it flips it on its head,” Rapids head coach Pablo Mastroeni told the media in his postgame comments. “We want to get after the game early. We want to look to get behind their defense, and I think we did that.”
In his first start since late June, Serna was inserted into the lineup as part of an attacking trio atop Colorado’s 4-3-3 alongside Gabriel Torres and Kevin Doyle.
“We’re three players that are dangerous in front of the goal,” Serna said. “For me, it’s been tough to get minutes, but getting a goal gives a player confidence.”
With the lead secured, the Rapids spent the remaining 89 minutes plus five minutes of extra time protecting the result. But they weren’t without additional chances to increase the lead including Doyle’s header in the 62nd minute and a direct shot on the face of goal by Torres just more than 10 minutes later.
“In the second half, we made some adjustments and the guys really commanded a great line back there,” said Mastroeni. “I think we were dynamic on the break and just failed to capitalize on a few other opportunities. Our job was to secure the one-goal lead, hope they overcommit and catch them on the break.”
Added Serna: “The game wasn’t a beautiful game, but sometimes you’ve got to grind out the points. It’s a huge result for us.”
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In a matchup of bottom dwellers in their respective conferences, it was an important result for Colorado to keep their slim playoff hopes alive ahead of two upcoming Western Conference fixtures against the Houston Dynamo and Sporting Kansas City in the next seven days.
“It’s easy to roll over and die when you’re at the bottom. But what I saw tonight is a bunch of guys that fought extremely hard for one another and found a way to dig in,” Mastroeni said. “This is definitely a performance to build on and inspire the guys to come out and put forth the effort to get the three points at home against a conference rival.”
