The Colorado Rapids smashed and grabbed their way to a Leagues Cup quarterfinals berth.
Darren Yapi scored in the final minute of regulation to send Colorado to a 2-1 win over Liga MX side Deportivo Toluca late Tuesday night at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park.
But this was a game the Rapids very easily could have lost.
The Diablos rattled off 21 shots (six on goal) to the Rapids’ four (two on goal). Toluca dominated the possession to the tune of 64% to 36%. And if the Rapids scoring on their only shots on goal wasn’t improbable enough, Yapi had to tap in the winner in the 90+6th minute.
“Just touch it,” Yapi said he thought when he saw the ball lingering around the goal line in front of him. “My eyes lit up.”
His second goal in the pros couldn’t have come at a better time. As a team, the Rapids have now scored two goals late in stoppage time during Leagues Cup to win or send a match to penalties.
For Rapids coach Chris Armas, nothing has been better during this run than to see how his team reacts to adversity and tough situations, particularly against quality Mexican teams like Toluca.
“These games have tested us in big, big ways,” Armas said. “I’ve gotten to see that team, they’re a joy to work with. When you’re a coach and you can design and cultivate a team, what do you want that team to look like in the end? You want the grit, the mental toughness and the way they stick together. That’s the DNA of this group.”
In the 45th minute, the Rapids got on the board first when midfielder Cole Bassett sent a diagonal longball from midfield to the left side of the six-yard box to Sam Vines. Vines, who otherwise did not have a great first half, laid a perfect pass across goal on his first touch to set up Rafael Navarro for a tap-in.
Then in the 83rd minute, Brazilian forward Paulinho finally tied the match up with a backheel while spinning to get the ball past Zack Steffen, who otherwise had another great Leagues Cup match with five saves.
The Rapids thought they had gone ahead in the 90+1st minute when Connor Ronan put in a ball to Djordje Mihailovic, who spiked a header off the ground and up into the top corner of the goal, but a long VAR review found Ronan was offside in the buildup.
Yapi played super sub just five minutes later. A bad touch off of a Toluca defender left the ball right on the goal line for the Rapids homegrown to slide tackle a winner into the net.
Yapi was subbed on for Navarro in the 86th minute, which seemed questionable at the time given the score was tied and penalties loomed. In the end, it turned out to be a genius move from Armas.
Mihailovic, while shocked the Rapids only had four shots on the night, knew the match would be a grind and that his team would have to make the most of its few chances.
When his apparent winner was called offside, he and the team could have just taken their foot off the gas and gone to penalties. But Toluca was giving up more opportunities after it stopped pressing hard following its game-tying goal. Plus, there was already plenty of suspense for one night.
“We knew it was going to be a test for us, that it was going to be more than just football. It’s not going to be pretty at times,” Mihailovic said. “I was laughing when they called it offside because I felt we were going to get the second one pretty quickly and I love the hustle from Yapi to put in the goal even though it was already going in.
“All around, this game was won by mentality more than anything and physical endurance; I know I was struggling physically. At that stage (late in the game), things just don’t matter and we were able to push through all that adversity we were facing.”
After defending Liga MX champions Club América beat St. Louis CITY 4-2, the Rapids will travel to Dignity Health Sports Park in California to play in the Leagues Cup quarterfinal on Saturday at 8 p.m. against América.
