After a string of injuries to top Colorado Rapids players, Darren Yapi made his own luck to beat St. Louis CITY on Saturday night.
In the sixth minute of the match, lightning postponed the contest for more than 90 minutes. After a warm-up period, the game resumed nearly two hours from its scheduled kickoff time. The Rapids’ parade was rained on, but they scored and held on for a 1-0 win at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park on Saturday night.
Yapi cleansed the club’s “five-minute problem,” which has seen an abnormal amount of goals conceded in the final five minutes of the first half of games, and scored the match’s lone goal in the 41st minute.
Ted Ku-DiPietro, in his first start in a Rapids jersey, was credited with the assist for lofting in a nice ball to Yapi. It was at head height, which made the initial touch difficult for the 6-foot-1 forward, but he somehow got a foot to it and set up a shot that deflected off a St. Louis defender past goalkeeper Roman Bürki into the bottom left corner.
It was Yapi’s third tally this season, already a career single-season high for the 20-year-old in his fifth MLS season.
“Happy to put my name in the score sheet again this year. It’s a new MLS high for me, so just a proud moment for me and just happy to get the three points,” Yapi said. “I think it just came down to instinct. Once I got the touch (from Ku-DiPietro’s pass), I just had one thing in mind, which was to shoot.”
In a perfect world — which in this case would be the world where Bürki wasn’t the opposing goalkeeper — Yapi could have had one or two more goals. In the 60th minute, DU product Sam Bassett, who got his first career start, played a perfect through pass to Yapi on the left wing. He cut back toward the middle, but took a couple dribbles too many and Bürki pounced on it with ease.
In the 80th minute, he found himself open with the ball at the top of the box, fired away, and forced Bürki’s best of five saves of the night, diving to his right.
Yapi’s night signaled a shift in the youngster’s confidence. He’s had to carry the weight up top with Rafael Navarro out with a high ankle sprain. He said he’s put pressure on himself with that sort of responsibility, but his three shots on target against St. Louis were also a career high.
Many other strikers may not have thought to attempt the one that went in with his back shoulder to goal. Luck was on his side with the deflection, but he made it that way.
“Knowing that Rafa is such a key piece for us and he’s such a lethal goal scorer, … just knowing that, I have to step up,” Yapi said. “I know it’s maybe a little worse to put pressure on myself, but at the end of the day, it’s the truth: I have to step up and perform for the team. It’s just the ‘next man up’ mentality.”
The Rapids improved to 3-0-0 on the year when going into the locker room with a halftime lead.
Third-string goalkeeper Nico Hansen had a hand in that Saturday. He’s only made three appearances for the Rapids — and in the MLS, for that matter — but has made the most of them. His only goal conceded was in a 1-all draw to Seattle in his MLS debut, but he’s been lights out since.
With Zack Steffen out with an oblique injury and likely playing it safe until he heads to national team camp in June, Hansen has recorded two straight shutouts in back-to-back games against Real Salt Lake and St. Louis.
He’s looked the part and, according to teammates, has sounded the part as a vocal leader. He dealt with his first real test between the pipes Saturday night when the game was still scoreless. On a weird bounce, the outside of João Klauss’ foot found Cedric Teuchert all by himself with just Hansen between him and the net.
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“Guys have been up here and they say, ‘You have to stay ready so you don’t have to get ready,’” Rapids coach Chris Armas said. “(Hansen) is a good case of that. For a few months in a row, we were talking as a staff, saying, ‘Nico, another good day. Nico, really solid, hard to score on.’
“He steps into the year, not knowing if he’ll play at all. When does, on paper, the third string guy (play)? It’s always a competition, but he’s got a good process. … It’s great to see a guy step in. The breakaway was a great save.”
After a bad stretch that saw three straight losses during which the Rapids only scored once, Colorado has strung together two straight 1-0 victories at home. They’ll take the streak on the road to a solid Portland Timbers team, which sits just a point and a place above the Rapids in the Western Conference standings, on Wednesday at 8:30 p.m.
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