July 15, 2024 – MLS NEXT Pro (MLS NEXT Pro)
Colorado Rapids 2 News Release
Colorado Rapids II (4-10-3, 16 points) defeated North Texas SC (9-2-5, 36 points) 2-0 on Sunday night at the University of Denver Soccer Stadium, a game highlighted by a two-goal performance by Honduran striker Antony García and the team’s first clean sheet of the season.
The night started early with a fine team effort in the 6th minute, with first-team player Jasper Löffelsend opening the scoring in midfield. Löffelsend found Darren Yapi on a through ball, Yapi’s touch was enough to stop García from running into the box. García collected the ball easily to open his team’s account in the first half.
The Rapids 2 attack continued in the second half after Erik Bushey’s side made four substitutions. Midfielder Marlon Vargas came on and made an immediate impact, splitting defenders and allowing García to score his second goal of the night in the 74th minute.
The team finished with 10 men after García went down injured in the last 15 minutes of the game. Goalkeeper Bandré remained calm, finishing the night with three saves and his first clean sheet for the club.
Rapids 2 will have an off week before their match against MNUFC2 on Friday, July 26. The match is scheduled to start at 6:00 PM (Mountain Standard Time) at the National Sports Center Stadium.
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notable:
First-team goalkeeper Ethan Bandre recorded his first clean sheet of the season with the team in a win over North Texas SC.
F Anthony Garcia scored his fifth and sixth goals of the season tonight against North Texas SC, giving him second-most goals for the team so far this season.
Garcia scored twice in tonight’s game, his second of the season, the first coming on June 23 against the Houston Dynamo II.
Academy forward Noah Strelnauer recorded an assist in tonight’s game and now leads the team with six assists this season.
M Marlon Vargas recorded his fourth assist of the season, second most on the team.
First-team midfielder Jasper Löppelsend registered his first assist for Rapids 2 in tonight’s game, and his second for the club overall.
First-team forward Darren Yaffe recorded his first Rapids assist of the 2024 season in a win over North Texas SC.
M Daoudah Amadou wore the captain’s armband for the first time this season in tonight’s match against North Texas SC.
M Dauda Amadou has made his 40th start for Rapids 2, surpassing Robinson Aguirre and Marloin Vargas for the second-most starts in team history.
The Colorado Rapids 2 scored their first goal of the season in tonight’s game, as Anthony Garcia opened the scoring in the sixth minute of play.
Colorado Rapids 2 Head Coach Eric Bush
In the game:
“Well, a clean sheet and three points, so we’re happy. I think we deserved it tonight, but the happiness is actually related to a lot of the points we’ve had over the last few weeks, even though it’s not the same. It was nice to see us get the result tonight, get the performance we had tonight, really a team performance, a collective performance. I hope the players feel good. They got it against a good North Texas team, so we’re happy.”
On the differences between the team’s first and second games against North Texas:
“It was a different game. I thought we should have won the first game. We made a few mistakes and got punished. That’s what happens when you play a good team. Tonight, we eliminated those obvious mistakes. Tonight, I thought we did pretty well defensively. I think we held our line tight, it was hard to break through, and the efforts they made to get behind us could have come from bigger diagonal balls, maybe the goalkeeper threw the ball early, or maybe we didn’t rotate enough early. There were very few opportunities for them to get past us, very few. We held the ball a little bit more securely in this game than the last game. I thought we deserved to win both games, but tonight was a little bit more comprehensive. We really had to take control back 20 minutes into the second half. Ultimately, Anthony’s injury is unfortunate and we’re going to have to take him off for a while, but it gave us a little bit of a break, a chance to breathe and it took the momentum out of the game. We used all the subs, so we were missing one guy, but we had to regroup and do things that helped us to be successful from the start. “It was a bit harder to keep the ball but I think the level of discipline we showed was really positive. I would much rather have Anthony next game but in the end we had to come together and get the result.”
Colorado Rapids goalkeeper Ethan Bandre
In the game:
“Yeah, it was a great team performance. I thought we moved the ball really well. Defensively we really stuck together and held the team together. When Anthony got injured and we were down to 10 men at the end, you have to give credit to the players. They stuck together really well and it was a great team performance from start to finish.”
On keeping his first clean sheet of the season:
“As I said, I’m going to get fired. My mentality doesn’t really change. It’s about working hard every day and eventually things will change. Tonight it’s definitely nice to get that sweet reward of ‘I did all this work’ and get a clean sheet. At the same time, I’d like to thank the players in front of me. They made my job pretty easy. Three saves that night and a clean sheet that night is pretty easy for me. So I’d like to thank the players in front of me too.”
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