The shortened field obviously had an impact on the Rapids from the very beginning. We knew they would have to get used to not having time on the ball and not having as much space to spread out. The back line, though, started out looking strong and not giving up space. New York’s back line, however, looked shaky and had some dangerous passes. Don’t they know Marlon Hairston likes to make teams pay for things like that?
Colorado started to move the ball faster and had pretty good control after the first few minutes, but NYCFC were quickly collapsing two, sometimes even three players, on the ball, not giving Colorado really any options.