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Colorado Rapids

Colorado Rapids wins 4-0

April 11, 2015 - Major League Soccer (MLS)
Colorado Rapids News Release


Colorado Rapids snatched a sensational 4-0 win against FC Dallas at Toyota Stadium on Friday evening.

Goals from Dominique Badji, Dillon Powers, Gabriel Torres and Dillon Serna gave Pablo Mastroeni's men their first victory of the season in emphatic style.

In the opening four games of the campaign, Rapids had put in decent performances but not always achieved results to match. This evening they allied the two.

The victory ended a run of 18 games without a win (albeit with the majority of those last term) and has catapulted the Rapids to the edge of the play-off places in the nascent standings. It was also the first time Rapids had won by four goals on the road in MLS history and tied their best margin of victory in any game in the competition.

On the evidence of tonight, there is plenty more to come from Mastroeni's men in 2015.

TEAM NEWS

The big news before kick-off concerned Drew Moor, who was back in the Rapids line-up after almost eight months out with a knee injury. Badji returned up front with Powers behind him and Torres on the right. James Riley replaced the injured Marc Burch in defense.

FIRST HALF

There were only 90 seconds on the clock when Powers forged down the right-hand side and fired over a low cross to the near post. It flew just beyond Walter Zimmerman and into the path of Badji, who had timed his run to perfection. The rookie gleefully slammed home his first goal in MLS.

Rapids would go on to create more chances. In the 14th minute, Bobby Burling's shot was deflected wide and, from the resulting corner, Moor headed over.

As the game wore on, Dallas grabbed a foothold. Ryan Hollingshead dragged a shot wide. Then the same player tried to feed Blas Perez in the area only for Michael Harrington to intervene.

The Rapids defender survived a penalty shout for handball just past the half-hour. However the visitors would end the first half in the ascendancy. Badji fired wide and then, two minutes from the whistle, Powers darted into the area and fired a low shot into the far corner. Only a sharp save from Chris Seitz stopped Torres slipping home a third in added time.

SECOND HALF

Dallas went on the attack after the restart and only a perfectly-timed sliding tackle from Burling stopped Fabian Castillo darting through in the 50th minute. Soon after that Clint Irwin made a sharp save from Tesho Akindele.

It was now an open game with Badji's pace still stretching the home defense to the limited. Powers was at his inventive best and, in the 70th minute, he combined with Juan Ramirez for Torres to drill home at third.

That goal sucked the life out of Dallas. Rapids held them at bay and, five minutes from time, Serna crashed home a thunderous shot into the top left-hand corner of the net from 25 yards to complete the rout.

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