Colorado Rapids look threatening, lack finishing in 2-0 loss to St. Louis City as scoreless stretch drags to four games – The Denver Post

Colorado Rapids head coach Robin Fraser saw his side put out a stronger second-half performance after a brutal first 45 minutes Saturday against Western Conference leaders, St. Louis City.

His side had more possessions and six second-half corner kicks to go along with threatening passages of play. Fraser thought his team had shown enough to get back into the game.

“I did feel like (a comeback) was going to happen. The energy felt right, the mentality was clearly much better, and … we got into some pretty good spots,” Fraser said.

The final scoreline from the MLS’ newest stadium and expansion team: St. Louis City 2, Colorado 0, as the Rapids were kept off the scoreboard for the fourth consecutive game, and are winless in their last nine games across all competitions.

“But we still don’t turn those into real, real chances,” Fraser continued. “I was smiling as you were making the comment about what I’ve said about needing to be more precise, and today’s another example of that.”

Kévin Cabral had a chance in the opening 30 seconds as Michael Barrios found a sprint Cabral who received the ball in the center of the penalty box, but he wasn’t able to swing his foot around and get full power on it, as it was saved by City’s Roman Bürki, an All-Star game selection.

St. Louis City immediately went down the other end of the pitch and applied pressure. The hosts scored the opener just four minutes in as on a corner kick. Colorado had a breakdown in man-marking which left Tim Parker wide open and he flicked it into the far post to make it 1-0.

St. Louis continued to apply its signature high press under Bradley Carnell and it led to a second goal in the opening quarter hour, as the sold-out CITY PARK reached fever pitch. On the goal, Keegan Rosenberry gave a pass intended for Cole Bassett away. It was intercepted and played into the path of Sam Adeniran. He managed to keep the ball in play and found a cutting Jared Stroud, who made no mistake about placing it past William Yarbrough to make it 2-0.

Colorado came out firing in the second half, as Danny Leyva had a solid header off of a corner that was saved and the team switched the field of play plenty of times and had dangerous-looking crosses, only for Bürki to be called upon when needed.

“It’s something we need to go and when not to go (on quick switches of play),” Midfielder Sam Nicholson said. “To be honest, the coaches have told us when to go and when not to, we just need to take it as he says. We 100% listen to him, but when he tells us to go, we just need to go at pace and disrupt the back four. Regardless if you get past your man, at least put them under pressure.