Colorado Rapids drop third straight match in loss at San Diego FC

San Diego FC goalkeeper CJ dos Santos calmly collected Djordje Mihailovic s second shot from midfield in the th minute and shrugged toward the crowd like he was offended by the attempt An apt reaction to a prayer just as fittingly unanswered in a - loss for Colorado It was the Rapids third straight defeat their first such skid of the year and it dropped them to th in the Western Conference standings A month ago they shared second place Four minutes before Mihailovic s heave dos Santos denied him from the penalty spot to force the Rapids midfielder s first miss of the season He had previously converted all four of his penalties this year in all competitions At the end of the first half dos Santos only just got his fingertips to Mihailovic s first much more threatening half-field shot Those were Colorado s two best chances San Diego scored in the rd minute on a corner kick when a flick-on by Jeppe Tverskov located the head of a wide-open Chris McVey from four yards out Anders Dreyer doubled the lead in the th minute with his sixth goal of the season on an impressive counterattack It s a tough battle tonight for us The margins are thin in the sport in our league and in the Western Conference Rapids coach Chris Armas noted At home we put San Diego in a tough tournament and tonight they put us in one There s not a lot of room for error and we didn t do enough A key Armas flaw of which ultimately set the campaign on a downward program was a lack of squad rotation during fixture congestion In weeks like this one that included three games in a span of seven days Armas might ve made two or three changes in the starting lineup between games Wednesday evening the first midweek match of the MLS season for the Rapids featured six changes to the starting lineup after last Saturday s - home loss to the San Jose Earthquakes Particular were due to injury Rafael Navarro was unavailable with an ankle injury and Cole Bassett is returning to fitness but others were not Ultimately Armas malleability signals increased trust in depth pieces like Rapids MVP Connor Ronan and second-year Trinidad and Tobago international Wayne Frederick both of whom started Wednesday night We have a roster that s deep We have players that are performing all year long and it s time in a three-game week to give guys opportunities Armas disclosed Sam Vines Keegan Rosenberry starters from last year Connor Ronan the same Wayne Frederick s a guy coming through We made a big move to get Ian Murphy If I don t play guys like this on nights like this they may never play right The Rapids play a pivotal first match this season against Real Salt Lake this weekend to begin their defense of the Rocky Mountain Cup which Colorado won in dramatic fashion last season Armas insisted the lineup changes on Wednesday had nothing to do with looking ahead to RSL This was about putting a gang out there that would and could win the challenge and to put our best foot forward Armas announced We announced we d worry about Salt Lake after this match and now it s the time to do that It was not about saving legs tonight The the greater part heavily rotated group was the defense which only returned one starter from the San Jose match Andreas Maxs Vines and Murphy have been used in various roles in fresh games but Rosenberry started for the first time since a loss at Vancouver more than a month ago His absences of late has been curious for the Rapids The company captain hasn t been injured and the stretch of no-shows and short substitute appearances came after he signed a two-year extension right before the MLS season started According to Armas it s all about internal competition at the outside back position It s a solid group between the likes of Rosenberry Vines and Reggie Cannon but there have been games where second-year left back Jackson Travis has been selected over Rosenberry Even Murphy a center back has taken precedence over Rosenberry out wide Related Articles Father-son assistant coach duo on opposite sides of Rapids-Earthquakes match Colorado Rapids come from behind draw Seattle Sounders to move unbeaten streak to three Ond ej Lingr s stoppage-time goal in MLS debut helps Dynamo tie Rapids - Rapids transfer winger Omir Fern ndez to Portland Three points Rapids may have discovered new rival in San Diego FC Wednesday night he was the best defender in a light blue jersey Assigned to mark one of the best attacking players in the league in Hirving Chucky Lozano Rosenberry was solid particularly with no consistent minutes in the past month When the Rapids defense had the ball though SDFC took advantage of what turned out to be a disjointed build-up contest from Colorado In the - Rapids win over San Diego last month the Rapids feasted with their press That script flipped from kickoff on Wednesday even if SDFC had no goals to show for the press in particular One of the hardest parts of the meeting is trying to solve things on the fly Rosenberry announced I think tonight we struggled at times to connect that first pass under pressure and the ball turns over That s a huge part of escaping a counterpress I thought we could have done that better The first leg of the Rocky Mountain Cup against RSL kicks off Saturday at Dick s Sporting Goods Park at p m Want more sports news Sign up for the Sports Omelette to get all our analysis on Denver s teams