Substitute Andy Rose scored in the 87th minute to lift the Whitecaps to a 3-2 victory over the Colorado Rapids after Vancouver gave back a two-goal, first-half lead on Friday night in Commerce City, Colorado.
Rose’s winner came 10 minutes after Colorado’s Diego Rubio was ejected for making contact in the face area of an opponent, and five minutes after Rose was whistled offside in the buildup to a previous apparent Vancouver goal following a video review.
Fredy Montero also scored and contributed an assist for rebuilding Vancouver (2-5-3, 9 points), which won for the second time in four matches after going winless in the first six under first-year coach Marc Dos Santos. Lucas Venuto added his first MLS goal in the Whitecaps’ first road win, against a Rapids squad still looking for its first victory.
Former Whitecaps forward Kei Kamara scored twice from the penalty spot to pull Colorado (0-8-2, 2 points) back from an early 2-0 deficit after Montero committed a pair of fouls in his own penalty area on either side of halftime.
However, Kamara’s sixth and seventh goals of the season couldn’t prevent the Rapids from losing again in the first game since the firing of coach Anthony Hudson on Wednesday. Hudson was less than a third of the way into his second season in charge.
Under interim coach Conor Casey, Colorado looked the more likely to score a winning goal until the 77th minute, when Rubio was dismissed by referee Alex Chilowicz. Rubio had reacted after he took an incidental knee to his head on a play that resulted in Chilowicz awarding the Rapids a free kick.
Five minutes later, Lass Bangoura thought he’d put Vancouver in the lead, only for Chilowicz to wipe off the goal following a replay review that showed Rose had strayed offside before winning a header that helped set up Bangoura’s strike.
But Rose made amends five minutes later when he was first to Bangoura’s deflected shot near the penalty spot and sent a strong finish past goalkeeper Tim Howard’s dive.