Darren Yapi scores first career brace, lifts Rapids above playoff line with win at Minnesota

Yapi hour came right on time Facing an uphill battle for a playoff berth with nine games to go Colorado Rapids forward Darren Yapi put his association on his back With his first-ever brace in a - win over Minnesota United at Allianz Field in St Paul Minn the -year-old gave the Rapids new life days after losing their best athlete to a transfer Starting the day in th place in the Western Conference out of the playoff picture the win put Colorado in eighth and sets it up strongly for a relatively easy schedule to round the regular season out Minnesota could have jumped Vancouver for second in the West with a win Yapi broke the deadlock in the th minute with a run down the left flank then a move toward the middle and a calm powerful finish toward the right side netting Sam Vines provided the impressive ball into space in transition for his second assist of the season The youngster struck again in the th again in transition After a string of quick passes on a counterattack Rafael Navarro played Yapi in on the right side of the box and Yapi sniped the bottom left corner past Minnesota keeper Dayne St Clair The tallies were Yapi s fifth and sixth of the season a career single-season high that keeps rising This can give us momentum going into this last part of the season I m happy to have scored my first brace and honestly just want to keep going Yapi stated Every time I start or even off the bench I ask myself the same question which is How can I help the gang win In any way whether it s offensively or defensively just finding means I can help the crew is huge for me Those two plays alone in succession were as good as the Rapids have looked in transition all year Impressive for a club that just transferred Djordje Mihailovic one of the MLS s the bulk creative attacking players to Toronto The transition match was part of the reason we started the front three that we did with Calvin Harris Yapi and Navarro We knew three of the majority powerful fastest guys could keep close together and create scenarios of our front three against their back three Rapids coach Chris Armas noted It s going to be gripping moving forward In the run of play we were pretty stingy against a really good organization Minnesota responded speedily to the Rapids second goal with a wide-open finish from about eight yards out by Tani Oluwaseyi in the rd minute Related Articles Sydney Wathuta s debut a bright spot in Rapids Leagues Cup loss to Cruz Azul Rapids send star Djordje Mihailovic to Toronto FC for club-record transfer fee sources say Rapids lose to Club Tijuana in second Leagues Cup match Rapids sign center back Rob Holding from Premier League s Crystal Palace Rapids rally for Leagues Cup-opening win over Santos Laguna For Colorado life post-Mihailovic seems to be lived by committee especially with two central midfielders Josh Atencio and Connor Ronan out with injuries Without them Armas deployed a - - for the first time since the second leg of the L A Galaxy playoff series after losing the first - These have been the only times the Rapids have played the formation both following disastrous moments in the Armas era Only this time unlike a - home loss to the Galaxy it worked Colorado now firmly in the playoff mix will face five opponents th or lower in their respective conference standings for its final eight games In reverse fixtures this season the Rapids failed to beat two of them I m inevitably looking for things the boys can rally behind This championship could be season-defining but we have a lot built into this group There s a lot they play for big aspirations to achieve the ultimate prize so there s a lot of motivation for the guys Armas reported We come on the road to win The gang s been through specific ups and downs in recent months specific tough stuff with injuries and different things but they re an impressive group with the way they stick together Want more sports news Sign up for the Sports Omelette to get all our analysis on Denver s teams