Vicente Sanchez has not been playing for Colorado Rapids in the last two months. During this period, the club has missed his creative presence in the team. This has led to them dropping several points over the last few matches. After coming on the back of a run of two matches without a win, they finally managed a 2-0 victory over Vancouver Whitecaps and this was inspired by Sanchez’ return to the team. The 34-year-old played only 69 minutes in the match, but it was enough to see Colorado get the three points and stay in touch with Seattle Sounders at the top of the table.
After the match, manager Pablo Mastroeni admitted that the team could have done with the presence of Sanchez in the last two months. Even though he is an advocate of team spirit and team performance, he said that Sanchez is the type of player who can bring magic on the field. The player himself admitted that he was certainly not 100% fit, but he was happy to clock in the minutes ahead of a crucial run-in. Rapids midfielder Darren Powers also spoke about the return of Sanchez by saying that the 34-year-old brings a lot of confidence to the rest of the team.
Colorado have had the last four matches at home and they will be continuing against Columbus Crew in the next match at home as well. “I’m happy. I don’t have any pain in my leg and the team collected three important points against Vancouver,” said Sanchez. “He could’ve [gone 90 minutes]. More importantly, for him, to finish the game in the form that he did, which was really good, and now to build on that next week,” said the manager about his star asset. “[Vicente] brings a lot of confidence for everyone else around him. It brings the whole team up,” said Powers.