Djordje Mihailovic scored three goals in three different ways to power the visiting Colorado Rapids to a 3-0 win over St. Louis City on Wednesday.
Mihailovic converted a header in the ninth minute and added a nifty steal and strike in the 60th. He put away a penalty kick at the end of second-half stoppage time to seal his first MLS hat trick and the Rapids’ second straight win.
Colorado (8-7-4, 28 points) won despite having just 40.1 percent of the possession. Zack Steffen made four saves for the Rapids.
Roman Burki had two saves but committed two critical blunders in net for St. Louis (3-6-9, 18 points), which has lost five times amid a seven-match winless stretch.
The Rapids struck early off a long throw-in by Sebastian Anderson. St. Louis let the ball take one hop in the box and Mihailovic soared in to head it past Burki off the bounce.
St. Louis missed a golden chance to tie the match in the 25th minute. Rapids defender Lalas Abubakar was guilty of a handball in the penalty area, giving the hosts a penalty kick. However, Eduard Lowen’s attempt hit the left side of the crossbar and careened away.
After Mihailovic was shown a yellow card in the 57th minute for wasting time before taking a corner kick, he doubled the score three minutes later.
Colorado took another long throw-in into the box, and Burki swallowed it up. He then tried to pass it out as quickly as possible, but Mihailovic got a foot out to intercept it, spun toward goal and shot it past an out-of-position Burki.
St. Louis could not break through down the stretch. In the 90th minute, Chris Durkin’s shot on goal was blocked by Abubakar, and Hosei Kijima’s attempt off the rebound sailed high over the crossbar.
With the match already in hand, Akil Watts was whistled for a poor tackle of Colorado’s Calvin Harris in the box. Mihailovic took the penalty kick and deposited it into the bottom right corner of the net, his third of the night and eighth of the season.
–Field Level Media
