Three min­utes of Lionel Mes­si mag­ic was all it took for Inter Mia­mi to be in posi­tion to steal three points away from the Col­orado Rapids at Chase Sta­di­um Sat­ur­day night.

But the resolve of the Rapids showed for the sec­ond straight Sat­ur­day, and Cole Bas­sett found the net in the 88th minute to tie it up at two goals a piece.

The Rapids earned their first half­time lead of the sea­son thanks to a penal­ty tak­en by Rafael Navar­ro in the 45th minute. Kévin Cabral earned the penal­ty just sec­onds after tak­ing a yel­low card after com­mit­ting a foul to stop a coun­ter­at­tack. Navar­ro calm­ly buried it to Mia­mi goal­keep­er Drake Callender’s left for his sec­ond goal of the season.

Mes­si subbed on at half­time to add some attack­ing flare to a team which had lacked it the whole first half. In the 58th minute, he scored on a beau­ti­ful one-time effort from just inside the penal­ty box which ham­mered off the left post and in.

Just two min­utes lat­er, he orches­trat­ed anoth­er attack which end­ed with Leonar­do Frugis Afon­so find­ing the back of the net to pull ahead. Bassett’s left-foot­ed effort secured the Rapids a huge point in the first leg of a two-match road trip.

Here are three take­aways from the 2–2 draw:

Resolve earns a point in wild sec­ond half

Not often does a team erase a deficit and take a lead of its own in just three min­utes. The effect can be heavy on the team that con­cedes it, but for the Rapids, the belief is on anoth­er lev­el, even when some­thing that gut-wrench­ing happens.

In a lot of ways, Rapids coach Chris Armas want­ed his team to be bet­ter despite the result, his biggest gripe being his team put a lot of ear­ly pres­sure on Mia­mi but were still incon­sis­tent in actu­al­ly threat­en­ing to score.

But the one unwa­ver­ing trait remains the resolve the Rapids show­case when down.

“You can see how things change so quick­ly against some of the best play­ers in the world, so we real­ly don’t want to make a habit of going down,” Armas said. “But we do want to make a habit of being able to come back and have play­ers who can­not give in or give up and as a coach­ing staff to remain aggres­sive and push for goals and wins.”

Tide turned?

Last week, Armas wasn’t ready to des­ig­nate a late 3–2 come­back over MLS giants LAFC as a sea­son-defin­ing moment. He, along with mid­field­er Cole Bas­sett, still isn’t after anoth­er late goal was need­ed to snag more points, but the buzz is pal­pa­ble team-wide.

After all, four points in two weeks against two of MLS’s best teams is noth­ing to scoff at.

“I think from these results, you can see the char­ac­ter we’ve built and the men­tal­i­ty in the lock­er room, but I don’t think it’s sea­son-defin­ing,” Bas­sett said. “I think last week was spe­cial in terms of build­ing con­fi­dence in the group and espe­cial­ly the fan base as well. … So these three out of the next four (on the road), these are huge if you can pick up three points in these games.

“I don’t think these are sea­son-defin­ing quite yet because we’ve got to be con­sis­tent through­out the entire season.”

Two key debuts

Kee­gan Rosen­ber­ry was list­ed as ques­tion­able com­ing into the match with a ham­string injury, but did not suit up. In his place was Home­grown Sebas­t­ian Ander­son, who made his first start and first appear­ance of the sea­son under the first-team con­tract he signed over the offseason.

He looked some­what ner­vous at times, which is under­stand­able giv­en the cir­cum­stance and the per­son­nel on the oth­er side. But for the most part, he held his own.

In the 85th minute, just a few min­utes before Bas­sett equal­ized, Sene­galese mid­field­er Lamine Diack subbed in for his first run of play in a Rapids jer­sey. A defen­sive mid­field­er sim­i­lar to Oliv­er Lar­raz and Con­nor Ronan, the deci­sion to add Diack for Navar­ro allowed Bas­sett to play his more com­fort­able and effec­tive role up the pitch.

The reward: a late equal­iz­er for Bas­sett, his sec­ond goal of the season.

“I think play­ing in a deep­er role, doing my job for this team is impor­tant because I know we don’t have too many guys in (a defen­sive mid­field role) right now,” Bas­sett said. “But I still know I can get up and I might have a few chances. I know I’ll get my chances, regard­less of where I’m playing.”

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