What a time for the most explosive offensive performance of the year for Colorado to shine through. Houston got completely manhandled in pretty much every area of the field tonight in the Rapids 3-0 blowout at Dick's Sporting Goods Park. These three points put the Dynamo almost completely out of reach of the Rapids. San Jose's 2-0 loss to New York puts the Rapids ahead of them in the standings, with the Seattle-Chicago game still going. A loss or draw for Seattle will launch the Rapids ahead of them as well.
Edit: Seattle won 2-1. The Rapids are in 5th place in the West as a result.
The carnage started out only two minutes in, when Jamie Smith knocked his first ever MLS goal off of diving Houston goaltender Pat Onstad - it continued as Lovel Palmer got a horrible red card off of a violent crash with Pablo Mastroeni in the 10th minute- only 14 minutes later Omar Cummings took a perfect cross from a streaking Conor Casey and put it away for a 2-0 lead. Casey got on the board as well in the 23rd minute after heading in a rebound from a shot by Mehdi Ballouchy. The scoring stopped after that, but the domination didn't. Houston had very few chances the entire game while the Rapids kept on shooting.
Ian Joyce got his first ever start at Goalkeeper for the Rapids, Matt Pickens was out with back spasms. He got his first save on a fantastic close range diving stop on Brian Mullan. Marvell Wynne may have been injured halfway through the game as well, getting replaced by Danny Earls as he stretched his hamstring on the sideline.
The 'Pids take on Chivas USA next week at home.
Man of the Match: Conor Casey. Two assists and a goal for Captain Denthead, nice to see him getting into last season's form just in time for a playoff run. In fact, he easily could have had a hat trick along with his two assists if not for a fantastic Onstad save and a shot that went left by literally less than an inch. Honorable mention to Ian Joyce for his first start being a clean sheet.
Goat of the Match: N/A. Great game all around, except for maybe Mehdi Ballouchy's sub-par game. Even that wasn't as bad as we're used to seeing from our goats of the match.
Edit: Seattle won 2-1. The Rapids are in 5th place in the West as a result.
The carnage started out only two minutes in, when Jamie Smith knocked his first ever MLS goal off of diving Houston goaltender Pat Onstad - it continued as Lovel Palmer got a horrible red card off of a violent crash with Pablo Mastroeni in the 10th minute- only 14 minutes later Omar Cummings took a perfect cross from a streaking Conor Casey and put it away for a 2-0 lead. Casey got on the board as well in the 23rd minute after heading in a rebound from a shot by Mehdi Ballouchy. The scoring stopped after that, but the domination didn't. Houston had very few chances the entire game while the Rapids kept on shooting.
Ian Joyce got his first ever start at Goalkeeper for the Rapids, Matt Pickens was out with back spasms. He got his first save on a fantastic close range diving stop on Brian Mullan. Marvell Wynne may have been injured halfway through the game as well, getting replaced by Danny Earls as he stretched his hamstring on the sideline.
The 'Pids take on Chivas USA next week at home.
Man of the Match: Conor Casey. Two assists and a goal for Captain Denthead, nice to see him getting into last season's form just in time for a playoff run. In fact, he easily could have had a hat trick along with his two assists if not for a fantastic Onstad save and a shot that went left by literally less than an inch. Honorable mention to Ian Joyce for his first start being a clean sheet.
Goat of the Match: N/A. Great game all around, except for maybe Mehdi Ballouchy's sub-par game. Even that wasn't as bad as we're used to seeing from our goats of the match.