Colorado Rapids 5 Seattle Sounders 1 - So, That Happened

If you're trying to come up with ways that that evening could have been better, good luck. The Colorado Rapids absolutely shellacked the Seattle Sounders on Saturday night, making a big statement on their plans for the end of this season. Just about everything on paper was against the Rapids: they were awful coming off long breaks this year, the Sounders were absolutely red hot, the Rapids offense appeared to have cooled down in recent weeks.

In front of a sell-out crowd, the Rapids got something from just about everyone on the offense that we've been hoping to see contribute. Only 14 seconds into the game, we got our first taste as Gabriel Torres got his first point as a Rapid. He played a great ball into Deshorn Brown to open the speedy Jamaican up, and all he had to do was finish -- a tough ask at times this year, but he did wonderfully to put the Rapids up with the second quickest goal in the league's history.

Dillon Powers, Brown's rookie of the year counterpart, doubled the lead in the 10th minute on a corner kick that was made possible by the soccer IQ of Vicente Sanchez. The wily old wizard noticed that Seattle was coming into the corner kick slowly defensively, and took it so quickly that Powers was nearly unmarked on his run in.

Neither Brown nor Powers could stand with just a single point a piece with their fellow RoY rival Deandre Yedlin in the match, and Brown made toast out of the Seattle right back on the third goal, a lovely race toward goal with Yedlin that Brown won handily, topping with another calm finish. Drew Moor added a fourth goal to finish off the second half in the 41st minute, coming again off of a corner kick from Sanchez.

Predictably, the second half was no cakewalk. Seattle came out with fire in their eyes and, if not for a few wonderful saves by Clint Irwin, they may have made a bit more of a game of it than they ended up doing in the end. Eddie Johnson did end up putting Seattle on the board on a broken defensive play, which left Moor tailing Johnson and failing to make a tackle before it was slotted home.

Martin Rivero's introduction for Dillon Powers proved to be the elixir that the Rapids offense needed to get going again, as he hit the crossbar on a beautifully taken free kick and earned an assist on the final goal of the game. More notably, that goal was the first for Gabriel Torres in a Rapids uniform, and it was a pretty one. That would prove to be one of the final notable touches of the game, closing off a superb evening at The Dick.

Believe it or not, Colorado is somehow still in the Supporters' Shield race. Bring on the Quakes.