Game Recap: Colorado Rapids 2, LA Galaxy 1

The Colorado Rapids played probably the best game we’ve seen all season, looking dangerous from the initial kick-off tonight. Edgar Castillo and Johan Blomberg worked really well together on the left side, while Kellyn Acosta and Kortne Ford were clicking on the right side. Colorado got off a couple shots, including this one:

Axel Sjoberg went down around the 28th minute and immediately received attention on the field. Although he walked off on his own, Marlon Hairston was called over to sub in pretty quickly. Marly subbed in at rightback, pushing Kort Ford into the middle to take over Sjoberg’s position.

Just a few minutes later, Tommy Smith “cleared” a ball right to Romain Alessandrini in the box. Ford slid in but missed and Alessandrini put it past Tim Howard near post to put LA up 1-0.

That goal definitely took the wind out of the Rapids sails, but they started to pick the intensity back up again just before the half ended. Even with a few more chances, the Rapids just couldn’t get one in and the game was 1-0 Galaxy going into halftime.

The Rapids subbed out Blomberg for Nana Boateng to start the second half, and within five minutes, Acosta managed to recover from a bad pass, dribbled up the field and took the shot from 20-plus yards out, getting one for the good guys to tie up the game 1-1.

It was looking like the game was going to end 1-1 until Castillo sent a nice ball in the box to Nicholson, who took the shot. LA keeper David Bingham dove and it looked like he got both hands on it, but the shot was too hard and ended up in the back of the net, putting the ‘Pids up 2-1 with four minutes of stoppage time on the clock.

Tim Howard had a fantastic night, coming up big a couple of times, and the Rapids took all three points tonight in a much-needed win.

If you take one thing from the game tonight, let it be this:

(Castillo is pretty baller, too.)