Maybe it’s something in the altitude or that fresh Rocky Mountain water the people at Coors are always telling us about, but being at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park always seems to give the Rapids their A game. They showed it again today, manhandling last-place Chivas USA to the tune of 3-0.
The first half didn’t feature any scoring, but the Rapids started strong, keeping well over 60 percent possession and getting just about all the shots in the half in their favor. Matt Pickens had to make an acrobatic save about three minutes into the first 45, but other than that was pretty much untested throughout that and in fact the entire game.
The second half started quickly with Conor Casey getting a great shot off of an Omar Cummings rebound to give the Rapids their first goal, and they didn’t look back past that. Omar – who changed shoes during halftime hoping for a change in play to great effect – got the next two goals as he shredded the Chivas defense in the 68th minute and again in the 80th minute. The finishing for Cummings was superb in the second half, and by his own admission he’ll be taking those new shoes with him to the friendly he’ll play for Jamaica.
Anthony Wallace got his first ever start as a Rapid and looked brilliant all night on defense as left back in place of Marvell Wynne. Andre Akpan also got his first taste of MLS action late in the game, doing nothing of note but not looking out of place at all.
Colorado has now scored six goals in their last two games – all from their pair of talented strikers – and look to continue that goal-scoring mayhem next Saturday as they take on an incredibly tough New York team at Red Bull arena in NY.