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Clark, Donovan strike in 1-1 draw
Rapids captain Pablo Mastroeni was not alone in his criticism of the referees in a 1-1 tie with the L.A. Galaxy on Saturday at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park. (Jonathan Ingraham/ColoradoSoccerNow.com)
COMMERCE CITY — Los Angeles striker Landon Donovan and Rapids midfielder Colin Clark scored as the Galaxy and Colorado played to a 1-1 tie Saturday night at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park.
Donovan’s goal came in the 82nd minute after Rapids goalkeeper Preston Burpo blocked a close-in shot by L.A. substitute Edson Buddle. The rebound of Buddle’s shot fell to Chris Klein on the right side of the penalty area, and Klein drove it hard to the far post. But Donovan cut in front of the shot and deflected the ball inside the near post before it got to Burpo.
“Tonight we’ve let ourselves down with a bad mistake again. Otherwise I’m sitting here probably very pleased,” Rapids coach Gary Smith said. “The biggest problem for us will always be big mistakes that offer up opportunities.”
Smith was referring to defender Ugo Ihemelu’s role in the Galaxy’s goal.
Donovan started the play with a flick to Buddle. Ihemelu, however, fell down after some contact with Buddle, who found himself alone with the ball and a nearly unobstructed view of the goal. Meanwhile Donovan, trailing the play from the beginning, sped forward. As Klein directed the rebound on goal, Donovan slipped in front of Ihemelu for the deflection.
Clark put the Rapids on the board in the 60th minute on an assist from Omar Cummings. As Clark made a diagonal left-to-right run toward goal, Cummings sent a bold pass forward. Clark cut his run short, tapped the ball onto his left foot and bent a shot through two defenders and around the outstretched arms of Galaxy goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts.
WASN’T THERE A RED CARD ISSUED? Yes and no. In the 74th minute, Conor Casey and Cummings connected on a sweet give-and-go. Casey’s one-two touch pass drew Cummings into the heart of the attacking end, but defender Todd Dunivant closed in. Dunivant tackled Cummings just outside the penalty area, and referee Alex Prus issued Dunivant a red card. Los Angeles players mobbed Prus and pressured him to consult the linesman, who convinced Prus that Dunivant had tapped the ball back toward Ricketts a fraction of a second before taking out Cummings’ legs. Prus informed Dunivant he could stay on the field, Ricketts handled the restart and L.A. continued to play with 11 men on the pitch. Smith was not happy. “The referee had ample opportunity to consult the linesman before he showed the red card. So that’s the first mistake,” Smith said. “Secondly, the linesman is twice as far away as the referee is. Thirdly, I’ve never, in all the time that I’ve been involved in football, seen a group of players convince a referee to take advice from somebody that he didn’t want to to begin with. And then I’ve absolutely never seen a red card rescinded. There’s a multitude of problems there, and that’s for the league to look at and address. But I thought it was a debacle.” Rapids captain Pablo Mastroeni also was surprised by Prus’ decision to withdraw the red card: “I’ve never seen one put back in the pocket,” Mastroeni said. “It was really unusual, and I think it definitely affected the flow of the game. Any time you get another lifeline like that you have nothing to lose. You figure, hell, the worst thing that could happen is to lose the game 1-zero, so they pushed forward and found a way.”
MAN OF THE MATCH: Half of ColoradoSoccerNow wants to choose Omar Cummings for some strong forays he had into the offensive third and the assist on Clark’s goal. Half of ColoradoSoccerNow wants to select Colin Clark. After all, he did have the Rapids’ only goal, and his point-blank shot in the 84th minute forced Donovan Ricketts to make a save off of his melon. But the other half of ColoradoSoccerNow (three halves?) wins out: Burpo made a huge save off of Buddle’s shot and had a few clutch clearances throughout. And in the fifth minute of stoppage time, Burpo raced 30 yards off of his line to beat Donovan to a long onside pass. If Burpo hesitates or fails to anticipate the play, Donovan is one-on-one with the keeper. If Burpo doesn’t get to the ball first, it’s a goal for L.A. The moment might not be the crystallized image in fans’ memories, but Burpo’s play well after the clock struck 90 was a key moment. And had he not played it perfectly, it would’ve been the key moment in the game.
MORE ABOUT THE MAN OF THE MATCH: The fact that ColoradoSoccerNow had such a difficult time choosing its player of the game illustrates the lack of a defining performance from either team. After the game, Smith said, “L.A. played with little ambition.” But through much of the match, the Rapids weren’t much better. It was a night of little inspiration on the field and a result that wasn’t particularly pleasing for many folks off the field.
WHO ARE YOU CALLING ‘LOSER’? The match was the Rapids’ sixth consecutive MLS game against an opponent that had not won a game. What? How can that be? Well, L.A. was 0-1-3 before Saturday night. Last week, Houston collected its first win of the year against the Rapids. The week before, Colorado played at Columbus, which was winless. On April 4, the Rapids played against the same Galaxy team at the Home Depot Center; they’re winless now, and they were winless then. In the second week of the season, the Rapids beat Kansas City, which lost its opener. And in the first game of the season, nobody had won a game yet, so Chivas USA also qualifies for this neat little factoid.
THREE TIMES A LAXY: Saturday’s match also marked the third time the Rapids and Galaxy met on the pitch. The April 4 game at the Home Depot Center was an MLS fixture. And three days after that, the sides played a U.S. Open Cup play-in game at the HDC. The Rapids won both of those matches.
GLASS HALF FULL: The Rapids, who endured a three-game road trip in April, finished the month with one victory, one loss and two ties. The Rapids stand at 2-2-2 and are somewhere in the middle of the pack in the league table.
GLASS HALF EMPTY: Entering Saturday’s game, the Glax had scored only five goals this season. … The Rapids are winless in their past three MLS fixtures. … Donovan’s goal was the first the Glax had ever scored at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park. … The Rapids have scored two goals in the past three games.
LEAGUE GOAL-SCORING LEAD: Chicago striker Brian McBride scored a beatiful goal on a header (how else would McBride score?) to help the Fire tie Columbus 2-2 on Saturday. That gives McBride a total of five goals, one more than Rapids striker Conor Casey.
NEW FACE ON THE BACK LINE: First-year MLS player Scott Palguta started at center back in place of Cory Gibbs, who also missed last week’s game because of a groin injury. Palguta made few errors and was a positive presence on defense.
ATTENDANCE ISSUES: After a week of temperatures mostly in the 70s, a slow system of low clouds blew into the Front Range on Friday and stayed around on Saturday. The temperature when I left my house on Saturday was 48 degrees, and it started raining slightly as I left Dick’s Sporting Goods Park. The sun poked through the clouds slightly at about 7 p.m., but it ducked behind the Rockies not long after that and left the stadium in the cold. Once again, nature had no love for the Rapids. And that meant a lot of no-shows at the gate. The official attendance is listed at more than 12,000, but the stadium was less than half full. Even the west stands were pretty sparse.
FRIENDLY FIRE: In the 42nd minute, Eddie Lewis took a free kick from midfield. He curled it toward the Rapids’ goal, and Burpo reacted. He punched away Lewis’ long and dangerous kick, but Burpo also clocked Kosuke Kimura. The Rapids then took Kimura out and replaced him with Nick LaBrocca.
The red card call was definitely very confusing.
it was very much like the situation in baseball where a field player flubs catching a foul ball, the batter gets a second chance then winds up hitting a home run. the glax were energized after that, just like pablo said after the game.
I’m glad Prus eventually got the call right on the non-red card, but getting to that point was a debacle. Even the appearance of being intimidated by PrimaDonnavan and company was a bad precedent to set.
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Becca Mays Colin Clark Colorado Force Colorado Rapids Colorado School of Mines Conor Casey Cory Gibbs Dick's Sporting Goods Park Fort Lewis College Gary Smith Jacob Peterson Jordan Harvey Julien Baudet Kosuke Kimura Landon Donovan Major League Soccer Matt Pickens Mehdi Ballouchy Metro State Nick LaBrocca Nikki Marshall Omar Cummings Pablo Mastroeni Preston Burpo Real Salt Lake Regis University Scott Palguta Seattle Sounders University of Colorado University of DenverAbout ColoradoSoccerNow
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