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Cummings delivers, Colorado advances
After a stellar 2010 campaign, Omar Cummings has had a season to forget. On Thursday night, however, he reminded everyone just how deadly he can be.
Cummings was alone in the penalty area when his roommate, Kosuke Kimura, passed to him in the waning moments of the first half. Kimura, who made regular forays into the attack, saw Cummings just after receiving a pass from Brian Mullan.
The Jamaican forward then did what he had done 14 times in 2010, but only three times this season, and put the ball in the back of the net. This one tally was enough as the Rapids rode a stout defense to a 1-0 win over the Columbus Crew in the second Wild Card match of the MLS playoffs.
Colorado, the defending MLS Cup champions, now gets a double date with Sporting Kansas City in the next round of the playoffs. The Rapids will host the Eastern Conference regular season champions at 5 p.m. Sunday at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City. The return leg will be 6 p.m. Wednesday at Livestrong Sporting Park in Kansas City, Kan.
The winner of that two-game series will advance to the Eastern Conference final on Nov. 6 against the winner of the Philadelphia Union-Houston Dynamo series. Because of the oddities of MLS playoffs, the Rapids — the fifth-place team in the Western Conference, own the Eastern Conference title from the 2010 playoffs. FC Dallas, which lost to New York Red Bulls in the first Wild Card match, held the Western Conference title from 2010.
Facing KC: While you let the oddity of holds what title sink in, it’s time to start pondering a Colorado-KC playoff series.
The two MLS originals have met in the playoffs for seven previous matches. The Rapids own a 2-3-2 record against KC in the playoffs, but the two teams have not met in the postseason since 2003.
Overall, the two teams have met 49 times with the Rapids winning 17, Kansas City taking 10 victories and the two squads tying 22 times. Not surprisingly, both meetings this season resulted in 1-1 draws.
Crew Killer: Cummings tally gave him four goals for the season, half of them against Columbus. Cummings most recent MLS goal came against the Crew on Aug. 5 in a 2-0 Rapids win.
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