Colorado struck both early and often in defeating the Red Bulls 4-0 in the altitude Saturday night.  The Rapids rode early strikes in both halves, coupled with a New York sending off, to blow by the visitors on goals by 4 different players.

By Brian Jennings

Colorado struck both early and often in defeating the Red Bulls 4-0 in the altitude Saturday night.  The Rapids rode early strikes in both halves, coupled with a New York sending off, to blow by the visitors on goals by 4 different players. 

“Early goals just validate everything you’ve done in that week building up to the game,” admitted Rapids captain Pablo Mastroeni.  “It does it in a fashion where you’re at home, now you have the crowd support, you’re believing in your system, you’re believing in the philosophy-especially after the drubbing we took in DC.  We knew we had to come out and be sharp and find ways to get on the board early for confidence sake.”

Omar Cummings started the early strike sequence catching up to a ball down the right side and carrying to the endline before threading a spot-on ball in between defender Leo Krupnik and keeper Bouna Coundoul.  The pass hit a streaking Jacob Peterson in perfect stride as he popped home the game-winner in just the 5th minute.

The next 35 minutes saw both sides going back and forth as Juan Pablo Angel struck just high over goal for New York in the 10th minute.  Macoumba Kandji fought through Rapids Ugo Ihemelu and Nick LaBrocca in the 19th minute by saw his shot parried away by Colorado keeper Matt Pickens.  “We’ve been working on it all week me playing left mid, but since I’m a right-footer just trying to cut in,” explained Kandji.  “If they deny the inside, the left back overlap and we play the ball in.  I think we did a very good job of it in the first half, we had a couple of chances and unfortunately we were very unlucky.”  Colorado’s Pat Noonan had two chances in as many minutes but was just off target.

The next major play came in the 38th minute as Rapids defender Julian Baudet went airborne with Angel on a challenge.  Baudet came down awkwardly on his left arm and broke his wrist on the fall. 

Angel almost equalized off the ensuing freekick, but Pickens was again present as the ball blew through the wall.  A minute later, Angel was on the doorstep but his blast caromed off the woodwork leaving Colorado in front.   That, however, was about as close as New York would get to the Rapids on the night as the home side frustrated the Red Bulls attackers after that.  “We knew if we came out and got the early lead it would give us a big advantage,” Rapids defender Ihemelu told soccer365.com  “You could see it.  They’re having a tough time.”

“Angel, he’s a leader, but once they were down he was kind of out of it. They were tying to find him but were having a hard time.  Scott (Palguta) and Cory (Gibbs) did their job of neutralizing him, Jordan (Harvey) stepped up and neutralized Dane (Richards), and Kandji I think I did a pretty good job on him.  He has a lot of skill, but I tried to prevent and not really dive in.  That goes back to how Gary (Smith, Colorado Head Coach) and the staff wants us to play team defense,” said Ihemelu. 

The Rapids almost added to that lead in the 41st minute as a lofted cross was bobbled by Coundoul, touched away by his teammate, but right to Mehdi Ballouchy, whose try was cleared off the goalmouth by former teammate Mike Petke.

The game then changed dramatically in the 45th minute of the first half.  A late challenge by New York defender Sinisa Ubiparipovic on Scott Palguta resulted in a straight red-card sending the Red Bulls to 10 men for the second half.  “I think that coming in to play in the altitude playing against a good team is a difficult task.  Unfortunately, the decision made at the (45th) minute of the first half completely changed the whole game-a game that in my opinion was very close,” said New York Head Coach Juan Carlos Osorio.  “We had two great chances, we couldn’t score, after that decision the complex of the whole game changes.  I’m not one to complain about anything, but today I think it was inappropriate and it did impact the game in a very dramatic way. 

Just as in the first half, Colorado scored in the opening minutes as Pat Noonan hit his first goal since coming over to the Rapids.  Noonan beat the offsides trap, received a nice ball from Pablo Mastroeni, and as Coundoul had to come off his line tucked his shot just inside the right post. “It was miscommunication,” stated Red Bulls newcomer defender Leo Krupnik.   “Both of us (Krupnik and Petke) stepped up and I don’t know who kept the line, but the guy was behind Mike-behind both of us.  They played him through and I stopped because it was obviously offsides.  I have to see it on the video to see what happened but we have to learn from this.  The earliest minutes is all about being concentrated.  It’s not physical, it’s just mentally.  We give up those early goals it’s because we’re mentally not ready.” 

“That killed us every time,” admitted Kandji speaking about giving up early goals in each half.  “We talk about it every time-we’ve got to hold it, they can’t score on us in the first 5 minutes, the first 10 minutes.  It’s keeps happening to us and that’s the game-killer right there.”

“I don’t even know what to say.  I think we’re the unluckiest team in this league right now.  We hit the post, got a couple of shots in, you see we got as many of chances as they got but we were very unlucky.  If I would have scored a goal when I cut in, Juan (Pablo Angel) scored when he hit the post, and that freekick went in we’re talking about a different story.”

Another key for Colorado was that they were able to physically wear down New York with the man advantage, something that Peterson knows is important at home.  “Anytime a team goes down a man we want to make them run.  If that means keeping it for 10 minutes in the back and just making them shift and run then eventually we feel that we can get some chances and the space will open up.  Anytime you’re playing with 10 men especially at altitude for guys that aren’t used to it, it’s a hard test.  The last 15 minutes of the game was a possession drill really.”

Cummings continued to cause trouble for the short-handed Red Bulls testing Coundoul on two different occasions in the second half.  However, in the 61st minute, the floodgates burst open as Ballouchy drilled a low long range shot.  The ball was not smothered and LaBrocca pounced on the rebound for the 3-0 lead.  Just two minutes later, Ballouchy took it upon himself and nailed a 25yard freekick to the far post for the 4-0 lead.  

Mastroeni hopes this performance bodes well for the future of Colorado in that they were able to keep New York down when they were on the ropes.  “The second half we knew we had to come out, score an early goal, and from that point on we dictated the forward game which was nice. It’s different when you’re a man up, but you see teams that are down a man that have played better with more conviction.  Hopefully this is a good reference point-a springboard that we can refer to.”