COLORADO RAPIDS vs. NEW YORK RED BULLS
DICK'S SPORTING GOODS PARK, Commerce City, Colo.
July 4, 2008 | 7:30 p.m. MT (Altitude; MSG)
WEEK # 15 | GAME # 102
A pair of teams that have been scuffling along as of late meet when the Colorado Rapids play host to the New York Red Bulls in their annual Fourth of July extravaganza at Dick's Sporting Goods Park. The Rapids are in the throes of a four-game winless run, their longest of the season, though they have lost just once ever on Independence Day. The Red Bulls have won just one of their last four, and at midweek crashed out of the U.S. Open Cup to third-tier opposition.
REFEREE: Tim Weyland. SAR (bench): Bill Dittmar; JAR (opposite): Cyril Madukanya; 4th: Shane Moody MLS Career: 81 games; FC/gm: 30.7; Y/gm: 3.6; R: 23; pens: 20
INJURY REPORT: COLORADO RAPIDS - OUT: Justin Hughes (L groin); DOUBTFUL: MF Christian Gomez (R leg), PROBABLE: MF Jacob Peterson (L knee); DF Mike Petke (R foot), MF Nico Colaluca (L groin), DF Jose Burciaga Jr. (L groin), MF Pablo Mastroeni (back) ... NEW YORK RED BULLS - QUESTIONABLE: FW Juan Pablo Angel (L hamstring strain); MF Claudio Reyna (herniated disc)
INTERNATIONAL ABSENCES: none
SUSPENDED: none
WARNINGS:
SUSPENDED NEXT YELLOW CARD: NY: Kevin Goldthwaite, Sinisa Ubiparipovic
SUSPENDED AFTER TWO YELLOW CARDS: none
HEAD-TO-HEAD
ALL-TIME (27 meetings): Rapids 11 wins (0 shootout), 30 goals ... Red Bulls 13 wins (0 shootout), 40 goals ... Ties 3
AT COLORADO (14 meetings): Rapids 6 wins (0 shootout), 14 goals ... Red Bulls 6 wins(0 shootout), 16 goals ... Ties 2
• This is the first of two meetings between the teams this season, the only one at Dick's Sporting Goods Park. They will meet for the final time this season at Giants Stadium on Sept. 27.
LAST YEAR (MLS):
5/13: NY 0, COL 1 (Hernandez 24)
7/8: COL 0, NY 1 (Wolyniec 19)
• The teams split their season series a year ago, each winning by 1-0 scorelines at the other's home ground.
• In each of the last five meetings, neither team has scored more than a single goal. Three of the games have finished in 1-0 results; two have been 1-1 draws.
• This is the second time the teams have played in Colorado on the Fourth of July; in 1998, the Rapids took a 1-0 victory at Mile High Stadium.
• Coaches record: Fernando Clavijo v NY: P14 W2 L9 D3 ... Juan Carlos Osorio vs. COL: first game
COLORADO RAPIDS
The Colorado Rapids saw their winless streak reach four games, falling 2-1 to the Columbus Crew on Saturday evening at Crew Stadium. The Rapids now sit in sixth place in the Western Conference with 16 points from 14 games, a point behind FC Dallas yet just five points behind first-place LA Galaxy.
LAST MATCH
• The Crew were returning home after taking four points from two high-scoring road matches, while the Rapids were coming off their first draw in 13 games this year, though their winless streak extended to three games.
• A breakneck first half saw no goals, but the Crew opened the lead in the 53rd minute when Guillermo Barros Schelotto converted a penalty kick after Alejandro Moreno was tripped up in the box in the right corner of the area, the Crew's first goal at home in 199 minutes.
• The Rapids pulled level just seven minutes later. Conor Casey loped across the top of the area before sliding a pass to Nick LaBrocca on the right, and his low blast from outside the box eluded Crew 'keeper William Hesmer and nestled inside the far post.
• But Ekpo saved the best for last. In the 70th minute, he took the ball at the midfield stripe and charged forward, dribbling through the heart of the Colorado defense. Untouched still at the top of the area, he launched a low strike that flew into the lower left corner of the net for his first MLS goal and the game-winner.
• Rapids head coach Fernando Clavijo made four changes to the team that played to a scoreless draw with the Houston Dynamo the weekend before. Bouna Coundoul returned from international duty in place of Preston Burpo, making his first MLS appearance since May 24. Jordan Harvey came in as Christian Gomez was injured for a reconfigured backline; Terry Cooke came in for Jacob Peterson on the right flank and Conor Casey started in place of Omar Cummings.
• Here's Clavijo's team (4-4-2): Bouna Coundoul - Ugo Ihemelu (Herculez Gomez 87), Pablo Mastroeni, Facundo Erpen, Jordan Harvey - Terry Cooke, Nick LaBrocca, John DiRaimondo (Mehdi Ballouchy 75), Colin Clark - Tom McManus (Omar Cummings 77), Conor Casey. Substitutes Not Used: Jose Burciaga Jr., Preston Burpo, Nico Colaluca, Kosuke Kimura
TEAM NEWS
• After winning two of their first three games, the Rapids have not been over the .500 mark since, with seven losses and a draw in their last 11 matches.
• "We played hard. We're not playing smart," Clavijo said. "We're competing hard every game. We had chances to win it. We're giving up goals after getting back to 1-1. Ekpo makes a 30-, 40-yard run. He cannot have so much space. We didn't recognize early on the dangers of that goal. It was a great goal but it's not going to happen that often that he's going to have that much space."
• After beginning the game on the substitutes' bench for the first time, Christian Gomez was forced off injured the week before then missed the Columbus match. It meant the Rapids had to change their approach.
• "He's a guy who relieves a lot of pressure," Mastroeni said. "He'll take the pace out of the game, if you will, and slow the game down. We had a good lineup in there as far as making it hard to play through the midfield. We limited their opportunities. As much as it would have been nice having him today making a difference, the guys in there did a good job. It's something to build on."
• After returning to the substitutes' bench for two games following his first two starts of the year, Conor Casey came back into the first XI and played 90 minutes for the first time this season.
• "Conor is an outstanding striker," Clavijo said. "He's coming off an ACL last year. It's taken some time to get healthy. On top of the ACL last year he's struggled with the hamstring. Today he was 100 percent. It's great to see him on the field. You can see what he does. We needed to support him a little more. I thought we created chances. We didn't come here to get one point. We came here to play a good game. We had a chance but we need to finish our chances and do a better job on giving up easy goals."
• Colorado is 10-1-1 all-time in its annual Independence Day game, and the Rapids are now unbeaten in their last eight dating back to 2000, after a seven-game July 4 winning streak was stopped in last year's scoreless draw with Columbus. The only loss came in 1999 - to the Columbus Crew, this year's opponent. The annual fireworks display, billed as the best in Colorado, always draws large crowds who spur the team to perform. Eight times the game-winning goal has come in the 69th minute or later.
• Thirteen of the Rapids' 20 goals conceded on the season have come in the second half, and seven of those in the final half-hour. But 18 of Colorado's 20 goals scored have come after halftime, including 14 in the final half-hour.
• "It's something that's been getting the best of us this season, it's something that we really need to put an end to, especially coming on the road," LaBrocca said. "We put in a great effort and put ourselves in a good position to win the game, or get a point, and it's very disappointing to let it go."
NEW YORK RED BULLS
The New York Red Bulls took a lead before settling for a 1-1 draw at Chivas USA last weekend as their unbeaten streak ran to three games. The Red Bulls sit tied for fifth place in the Eastern Conference with 20 points from 14 matches, level with the Chicago Fire, a point behind Toronto FC and two behind D.C. United.
LAST MATCH
• Chivas USA had put an end to their two-game losing streak the weekend before, while the Red Bulls had won for the first time in three weeks at home.
• The visitors took the lead after 26 minutes. A free kick was won well out from the right corner of the area, and Dave van den Bergh flighted in a curling service. As Kevin Goldthwaite flashed through the box, he missed making a connection, but it wrong-footed Chivas 'keeper Brad Guzan enough so the ball sailed through and inside the left-hand post for his fourth goal.
• But the Red Bulls gifted the equalizer deep into first-half stoppage time. A square pass across the Red Bulls backline rolled behind center back Jeff Parke, and Ante Razov swooped in to snatch it, hitting a first-time shot from the top of the box past goalkeeper Jon Conway and the leveller.
• Red Bulls head coach Juan Carlos Osorio made two changes to the team that defeated FC Dallas 1-0 the Saturday before at Giants Stadium. Jeff Parke came back into central defense and John Wolyniec came back into the starting team, as Mike Magee and Oscar Echeverry went to the substitutes' bench.
• Here's Osorio's team (4-4-2): Jon Conway - Hunter Freeman, Jeff Parke, Andrew Boyens, Kevin Goldthwaite - Sinisa Ubiparipovic (Mike Magee 60), Carlos Mendes, Seth Stammler (Luke Sassano 80), Dave van den Bergh - Dane Richards, John Wolyniec (Oscar Echeverry 54). Substitutes Not Used: Danleigh Borman, Chris Leitch, Chris Megaloudis, Zach Thornton
• "We could have made better decisions in our counter attacks. We really let them off the hook in the first half by basically giving them that goal to equalize the game, and after that it was just a very sloppy game," Osorio said. "There are many things that you can say about the goal but certainly one of them is miscommunication."
TEAM NEWS
• Looking to exploit his pace in a more direct way, Osorio started Richards as a striker alongside John Wolyniec. "I think we could have played more effectively, and we could have created a lot more problems if we would have played balls in behind as opposed to playing in to his feet," Osorio said.
• Said Richards: "We had the game in hand but a little bit of complacency set in after we went up 1-0. I got behind them a lot in the first half but I have nothing to show for it. One more goal would have put the game away."
• Dave van den Bergh scored his fourth goal on the season, his second directly from a free kick. "We know that if somebody gets a head on it, it's always on target, and it's hard for the goalie, and if it skips, especially on a fast field, then we try to aim for the second post. It did skip, and a great goalie even like Guzan couldn't handle that. So it was good, it was a training ground move."
• It was the second time in three weeks the Red Bulls had taken an early lead, only to be pegged back and settle for a draw.
• "You go up 1-0 and you have a chance to carry that on to the second half and you give up a childish goal like that, I'm disappointed that the game ends like that," van den Bergh. "We defended properly, we had our breakaways, they had had a couple opportunities through set pieces but other than that we didn't give them a whole lot, so I'm disappointed.
• On Tuesday, the Red Bulls were knocked out of the U.S. Open Cup in a stunning 2-0 upset by Crystal Palace Baltimore of the USL Second Division in Annapolis, Md. Andrew Marshall and Gary Brooks scored goals for Crystal Palace in the 18th and 75th minutes respectively, who played the last 56 minutes a man down after former New England Revolution player Ibrahim Kante was given a straight red card.
• Here's Osorio's team: Zach Thornton, Chris Leitch (Sinisa Ubiparipovic 46), Kevin Goldthwaite, Carlos Mendes, Jeff Parke, John Gilkerson (Andrew Boyens 46), Luke Sassano, Gordon Kljestan (John Wolyniec 46), Mike Magee, Danleigh Borman (David Roth 63), Chris Megaloudis
• "I thought we were good enough to play with some of the young players, unfortunately it didn't payoff tonight. The starting lineup was basically all of the guys that have not been playing. I personally thought this was the right time to rest a few of our key players and unfortunately we paid the price for it," Osorio said.
