all at home, and all by shutout -- while the Crew were winless in their last four games.
• The home side took a vital lead just before the end of the first half. In stoppage time, a perfectly weighted through ball from Stefani Miglioranzi hit Eddie Gaven in stride as he snuck in behind the pulled-up Colorado back line. Gaven strolled into the area before slotting home past Bouna Coundoul to give the Crew the lead.
• The Crew missed a glorious opportunity to seal the game in the 67th minute when Alejandro Moreno rattled the post when he got in alone behind the Rapids defense, and Jacob Thomas somehow couldn't turn the rebound into the unguarded goal.
• The Rapids took advantage six minutes from the end. Herculez Gomez looped a pass to Mehdi Ballouchy on the right side, and he put in a cross in front of Crew 'keeper Will Hesmer where Conor Casey knifed between defenders and snapped home a header for his second goal in as many games to secure a share of the points.
• Rapids head coach Fernando Clavijo made one change to the team that defeated the Galaxy 3-0 the previous Saturday. Terry Cooke suffered a groin injury in training leading up to the match and did not travel, so Tony Sanneh made his first start in a Rapids uniform in his place.
• Here's Clavijo's team (4-4-2): Bouna Coundoul - Ugo Ihemelu, Facundo Erpen, Mike Petke, Brandon Prideaux - Mehdi Ballouchy (Nicolas Hernandez 91+), Pablo Mastroeni (Herculez Gomez 47), Tony Sanneh, Colin Clark (Jacob Peterson 71) - Jovan Kirovski, Conor Casey. Substitutes Not Used: Jose Cancela, Omar Cummings, Daniel Osorno, Zach Thornton
• "Sometimes you are lucky. We haven't been able to get lucky throughout the year. We create, we kept putting on pressure. We never got desperate. And finally we were able to find a way to finish," Clavijo said. "I thought that it was a well deserved point. I thought both teams worked extremely hard. I thought both teams created quality control of the game. We were able to score when we needed to, and they did too."
TEAM NEWS
• Since their 10-game winless run, which saw three draws along the way, the Rapids are now unbeaten in four games. But the draw against the Crew was the first away game in that stretch, and ended a three-game winning run.
• "It is easy from the outside to evaluate things from 90 minutes. I think that both teams, they could not score a better goal at better times. You go back to the second half, thinking about what you need to do. Not just what you need to do to score, but what you have to do to get the momentum back," Clavijo said. "I thought in the end we managed the time well. We created chances, and so did they. I thought that the game was good. Every time you get a point on the road, it is good. We came here to win, but unfortunately we were unable to. You can't be unhappy with a getting a point out of it."
• Clavijo had presented Conor Casey with a challenge to get back into the lineup, and the burly striker has now started three consecutive games, finally opening his MLS account with goals in the last two.
• "He scores the more difficult goal but misses the easy ones. But that's the game and you have to give all the credit to Conor because his work effort was outstanding," said Clavijo. "He was a force out there." Said Casey: "I had a few real good chances in the first half and did not put them away so it was nice to get the ball at the end and be able to tie it up."
• The Crew match started a stretch of four games out of five where the Rapids will be on the road. They have managed just nine points on the road out of a possible 33.
• "It was a great result for us. Any time you can get a point on the road, it is always good," said Herculez Gomez. "I think this game was more do-or-die for Columbus. We are still in charge of our own destiny. I think we came out with the right mentality, we never gave up. We kept fighting and getting the right things. We put the work in and it showed."
• It was also the last game of the year for Colorado against the teams they are currently in direct competition with for playoff positioning. Of the Rapids final seven games, four are against teams currently outside of the top eight in the MLS overall table.
• "It is how it is. It is that time of year right now. Both teams are trying to make that final stride to get into the playoffs, and it is an important game for both teams. It is a game that we had to get a good result out of it and I think Columbus is going to walk away very disappointed, especially being a goal up," Gomez said. "I felt that before they scored the goal, I thought that we had the better play, and I thought that after they scored the goal, I thought that we had the better play. So, I think it's justice that we got that goal."
• Pablo Mastroeni was originally expected to miss the match on national team duty for the USA's contest against Brazil on Sunday at Soldier Field, but after suffering the illness that forced him off just after halftime in Columbus, he was replaced in Bob Bradley's squad by Kansas City midfielder Kerry Zavagnin. He is listed as questionable on the Rapids injury report this week.
