FCD defender Clarence Goodson and Red Bulls goalkeeper Ronald Waterreus.
• FCD head coach Steve Morrow made two changes to the team that defeated the Los Angeles Galaxy at The Home Depot Center the previous Thursday. With Marcelo Saragosa suffering a knee injury in that game, Arturo Alvarez came back into the team on the left of midfield. David Wagenfuhr also came back into the team, for Chris Gbandi at left back.
• Here's Morrow's team (4-2-3-1): Shaka Hislop - Drew Moor, Alex Yi, Clarence Goodson (Bobby Rhine 48), David Wagenfuhr (Chris Gbandi 19) - Dax McCarty, Juan Toja - Arturo Alvarez (Dominic Oduro 72), Ramon Nunez, Kenny Cooper - Carlos Ruiz. Substitutes Not Used: Ray Burse, Aaron Pitchkolan, Abe Thompson, Anthony Wallace
• "Preparation wasn't ideal with the schedule, conditions were bad, but that doesn't affect the end result in my eyes. We just had a very frustrating day with the ball -- I thought it was a very soft defeat for us," Morrow said. "The goals we gave up were very soft and could have been prevented. And I can only sum it up as being very frustrated. We didn't create enough chances, the ball didn't bounce anywhere for us, the passing wasn't good enough. It's one that we've got to take on the chin and just move on."
TEAM NEWS
• The Hoops ended their treacherous season-opening stretch with four points away from home, decent considering they played at the home opener of Real Salt Lake, Los Angeles Galaxy and the Red Bulls. But they flew home from New York believing they'd let points slip away.
• "It's positive, it started off well in the first two games," Morrow said. "We wanted to finish it off good here in New York and we felt we could have come in and got a good result. I'm bitterly disappointed."
• The Hoops felt Clint Mathis was very effective against them, the Red Bulls having the most success when he was on the ball, putting through balls in or getting in shots from long range. But they were still disappointed to have allowed three goals after giving up three in the first two games combined.
• "It was a tough way to end the road trip. We felt we were a team that matched up well against the Red Bulls, that we'd at least be able to come here and get a point of out it, but we gave up two soft goals in the first half," said Drew Moor. "That's something that we've preached ever since preseason. We've got to be hard in the back and not give up any soft goals like that ... in possession, I thought we were good, but we didn't create enough chances."
• Morrow returned more to the scheme that he put out in the season-opening 2-2 draw with Real Salt Lake, but it took his team until the second half to begin to make headway.
• "I thought we possessed the ball a bit better in the second half, but again it's just very frustrating," Morrow said. "Passes weren't quite getting there, the ball was bouncing all over the place and we couldn't get it down, didn't do enough in the last third of the field and didn't create enough chances really." Added Ruiz: "It was very tough but I think we didn't play good. It's true the conditions were tough for both teams, but we didn't play our soccer and that's why we lost 3-0."
• FCD is excited to now begin the home portion of their 2007 schedule. "I think we're all looking forward to getting home. We looked on the schedule before the season started and we knew this was going to be a tough road trip for us," Moor said. "But four points is not bad from three games on the road that were other teams' home openers." Said Ruiz: "It's going to be good for us, our first game at home against Colorado. We need to talk about the mistakes we made in these three games away and try to fix them and play good this weekend for our fans."
COLORADO RAPIDS
The Colorado Rapids remained unbeaten on the campaign, playing a man down for nearly the entire match and yet coming away with a 1-1 draw with the Chicago Fire last Sunday evening at Dick's Sporting Goods Park. The Rapids are now tied with FC Dallas and Houston Dynamo atop the Western Conference with four points from their opening matches.
LAST MATCH
• Two of the three teams to post victories on First Kick 2007 met in the second ever game at the new stadium in Commerce City.
• But things changed quickly, as after just six minutes, Rapids striker Roberto Brown was sent off with a straight red card from referee Jair Marrufo after a hard sliding tackle on Fire defender C.J. Brown in the midfield.
• Despite the man advantage, the Fire couldn't break down the Rapids defense -- then just before the hour mark, the home side took the lead on a lightning-quick counter from a corner kick. A quick clearance found Nicolas Hernandez on the left, and he raced forward before knocking a long pass into the path of Herculez Gomez. Gomez carried into the area with two defenders in hot pursuit before curling a shot under Matt Pickens and inside the far post from the left side of the box (58).
• Yet the Fire finally found their way through five minutes from the end. Chris Rolfe skipped through a couple of tackles and clipped a short pass to Chad Barrett, all alone in the Rapids penalty area after the Colorado defense had stepped forward. Barrett quickly brought the ball down and slotted under an advancing Bouna Coundoul for the equalizer, leaving both teams with four points from their opening two games.
• Rapids head coach Fernando Clavijo made no changes to start to the team that defeated D.C. United 2-1 in the season opener, though the early dismissal of Brown meant some quick reorganization.
• Here's Clavijo's team (4-4-2): Bouna Coundoul - Brandon Prideaux, Ugo Ihemelu, Mike Petke, Greg Vanney - Terry Cooke (Dan Gargan 88), Kyle Beckerman, Jovan Kirovski (Pablo Mastroeni 29), Herculez Gomez - Roberto Brown, Nicolas Hernandez. Substitutes Not Used: Jose Cancela, Nico Colaluca, Jacob Peterson, Zach Thornton, Chris Wingert
• "We always want more, especially playing at home, but it could have been much worse, there is no question about that," said Clavijo. "I give credit to the whole team. Outstanding effort by everyone. With this field as big as it is, when you play with only 10 men you notice it. But everyone really battled; everyone from Bouna (Coundoul) to Herculez Gomez had a tremendous game."
TEAM NEWS
• Clavijo came into the game with no changes planned after the opening win against D.C. United. But Brown's ejection changed that. One immediate change was that Herculez Gomez, who started the game at midfield, was essentially switched to forward - his natural position - with Nicolas Hernandez dropping back to Gomez's outside midfield spot.
• "We needed to disperse some speed on top," said Clavijo. "We sacrificed Nicolas Hernandez on the left midfield and we moved Herculez up front. We sacrificed Jovan Kirovski [in the 29th minute] and put in Pablo [Mastroeni], which I thought worked extremely well. We didn't know how much gas he had in his tank. He lasted the whole game, and he brought us more bite in the midfield that we needed."
• Gomez was very dangerous up top as the lone striker, and scored a goal for the second successive week. He celebrated his 58th-minute strike by jumping into the stands to celebrate with the Rapids faithful.
• "I feel most comfortable when I'm in front of the goal. Whether it be out wide our up top, my strengths are going to goal," Gomez said. "I got a good look at the goal, I saw the corner, and fortunately found the back of the net. I've been forward my whole life almost, so you get a lot of looks at goal. Playing out wide you get more touches on the ball, and I'm definitely a player that grows as my touches increase."
• Said Clavijo: "You can see what kind of player he is. He can adapt very well. And he keeps scoring. No matter what I'm doing, it's working for him. If I tell him to play sweeper next game, he's going to do it."
• The Rapids felt they did a good job of allowing the Fire sustained pressure yet not allowing any real chances.
• "You don't really get the chance to take the game to the other team and put pressure on them and chase them in their half and try to pin them in," defender Greg Vanney said. "It's tough. You attack when you can, and otherwise you play pretty safe and cautious and you try to absorb the pressure you're going to get and not let them get anything from 35 yards out and in. That's where you're really trying to defend aggressively. Outside of that you're really trying to make the game predictable and slow."
• Added Clavijo: "We didn't give them a sniff. They had no chance. They couldn't find a way to get through, and I thought it spoke very highly of how our team played."
