COMMERCE CITY, Colo. - Six minutes into Sunday's match with the Chicago Fire, the Colorado Rapids showed their ability to adapt, shifting positions, changing their game plan, and making the biggest field in MLS as small as possible.
The changes came as a result of a red card shown to Rapids forward Roberto Brown, who challenged C.J. Brown with a sliding tackle in the midfield. Roberto Brown slid with his boot raised high and seemed to connect with C.J. Brown's knee. At least, referee Jair Marrufo considered serious foul play, and immediately sent off the Panamanian international.
"I went in hard for the tackle, but I didn't touch him, as you can see on the replay," Roberto Brown maintained after the match, speaking through an interpreter having just reviewed the video of the play. "The referee determined it was a red card, and you need to accept whatever the referee says."
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 head coach Fernando 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 aggressive throughout the game, making the most of his speed and getting Colorado's only shots on goal, one in each half, with the second sailing past goalie Matt Pickens for the game's first goal in the 58th minute.
"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 a 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."
It was Gomez's second goal in as many games since joining the Rapids in the offseason, and Clavijo marveled at his versatility, creating chances and aggressively attacking the Fire in a challenging man-down situation.
"You can see what kind of player he is," Clavijo said of Gomez's ability to change on the fly. "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."
And though the brunt of the changes were probably felt on the attack, once Colorado went down a man, the focus of the game shifted to defense, with Bouna Coundoul under heightened pressure and the four defenders resigning themselves to a bend-but-don't-break game.
"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."
Having turned the tables in the second half, Colorado controlled the momentum of the game, forcing Chicago to change their own game plan and scramble to avoid a humiliating man-up defeat. Clavijo was proud of getting visitors off their game for the second week in a row, and was particularly impressed with the way his team responded to the unanticipated challenge of losing a player early.
"We didn't give them a sniff," Clavijo said. "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."
The only letdown came when Chris Rolfe flipped a pass in front of goal to Chad Barrett in the 85th minute, catching the Colorado defense moving forward and exposing Coundoul, who couldn't stop the game-tying shot.
"It seemed like they were in a not very dangerous situation," Vanney said. "Rolfe kind of dribbled in to no-man's land, and I thought he was going to run out of options. It seemed like a couple guys decided to step, and I don't know if they were stepping to players or stepping to pull him offsides, but we just got caught. In those situations, you make a decision and you live or die with it. Sometimes [it's best to play] safety first, and you stay and play that guy, clear the ball out and we don't have that problem."
Despite losing an opportunity to take a dramatic second victory at home, there was justifiable pride in the Rapids locker room for their ability to change course and hold off a dynamic and dangerous opponent while playing at a disadvantage for 84 minutes.
"We always want more," said Clavijo. "We don't want to lose any points at home, but it could have been much worse, there's no question about it. I give credit to the whole team. Outstanding effort by everybody, playing with one player less. On this field, as big as it is, when you have 10 players you notice it. Everybody battled. Everyone, starting from Bouna to Herculez Gomez, had a tremendous game."
Owen Perkins is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
