The Colorado Rapids came back from an 0-2 deficit to tie the game, but the Kansas City Wizards scored a goal three minutes from the end to hand Colorado their first loss of the season, 3-2.
The Rapids opened up the game on the attack as Colin Clark beat Jimmy Conrad in the first minute, but his cross went out for a corner kick. Terry Cooke took the ensuing corner, which ended with Omar Cummings hitting a shot just over the goal.
In the 13th minute, Clark ran onto a Bouna Coundoul clearance, but his one time shot was stopped by an onrushing Kevin Hartman outside of his penalty area.
Coundoul had to make his first major play of the game in the 38th minute. The Senegalese 'keeper came off his line to quell the Kansas City attack as the score remained 0-0 at the break.
Clark nearly put the Rapids ahead four minutes into the second half. The Fort Collins native ripped a right-footed shot that caught Hartman by surprise, but the former Galaxy goalie was able to keep it out of the net.
The Wizards scored on their second shot of the game. A Carlos Marinelli free kick was headed in by Conrad in the 53rd minute.
Two minutes later, Conrad made it 2-0 when he headed in a corner kick from Marinelli.
In his first return to Kansas City, Jose Luis Burciaga Jr. scored in the 57th minute to get the Rapids within one. The Dallas native took a pass from Clark and was wide open as he beat Hartman to the near post.
John DiRaimondo scored his first career goal in the 68th minute to pull the teams even. The St. Louis University product took a short pass from Cummings and drilled his shot past Hartman.
Stephen Keel saved a Scott Sealy shot off the line in the 73rd minute. Coundoul came off his line to force the speedy forward wide and delay his shot until the Littleton native could cover the goal.
Sealy however would score the game winner in the 87th minute. The Rapids' defense failed to clear the ball and Sealy poked a shot just inside the post.
Cummings would have a chance in added time to earn a point for Colorado, but his shot that beat Hartman bounced off the post and was cleared.
The Rapids will be in action again next Saturday, April 12 when they travel to Gillette Stadium to take on the New England Revolution in a 5:30 p.m. MT kickoff. The game will be broadcast live on Altitude 2 in the Rocky Mountain Region.
Scoring Summary:
KC - Conrad (Marinelli) 52
KC - Conrad (Marinelli) 54
COL - Burciaga Jr. (Clark) 57
COL - DiRaimondo (Cummings) 68
KC - Sealy (Jewsbury) 87
Lineups:
Colorado Rapids - Bouna Coundoul, Kosuke Kimura, Facundo Erpen, Stephen Keel, Jose Burciaga, Jr. (Rafael Gomes 89), Terry Cooke, Colin Clark (Herculez Gomez 64), John DiRaimondo, Nick LaBrocca (Pablo Mastroeni 64), Christian Gomez, Omar Cummings
Substitutes Not Used: Chris Sharpe, Jordan Harvey, Rafael Gomes, Kelly Gray, Jacob Peterson
Kansas City Wizards - Kevin Hartman, Jonathan Leathers, Jimmy Conrad, Tyson Wahl (Eloy Colombano 83), Michael Harrington, Jack Jewsbury, Carlos Marinelli, Kerry Zavagnin, Ryan Pore (Kurt Morsink 45), Claudio Lopez, Ivan Trujillo (Scott Sealy 71)
Substitutes Not Used: Eric Kronberg, Roger Espinoza, Aaron Hohlbein, Chance Myres,
Misconduct Summary:
COL - Erpen (Caution) 53
KC - Zavagnin (Caution) 80
Referee: Kevin Stott
Referees Assts.: George Gansner, Steven Taylor
Fourth Official: Jasen Anno
Attendance: 8,731
