COMMERCE CITY, CO.- The Colorado Rapids, playing in their first international friendly of the season, needed a penalty kick shootout following a scoreless 90 minutes of play to defeat UANL Tigres Wednesday night at Dick's Sporting Goods Park. Colin Clark's game winning kick lifted the Rapids to a 7-6 victory and gave Colorado the first-ever Tecate Cup.
The Rapids evened their record all-time against international opponents to 5-5-0 and moved to 4-3-0 versus teams from Mexico.
Both teams battled throughout regulation with either side able to create a solid offensive attack due to stingy defensive play.
Colorado, sporting their new 3rd kits with white jerseys, burgundy shorts and white socks, substituted much of their first team into the match throughout the second half and put the offensive pressure on over the contest's final minutes. Tom McManus sent a right footed cross in front of the net that was met by a Conor Casey header in the 90th minute that was saved by Oscar Perez to send the match to penalty kicks.
Tigres' Jose Rivas missed wide left on the club's second kick opening the door for the Rapids to seal the win, but Facundo Erpen's attempt on Colorado fourth shot was saved by Perez.
The Rapids had a second opportunity to end the match when Manuel Viniegra sent his kick high over the net on Tigres' seventh attempt. Next up was John DiRaimondo, who's shot was saved by Perez to the low right post.
The home team was able to come away with the win and the Tecate Cup four kicks later when Clark finished following a Tigres miss by Hugo Sanchez.
Colorado's next MLS regular season match will be this Saturday, July 12 at 2pm MT as the Rapids travel to San Jose to face the Earthquakes at Buck Shaw Stadium.
Scoring Summary:
NONE
Penalty Kick Summary:
UANL - B. Perez (Goal)
COL - Cooke (Goal)
UANL - Rivas (Wide Left)
COL - Ballouchy (Goal)
UANL - Chavez (Goal)
COL - McManus (Goal)
UANL - Marino (Goal)
COL - Erpen (Saved)
UANL - Ruiz (Goal)
COL - Casey (Goal)
UANL - Pulido (Goal)
COL - Ihemelu (Goal)
UANL - Viniegra (High)
COL - DiRaimondo (Saved)
UANL - Sancho (Goal)
COL - Burciaga Jr. (Goal)
UANL - Sanchez (High)
COL - Clark (Goal)
Lineups:
Colorado Rapids - Preston Burpo, Kosuke Kimura (Ugo Ihemelu 86), Stephen Keel (Mike Petke 45), Jordan Harvey (Facundo Erpen 77), Jose Luis Burciaga Jr., Jacob Peterson (Terry Cooke 74), Greg Dalby (John DiRaimondo 80), Ciaran O'Brien (Mehdi Ballouchy 63), Nico Colaluca (Colin Clark 67), Herculez Gomez (Conor Casey 81), Omar Cummings (Tom McManus 74)
Substitutes not used: Brian Grazier, Nick Labrocca, Pablo Mastroeni, Tim Ward, Cesar Zambrano, Mike Gracyzk, Chris Sharpe
UANL Tigres - Oscar Perez, Diego Martinez (Mario Ruiz 74), Hugo Sanchez, Jose Rivas, Javier Saavedra (Jesus Chavez 45), Manuel Viniegra, Lucas Ayala (Guillermo Marino 45), Francisco Fonseca (Antionio Sanchez 45), Emmanuel Cerda (Armando Pulido 45), Jonatan De Leon, Blas Perez
Substitutes Not Used: Alfredo Talavera, Erick Martinez, Lucas Lobos, Jesus Urbina
Misconduct Summary:
COL - Dalby (Caution) 33
UANL- Ruiz (Caution) 75
Referee: Alex Prus
Referees Assts.: Ben Chouaf, Eric Bryan
Fourth Official: Robert Keiffer
