long balls. We pretty much fell into their trap by playing the long ball."
"It was constantly stop and start, stop and start," Beckerman said of the second half. "It felt like there was no flow to the game. It was just boring. We were just sitting there, the ball would go one way, they would kick it, then the ref would call it. It wasn't really flowing like the first half, and when it wasn't flowing, it certainly favored Houston."
Both teams were playing without at least one key player. Houston was missing forward Brian Ching, goalkeeper Pat Onstad and midfielders Ricardo Clark and Dwayne DeRosario, while Colorado played without forward Roberto Brown. All five players were representing their respective nations in the CONCACAF Gold Cup.
Clavijo said that the absences didn't make a difference in his game plan.
"We said all along, this is a very dangerous team even when they're missing some players," Clavijo said. "Kelly Gray has been playing for Ricardo Clark for most of the season. Ching hasn't played that much. DeRosario hasn't been here; they won without him last week. We lost some players this week, too, but it doesn't matter. It's Houston against Colorado for 90 minutes."
With many of the teams' top name talents absent, it was second-year Dynamo midfielder Stuart Holden who scored the game-winning goal for Houston.
"You could give him a hundred shots, and he wouldn't make another one like that," Clavijo said of Holden's long strike, "but we didn't mark him tight enough, and that's what happened."
Clavijo attributed Holden's open look at the goal to a mix-up on the Rapids' back line.
"Miscommunication came out to Holden pretty much being free and striking an incredible shot," he said.
Beckerman had a much simpler explanation for what happened.
"The kid just hit a miracle shot," Beckerman said. "End of story."
Lucas Ogden-Davis is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
