D.C. United coach Peter Nowak was upbeat after his club's 2-1 defeat at the hands of the Colorado Rapids on Saturday night at Invesco Field. Even after seeing his team go down to defeat for the first time in 2006, Nowak had nothing but praise for his team and Rapids goalkeeper Joe Cannon.
"I think Joe (Cannon) made good saves but the chances we made, we have the experience and firepower to score those goals. They were good saves but we need to do better. In some cases the final pass didn't come our way," said the United boss.
"We didn't focus on the last pass but we scored a pretty good goal and I think the penalty kick gave Colorado a little bit more life. I don't know about the second goal, I'll have to see it, for what really happened. We are playing an away game and got the goal (scored on us) by the counterattack. That should not happen to this team."
After D.C. United took the lead on a great goal from Christian Gomez, the club appeared to be playing on egg shells as they became more defensive-minded, letting the Rapids' attack slip into their defensive third. United let the Rapids keep knocking and knocking at the door and eventually their defense cracked.
"I think we dropped back a little too much. We got too defensive after our goal and they were able to come at us a little bit more than they had been, but that is soccer," said United midfielder Josh Gros.
Freddy Adu came on as a substitute for Jamil Walker, who sprained his right hamstring near the end of the first half. Walker was mainly playing as the lone central forward for United and had a great volley that forced Cannon to make a fine save to keep the score at 0-0, but Adu felt United lost momentum after the penalty that was awarded to Jovan Kirovski, equalizing just five minutes after Gomez put them into the lead.
"The momentum definitely shifted a lot. It's one of those things where we are up 1-0, controlling the game and all of the sudden they get a break and score on a PK," Adu said.
Adu, despite the disappointment with the loss, was optimistic for the games ahead.
"It's their home field and they are used to the altitude more than we are. They pressured us a lot and they got away with it. We know we can play better and we just have to bounce back from this," he said.
D.C. United next face Eddie Johnson and the Eastern Conference leader Kansas City Wizards next weekend at RFK Stadium. The Wizards stretched the gap to two points atop the division on Saturday night as they played to a 1-1 draw with the Chicago Fire.
