The Colorado Rapids didn't get everything they wanted out of their just-completed three-match homestand, but as has been their pattern throughout the season so far, they ultimately got what they needed, winning two of three and reclaiming their hold on first place in the Western Conference on Sunday with a 2-1 win against FC Dallas.
Colorado has found a way to bring a different slant to each of their recent games, shifting systems and personnel as they search for the elusive mix that can give them the consistency to start stringing wins together after improving to 5-5-0 without recording back-to-back victories.
Sunday afternoon's twist was a new combination of strikers, matching Tom McManus and Conor Casey together for the first time this season. Casey started the season on the disabled list and made his season debut last week against Chivas, but came roaring out of the gate in his first start of the season against Dallas, scoring a close-range goal on a feed from Christian Gomez in the game's seventh minute.
"I got an early goal and a lead," Casey said. "It's a good feeling to be back out there."
Casey gave the Rapids a good feeling all around, sparking a strong first half that was marred only by a goal off a corner kick scramble by Dominic Oduro in the 44th minute.
"I thought we reacted OK when it finally did pop out to [Oduro]," goalkeeper Preston Burpo said, making his first MLS start since last July. "But he hit it a little bit funny, actually. It kind of squibbed past me and trickled in the back post. That was a little disappointing to give that up right before the half. But we came out and we found [Christian] Gomez, which was a big help for us today."
Finding Gomez is always a key, primarily because of his ability to find his strikers in dangerous situations. If Casey's first-half goal set the tone, when Gomez launched a long ball over the top of the FCD defense, McManus's second half finish to regain the lead in the 77th minute was a matching bookend. It recharged the Rapids and set them up for a dominating close.
"Conor's come back from a long injury and has finally got his feet back," McManus said of the successful teaming of the two strikers. "It's the first game we've played together, so there were a few things that weren't in synch, but he's a good player. It's a straight partnership, same as anything, we need to keep working. It was our first game, but both of us scored. He scored a great goal. He's a great asset to the team when he gets back to 100 percent."
After Casey played 88 minutes in an Open Cup match at L.A. Tuesday, Clavijo played it safe Sunday, pulling Casey at the interval and putting Omar Cummings back up front to start the second half, returning to the position where he had started eight of the team's first nine games. Cummings gave the team a spark in the second half, along with midfield substitutes Terry Cooke and Jordan Harvey, but the tandem up top of Casey and McManus clearly established the tempo for the Rapids early on.
"Outstanding," Clavijo said of the way his two starting strikers complimented each other. "Conor brings something that we didn't have before. He's a guy who plays with his back to the wall extremely well. He's very technical for his size. He has a great touch. He's somebody that you need to worry about in the box, and you could see it today. This is a guy who hopefully we get fit to play for 90 minutes in coming games, and he's definitely going to be a plus for us.
"And the same with Tommy," Clavijo continued. "Tommy works tremendously hard for 90 minutes, chasing people, creating, passing, taking shots. The more we can put them together on the field, hopefully the more they'll understand each other and benefit from it."
Citing the intelligence of his players as they adapt to changing systems and personnel, Clavijo stressed that it was attitude more than anything that made the difference as the Rapids wrapped up their homestand on a high note.
"When you're going through the motions and your passes are not crystal clear, you're guessing where the ball is going to go," Clavijo said. "You're guessing to go to the ball when the ball is coming. You allow teams to put pressure on. Today you could see from the beginning it was different. They were alive, the passing was crisp. The runs were great.
"We played maybe longer balls than we ever did before today, but we had somebody to play to, which was Conor Casey," Clavijo continued. "He did extremely well when he was on the field. But I think overall, the attitude, the precision of the players to work a couple steps more for somebody else, was key for us. We played a very good team, Dallas. We finished when we needed to. We had a little setback allowing a crucial goal right at the end of the half, but we recovered well from it."
Recovering from setbacks has been the pattern as Colorado continues the quest for consecutive wins, but the promising progression of an evolving and maturing attack bodes well as the Rapids hit the road for a pair of challenging matches with L.A. and Toronto.
"That's definitely something we need to keep working on, to be able to give ourselves a little rest here and there," Casey said of the team's ability to maintain possession and dictate the tempo. "We haven't done that necessarily as well as we would have liked this season, but we did it today, so that's something to build off of."
Owen Perkins is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
