Conor Casey continued his dominance of the New York Red Bulls and Mehdi Ballouchy added a penalty kick on the hour mark to lead the Colorado Rapids to a 3-2 win against the Red Bulls Saturday night at Giants Stadium.
Juan Pablo Angel scored on a penalty kick at the end of the first half to pull the Red Bulls level and Danleigh Borman scored a late goal that pulled the home side to within one, but they could get no closer.
The Rapids extend their unbeaten streak to five consecutive games and have three wins in a row against New York, scoring 12 goals during that stretch.
The Red Bulls, meanwhile, lost their second match in a row, a dubious distinction considering they play seven of their next nine games on the road, where they have a 17-match winless streak.
Casey, who scored four goals here last year in a wild 5-4 victory, headed in his first in the 25th minute, getting on the end of Colin Clark's cross at the far post. On the play, Ballouchy laid the ball off to Clark, who whipped the ball in from the left.
Conway, who came out to challenge the cross, was stuck in no-man's land and Alfredo Pacheco was caught ball watching as Casey headed in his seventh goal of the year.
Casey was again unmarked in the 39th minute, but he headed the ball over the crossbar.
The Red Bulls equalized two minutes from halftime when Angel struck from the penalty spot for his fourth goal of the year after Cory Gibbs tripped up Dane Richards, who spun inside of the defender after receiving a quality ball by Angel.
Referee Ricardo Salazar immediately pointed to the spot and the Colombian took his own kick. He stutter-stepped and put his shot up the middle as Pickens dived to his right.
Casey added his second goal three minutes into the second half, beating Conway with a downward header to put the Rapids up 2-1.
Colorado made it 3-1 on the hour mark with Ballouchy scoring his first goal of the year.
Albert Celades was called for the foul on Omar Cummings at the left corner of the 18-yard box. Conway guessed correctly, but couldn't stop Ballouchy's PK.
The Red Bulls got a goal back in the 73rd minute when Borman, who came on for Sinisa Ubiparipovic seven minutes earlier, knocked in the rebound of an Angel free kick that deflected out off of Pickens' foot.
Kandji created space and had an attempt with his left foot in the closing moments of second-half stoppage time, but couldn't fire home the equalizer.
Angel had the first scoring chance of the game, nearly striking inside of a minute as the Colombian forced Pickens to dive to his right to parry away his shot from eight yards out.
In the fourth minute, Casey made a dangerous run along the endline, but Conway cut down the angle and knocked the attempt away. In the 17th minute, Casey again snuck in at the back post, but he couldn't connect on Ballouchy's service and was ruled offside.
Juan Carlos Osorio again tweaked his lineup, bringing Richards back into the starting XI, playing the Jamaican up top with Angel. Mac Kandji slid in behind the forwards while Celades moved out wide to the left side of midfield, filling in for the suspended Jorge Rojas.
Rapids coach Gary Smith made no changes from last week's squad that played Seattle Sounders FC to a 2-2 draw, the team's second consecutive tie.
The Red Bulls, now 2-7-3 and alone in the Eastern Conference basement, head to RFK Stadium Thursday to take on red-hot D.C. United before facing the New England Revolution at Gillette Stadium on Sunday. The Rapids, now 4-2-4, head to Sandy, Utah to take on Real Salt Lake next Saturday night.
Dylan Butler is a contributor to MLSnet.com.
