COMMERCE CITY, Colo. – Finally. After seven league matches without a win and a 0-6-6 in 12 head-to-head contests with the Quakes over the past seven years, the Rapids broke through and claimed victory on Saturday night with a 1-0 blanking of their Western rivals.
WATCH:FULL MATCH HIGHLIGHTS
The win was a confidence booster for sure, but the players in the Colorado locker room are quick to tell you that the confidence has been there throughout the drought, as has the good play on the pitch. Saturday night they simply earned the points their play has called for.
“In the end, we’ve been playing well,” said defender Marvell Wynne. “We just haven’t gotten the results. It’s not a complete 180. It’s more like, ‘finally.’"
Head coach Gary Smith has referred to the Rapids' now defunct winless streak as “voodoo,” and he made his own whimsical attempt at changing Colorado’s luck by changing his attire for the match, leaving his soccer kit in his locker and coming dressed in a shirt and tie for the first time in his coaching career.
“I’ve always thought the group are just a bit of confidence away from being a really successful team,” Smith said. “We’ve played some very good football. I’m not too sure many people would be too critical of how we’ve played. We just haven’t been able to seal the deal enough. Tonight we were, and we should have won by a bigger margin really.”
The win gave the Rapids some separation from the Quakes, who had trailed Colorado by a point heading into the match. It also gave them a measure of vindication for their superior play that has often come up short of a full three points.
Cummings, who was playing at forward for the second straight week, was constantly in the thick of the action, racing for possession, maneuvering around defenders, creating opportunities and often being in the right place to take advantage of the work of his teammates.
The Jamaican was helped by a formation shift to a 4-4-2, with Quincy Amarikwa joining him up front. Amarikwa had an inspired 66 minutes against his former team, taking pressure off Cummings and proving to be a constant “thorn in their side,” as Smith put it.
Though the Rapids were slow out of the gate, they began taking control of the match and once they were on the scoreboard, their confidence was boosted by their undefeated 7-0-3 record when scoring first this season.
“Especially at home,” Cummings pointed out. “When we score first, especially in the first half, other teams, the head goes down, and you just get that momentum to go more, and if you score another one early, it could be over before you know it.”
A key player in the Rapids attack, left winger Colin Clarke, was walking on his injured knee in the locker room and will await an MRI on Monday for the real prognosis.
One final streak the Rapids would have liked to see fall is their stretch of six consecutive matches scoring a goal or less. The floodgates will have to wait at least another week to open in the final third.
“The only shame, if there was one tonight, was that we haven’t really added to that goal-scoring tally when we could have done,” Smith said. “The guys deserved it and would have felt an awful lot better about it. But one thing’s for sure, we’ll all feel pretty good in the morning.”
