As pleasing as the Philadelphia Union’s big 3-0 win over Chivas USA was over the weekend, it was quickly erased from memory as the Colorado Rapids took them to school on Wednesday night with a 4-1 defeat.
Two goals from Omar Cummings inside of 15 minutes practically sealed the win for the home side, who have won their last three at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park by a three-goal margin.
WATCH: Full match highlights
Union assistant coach John Hackworth praised the talented forward, but he also lamented the fact that his side surrendered a big lead so early in the match.
"Omar Cummings especially was dangerous," Hackworth said. "He finished his first chance. The one thing that we knew coming into here was that we could not give up an early goal, and we did.
“With the way that Colorado is playing and the challenge of coming off of three days of recovery and then playing here at the altitude — that is going to be a lot to ask of any team. You have to give them credit. They were very good, and we were not very good tonight.”
The Union’s defense, which had been quite solid over the last five matches by only allowing three goals, was cut to shreds by Cummings.
Echoing the sentiments of his coach, Union captain Danny Califf said he was surprised his side played so poorly and admitted and that Cummings’ two goals made it difficult to get back into the match.
“They came out strong and locked it down defensively," Califf said. "Obviously if you get two chances in the box and score two goals, it will put them on the right foot.”
Califf said he hopes his team can quickly move on from the disappointing defeat as there wasn’t a great deal the team can learn from such a poor match.
“Once you give up two early goals, you start to chase the game and you are forced to play with a lot more risk than you would normally play with," Califf said. "We were pushing a lot of numbers forward and that gave the guys in Kandji and Cummings a lot of space to run into, and that is going to happen when you are chasing the game."
