May 5, 2008 12:03 AM

Rapids click on all cylinders, shut down D.C.

The 2-0 final score simply does not do justice to how thoroughly the Rapids dominated D.C. United on Sunday at Dick's Sporting Goods Park.

The Rapids held sway in every phase of the game, and may have played their best game since moving to Commerce City from Invesco Field at Mile High. Yes, even counting the Opening Day victory against L.A. (United didn't fall apart in the face of diversity like that Galacticos did).

Jacob Peterson and Facundo Erpen scored in the second half as the Rapids climbed back into first place in the Western Conference. Colorado (3-3-0) is tied with FC Dallas (2-1-3) with nine points.

The Rapids debuted a new formation with two strikers, Omar Cummings and Tom McManus. That put Christian Gomez, Nick LaBrocca, Pablo Mastroeni and Peterson in the midfield and Erpen, Ugo Ihemelu, Kosuke Kimura and Jordan Harvey on defense.

Of course, Bouna Coundoul played in goal.

But because of that lineup, I thought I'd do something a little different: go down the list and talk about each player's contributions against D.C.

PETERSON: The goal in the 53rd minute was spectaular. It should be a candidate for goal of the week, but it was more than that. It was the best goal scored in Dick's Sporting Goods Park (I almost typed "the short history of Dick's Sporting Goods Park," but I got in so much trouble applying that phrase to the expansion Earthquakes that I thought better of it). Peterson was a surpise starter ahead of Terry Cooke and Colin Clark, but the move paid off for coach Fernando Clavijo. Peterson, who recorded a goal in a midweek exhibition against the University of New Mexico, also had a scoring opportunity in the 16th minute.

GOMEZ: Much of the focus before the game was Gomez playing against United for the first time. The former MVP made the key pass on the winning goal with a spectacular spin move to get free of his defender and a perfectly weighted diagonal pass to Peterson. Right on Peterson's foot. Right in stride. Exactly timed. Perfect roller. The spin move absolutely undressed Clyde Simms. It was as spectacular a pass as Peterson's finish. Gomez also assisted on Erpen's insurance goal.

LABROCCA: Having Nick LaBrocca on the pitch is like having an extra Mastroeni in the lineup. LaBrocca drew the assignment of matching up with Marcelo Gallardo, and the Rapids youngster blanketed the playmaker from Argentina. Really the only chance Gallardo created was a direct free kick in the 15th minute that Bouna punched away spectacularly.

MASTROENI: If LaBrocca's game is reminiscent of Pablo's, Pablo's reminds me of LaBrocca's ... with teeth. Pablo doesn't just block the path of Gallardo; he forces Gallardo to pass then shoves him backward with both arms. Pablo is often criticized for being too aggressive or taking too many cards. But you can't take the bite out of a player like Pablo without taking his effectiveness away in the process.

COUNDOUL: Speaking of Bouna, he was not tested often. He stopped Gallardo's free kick, and he pounced on a through-ball to Luciano Emilio, also in the first half.

IHEMELU: It was nice to see Ugo back in the starting 11, and he totally shut down Emilio for the first hour of the game. A fine return to form. D.C. coach Tom Soehn replaced Emilio right near the hour mark. But the Brazilian striker was not having a bad day because of his own level of play; he was being smothered by Ihemelu. Francis Doe came in for Emilio and was awful. Bad substitution.

COOKE: Best substitution of the game. Barely a minute after entering the game for Peterson, who left to a big ovation, Cooke picked up an assist on Erpen's goal. Cooke also had a chance to score in the 75th minute. He also narrowly missed dipping a restart into the left corner of the net four minutes later. Not bad for playing only

ERPEN: When the Rapids acquired Erpen in 2007, it was one of Clavijo's finest personnel moves. However, at the time, I wasn't thinking about Erpen's scoring ability. I remember a long bomb he had with D.C., but with the Rapids he's been very aggressive on corner kicks. Usually, one would expect such emphasis to come from a larger man, a Keel or Petke, perhaps. But Erpen has routinely flung himself into the fray since joining the team. And on Sunday, it all came together in the 72nd minute. It wasn't a corner, but the central defender wasted no chance stepping in front of a defender and heading home a ball in front of the D.C. goal.

HERCULEZ: Within two or three minutes of entering the game, Herculez got blasted to the turf. Neither was ruled a foul. Herculez has had a tendency to be a bit too fiery at times. But to his credit, he did not retalliate or engage referee Jorge Gonzalez in either instance. He also had a nice run down the right wing in the 71st minute. He lost the ball but chased his marker into the corner and won a corner kick. The corner kick led to the Erpen goal.

CLARK: The Fort Collins product entered the game in the 74th minute and didn't get much of an opportunity to make his mark on the outcome. He had a shot on goal in the 90th minute, but erhaps his most notable contribution was during an extended stretch at the end of the game where the Rapids played keep-away from United. It would be fun to watch the video and count how many consecutive touches the Rapids had in two effective stretches at the end of the game. Very impressive work.

HARVEY: His solid, consistent play at left back showed Clavijo has another option on defense, which was a patchwork quilt in 2007 but looks like a deep, high-quality surplus this year. "He's been waiting to get a chance for a couple of years," Peterson told Altitude after the game. "He's a great one-on-one defender."

CUMMINGS: The starting striker was brilliant. Although he didn't score, Cummings was the man of the match. His first-half was filled with moments that many players wait an entire game for. In the sixth minute, he set up McManus, who blasted a hard, rising shot just over goal. He and LaBrocca created a chance in the 36th minute. He scrambled the D.C. dfense with a solo run into the box in the 45th minute. His speed fooled D.C. keeper Zach Wells at the beginning of the second half and led to a shot into the side netting (when Wells thought the ball had enough legs to get past the end line). Peterson was announced as man of the match after the game, but Cummings was the man, for my money.

MCMANUS: In addition to that shot in the sith minute, McManus also had a header that just sailed wide early in the ninth minute. He followed Cummings' lead and pressured D.C.'s defenders. In the 24th minute, Jordan Harvey crossed the ball a wee bit behind McManus right near the penalty spot. McManus did was so few players in MLS do: turned and one-timed the ball. How many times do we see MLS players take one or two touches to get the ball right where they want it on their foot before they're comfortable taking a shot? McManus has the truest shooting instincts on the Colorado roster since John Spencer.

KIMURA: Although I think Cummings was the most dynamic, effective player of the match on Sunday, I wanted to talk about Kimura last. His quiet presence betrays a rocklike ability at right back. He rarely gets beaten. RARELY. I counted one time a player got the best of Kimura on Sunday, and the result was a cross into the box. However, Kimura had recovered so nicely that the cross wound up harmlessly behind its intended target. Kimura might be manning the right back on this team for a long time.

OTHER NOTES: Paid attendance was more than 13,000, but there was NO WAY that many people were in the stands. It was a beautiful day (a little windy, maybe), which made it surprising that so few people showed up. ... Wells played, um, well. He was rarely out of position and made good decisions when distributing the ball. He could not be faulted on either goal, especially Peterson's. The way Peterson struck that ball, it was headed for the back of the net even if Wells had gotten a hand on it. ... Those lucha libre masks that they distributed before the game were not designed to fit on my size-8 melon. ... Next time the Rapids want to schedule a lucha libra doubleheader, they'd be better served by not making folks pay extra to attend. I don't know all the financial details of staging the event, but the May 15 Rapids doubleheader with the Fort Collins Force-Washington Freedom friendly is a much better proposition for fans. ... No Rapids player has scored more than one goal this season in MLS play.

Posted by George Tanner at 12:03 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack