Behold The Power Of Jameson's!

Colorado held true to their history on Jameson's Night, taking New England out back to the woodshed and beating them senseless. It may have taken awhile to put the game away on the scoreboard, the Rapids had control of the game from the opening moments and the Revolution never really had a chance. From top to bottom Colorado played one of their best games of the year.

Just 5 minutes into the game the rapids got on the scoreboard behind the hottest striker in MLS, Omar Cummings. Larentowicz played the ball into the middle and after some pinball it popped out to the feet of Jamie Smith. Smith played the ball into space behind the defense and Cummings ran onto it, putting it far post past Revs keeper Matt Reis from just outside the 6-yard box. 1-0 Rapids.

In the 35th minute Colorado doubled its league with one of the best passing sequences of the season. Conor Casey and Cummings played a quick one-two, at which point Casey laid it back to Jamie Smith and headed towards goal. Smith one-timed it to Cummings, who immediately played the ball into space in front of the onrushing Casey. Casey dumped the ball past Reis inside the near post. 2-0 Rapids and you could visibly see the fight go out of the Revs players. The goal was Casey's 39th as a Rapid, tying him with Paul Bravo for the all-time Rapids record in about 60% of the games Bravo played. Well done!

After that it was just a matter of playing out the remaining 55 minutes while New England had no fight. To add insult to injury Colorado wasn't done. Kandji, having just arrivede from NY, felt the need to get on the scoreboard with the assist. He put Wells Thompson in on goal with only Cory Gibbs to beat. Thompson juked right, went left, Gibbs was lost, and Reis was beaten near post again for a 3-0 lead. This is where I chuckle and point out that Gibbs was traded along with Burpo for Wells Thompson and Jeff Larentowicz. I think we got he better result out of that trade.

My key to the game was how hot Cummings was. well he still appears to be en fuego and proved it quickly with a goal and an assist int he first 35 minutes.

Other Observations:

• Nice job by the Rapids in honoring Pablo's record setting appearance in NY last week before the game.
  
• Brian Mullan looked like a huge improvement over Ballouchy on the right. His first touch alone created 3-4 dangerous chances that Ballouchy couldn't have taken advantage of.
• Matt Pickens wasn't challenged much, which was probably good since it seemed his back was bothering him the way he had Moor taking goal kicks.
• Kimura was solid on defense but his passing wasn't great. Still defense is priority one for his position.
• Wallace looked fairly solid, though his complete whiff in trying to pass the ball the second half was probably a moment he'd like to forget.
• We saw Cummings, Wynne, Amarikiwa, and Kandji in this game which has to be the fastest 4 players on one MLS team. If the league ever goes to a 4 x100 team relay for a tiebreaker we're all set. ;)
• Pablo actually made it through 3 games without a card, so he gets one step further away from suspension.
• Chicago's loss took them out of playoff contention,. but everyone else won to keep the pressure on.
• And a special shout out to Monty and the other Revs fans that made the trip. The Midnight Riders (along with the Inferno in Dallas) are the best rival fans in the league. Always good to see those guys.

Player of the Game: Omar Cummings, for the third straight week. I really tried to give this to somebody else just to call out other good play, but Omar is so hot right now he can't be overlooked.