Roommates Shut Down Chivas USA

Best friends and roommates Omar Cummings and Kosuke Kimura put a beat down on the Under-A-Chivas Saturday night. After a first half where nothing happened but the Rapids controlled play mainly through Chivas' inability to do anything in the offensive third Omar decided it was time for a change...to his shoes. He swapped cleats at halftime and suddenly became a different player.

In the 52nd minute Koz stole the ball and fed Omar on the right side. Omar took a rocket of a shot from the edge of the box that Chivas keeper Zack Thorton could only parry, and Casey was there to clean up the rebound for a 1-0 lead. 16 minutes later Cummings once again go the ball on the left side and decided to twist the Chivas defense into knots. He got into the box, cut outside, cut inside, cut back outside, and put a shot to the far post past Thornton. Once Chivas got untied they realized they were down 2-0 after that Goal of the Week candidate. Omar wasn't done yet. 13 minutes later he turned his defender and left him in the dust for a 1v1 against Thornton and a 3-0 lead. Not surprisingly, Cummings was named MLS Player of the Week yesterday.

My key to the game was knocking Chivas out early. We knocked them out early...in the second half. Once we started though, we didn't let up until they were out cold.

Other Observations:

• Kimura had his best game of the season and was my pick for Man of the Match until Omar went off in the last 30 minutes. It seemed that every time Chivas came down their left side, Koz stopped them cold.
  
• With the two wins in the last two weeks and the other results the margin for error for the playoffs has increased somewhat. We might be able to get in with 2 more wins and a draw or two, but we need to remain focused and get 3 wins to make sure of it.
• This team is so much more dangerous with Cummings playing along side Casey up top and not as a winger.
• That's partially due tot he fact that Pablo and Larentowicz have figured out how to make the central midfield work without somebody in front of them. The Ginger Ninja's presence has given Pablo the confidence to go forward and at least be a threat to free up the wings.
• Anthony Wallace made his Rapids debut and looked solid if unspectacular on the left. Given the (apparent) lack of faith in Earls I'd start him there again until Wynne is healthy.
• Andre Akpan got his first MLS minutes. He didn't have much of a chance to do anything other than prevent a Chivas player from stopping the long ball to Cummings on the last goal.
• A note to the three yahoos sitting behind me in Class VI. when you weren't talking about how amazing SEC and Tennessee football is (both significantly overrated) you were making it clear that you've never really seen the Rapids play, and I doubt you've ever seen a MLS game. Thanks to your loud mouths I'm pretty sure half the team is wondering why Class VI was turning on them in a 3-0 rout.

Player of the Game: Omar Cummings, duh. He was Player of the Week league wide, clearly the man of the match.