Mullan Golazo, Cyanide Take Down Crew

The Rapids continued their dominance over the East with another win over the current Eastern leaders. The Rapids are 5-10-1 against the East, with the only loss being in Columbus and 3 of the 5 wins being over teams who were leading the East at the time of the game. That seems appropriate for the defending Eastern Conference Champions. ;)

The first half was really quiet. Seriously, I didn't watch a single replay in the first half from my recording, I jumped straight to the second. The second started with Mendoza getting behind Marshall at the top of the box and going to ground. Marshall may have clipped him, hard to tell for sure from the replay, but it wasn't hard enough to draw a PK call.

In the 55th minute Thompson played a square ball to an unmarked Mullan who took two touches, looked up and realized nobody was closing him down, and slammed it into the top corner to give Colorado the 1-0 lead. Amazingly this was his first goal as a Rapid, something I had to look up for myself because I couldn't believe it. Easiest assist Thompson's ever gotten as well.

The closest the Crew got to scoring was in the 74th minute as Mendoza once again got behind the back line, but Pickens was up to the challenge. The rebound was scooped up by Marshall and played out and Columbus never got another look at goal.

Cyanide would finish the scoring in the 79th minute. Nyassi stole the ball and turnned towards goal. as he reached the top of the box he played a through ball right into Cummings' stride, and Omar first-timed it inside the far post for the assurance goal. This was the 5th goal that one of them has scored with an assist from the other one in the last 4 games. After that the Rapids ran the clock out and took a much needed shutout and home win.

My key to the game was the defenses. Colorado locked everybody down and Pickens only had to make one big save. Meanwhile as expected Cyanide pealed apart the Crew defense for a goal and Mullan's golazo was a nice way to get the scoring started.

Stat of the Game: Wallace's 2 minutes is the shortest appearance by a player that had to be subbed out in Rapids history. The prior record holder was Jason Moore who started a game and left in the 4th minute. The prior record for a substitute was 7 minutes by Seth Trembly.

Other Observations:

• Probably the most complete game we've seen from all 11 positions in years. Everyone was playing well and making things work.
• The Nyassi-Cummings combo comes through again. Since Nyassi took over as a starter for the injured Casey, the combo has setup or scored 7 of the Rapids 10 goals.
• Class VI was in a perfect position to watch Mullan's golazo sail off his foot and into the upper 90. Another great looking Rapids goal.
• Drew Moor will tie the MLS ironman record if he played the full game in San Jose.
• Always a good game when your goalkeeper lets in no goals and only has to make one save.
• Class VI sang Ginger Ninja Happy Birthday. Drew Moor seemed to appreciate it. ;)
• No good deed goes unpunished as Nyassi and Cummings are heading to Gambia and China respectively to play for their National teams on Wednesday. That leaves their availability for Saturday's game in San Jose questionable.

Player of the Game: Brian Mullan. Hard to pick a player for this one because everyone played a solid game, so I wimped out and went with the easy choice.