The Colorado Rapids had a one-man advantage for more than half the game against the Columbus Crew at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park on Sunday night, registering 17 corner kicks, 23 total shots, and seven shots on goal. The Crew put two of their five shots into the back of the net, and William Hesmer made seven saves for the visitors, scooped up breakaways, and cleared crosses to earn the 2-0 shutout.

“We were pretty dynamic in the attack,” noted Colorado captain Pablo Mastroeni. “But these guys played a really good defensive game. Their goalie, for me, was by far the best player on the field. He controlled the 18, and the rest of the guys followed his lead. He got all the shots and corners and crosses. He did really well to keep his team in it.”

Colin Clark started the shooting gallery with a deflected shot in the second minute. Conor Casey ripped a point-blank blast in the 12th minute, but Hesmer made his first save of the game.

Crew forward Steven Lenhart put his team on the board in the 21st minute, the third shot of the game. Lenhart started the play deep in the Crew’s defensive third, holding the ball and passing it wide to Danny O’Rourke on the right side. Lenhart received the ball again just over the midfield line, dropped it square to Stefani Milioranzi, and made a back-door run behind Mastroeni. Miglioranzi slipped the return pass forward on the ground, and Lenhart got a foot on it before Rapids goalkeeper Bouna Coundoul could get to the ball.

In the 25th minute, Ugo Ihemulu won a tussle with Alejandro Moreno in the back and fed it forward to Clark, who curled in a cross that Casey headed wide of the goal.

Moments later, a Crew defender kicked the ball back to Hesmer, but the goalie had to use his hands to prevent an own goal. Terry Cooke rushed up the field and fired the dead ball into the net, but the goal was disallowed and the Crew earned a goal kick (because the free kick was indirect).

Christian Gomez send a long cross to Mehdi Ballouchy in the box in the 32nd minute, and the Morrocon midfielder set the ball for Casey. But Hesmer saved the low shot toward the corner.

Three minutes later, Ballouchy sent the ball wide to Cooke, who launched it into the box. Casey jumped and got his head on it, but Christian Gomez was in a better position to receive and shoot the ball. Casey and Gomez had a similar situation in the second half, perhaps a simple communication issue between the players.

Crew defender Frankie Hejduk made a run to the open right wing in the 42nd minute and served a cross to the far post. As the ball sailed over their heads, Lenhart hammered Erpen in the face and was ejected from the game.

Crew head coach Sigi Schmid removed Miglioranzi at halftime and shored up the defense with Brad Evans.

In the 61st minute, Clark cut by Hejduk, who earned a yellow card for chopping down the midfielder from Fort Collins. Christian Gomez fired the free kick from a steep angle. Herculez Gomez couldn’t get out of the way and helped Hesmer preserve the clean sheet.

Clavijo inserted Jacob Peterson for Nick LaBrocca in the 61st minute, and Peterson took turns working the right flank with Cooke. As the Crew dropped back, the Rapids seemed to start the attacks slowly. Inevitably, the attacks developed, but the Crew didn’t seem like they were down a man.

Schmid replaced Guillermo Barros Schelotto with Jason Garey in the 63rd minute, and Garey scored the second goal of the game in the 75th minute. Eddie Gaven sent a long ball into the box, and Garey took it with his chest and worked to the left side of Coundoul’s goal, slipping the ball into the net when Coundoul came off his line.

Clavijo put Omar Cummings on for Herculez Gomez in the 68th minute, producing a flood of fresh legs in the Colorado attack that produced 10 shots in the final 20 minutes of the game. But Hesmer was already hot and not likely to cool before the final whistle. He made two of his seven saves during stoppage time.

Critical analysis
“We were a little bit slow going forward in the first half,” Colorado head coach Fernando Clavijo explained after the game. “We needed to created chances and make the defenders defend. Everybody was passing the ball instead of taking shots. You have 10 guys on top of the 18 defending, and we needed to take shots. We tried to make the perfect pass.”

“I don’t feel Christian Gomez is 100 percent yet,” Clavijo said.

“There are spaces there,” noted Nick LaBrocca. “We just didn’t exploit them. Some of our decision-making wasn’t great today.”

According to Mastroeni, “When the man on the ball takes a long time to make a decision, it diminishes the amount of time that the next guy has on the ball.”

Up next
The Rapids host Everton FC at Dicks Sporting Goods Park on Sunday, August 3, at 6:00 p.m.

Match Facts

Columbus Crew (9-5-4) vs. Colorado Rapids (6-9-3)
July 27, 2008 — Dick’s Sporting Goods Park

Scoring Summary:
CLB – Lenhart (Miglioranzi) 21
COL – Garey (Gaven) 75

Lineups:
Columbus Crew: William Hesmer, Frankie Hejduk, Andy Iro, Chad Marshall, Danny O’Rourke, Brian Carroll, Stefani Miglioranzi (Brad Evans 45, Jed Zaylor 90+), Eddie Gaven, Guillermo Schelotto (Jason Garey 63), Steven Lenhart, Alejandro Moreno

Substitutes Not Used: Andy Gruenebaum, Ezra Hendrickson, Cory Elenio, Duncan Oughton

Colorado Rapids: Bouna Coundoul, Ugo Ihemelu, Pablo Mastroeni, Facundo Erpen, Mehdi Ballouchy, Nick LaBrocca (Jacob Peterson 61), Colin Clark, Terry Cooke, Christian Gomez, Conor Casey, Herculez Gomez (Omar Cummings 68)

Substitutes Not Used: Jose Luis Burciaga Jr., Preston Burpo, Greg Dalby, John DiRaimondo, Mike Petke

Misconduct Summary:
CLB- O’Rourke (Caution) 13
CLB- Lenhart (Ejection) 43
COL- LaBrocca (Caution) 45+
CLB- Hejduk (Caution) 60
CLB- Iro (Caution) 81

Referee: Shane Moody
Referees Assts.: Bill Dittmar; Steven Taylor
Fourth Official: Alex Prus
Attendance: 10,647