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Rapids keep rolling in shutout win over shorthanded Galaxy

HendryThomas (USA Today Sports)

By JUSTIN FERGUSON

Since they snapped a four-match winless slide with a wild 4-3 victory over the Montreal Impact, the Colorado Rapids have become the hottest team in the Western Conference, going undefeated in the month of July.

On Saturday evening, the Rapids kept rolling with a 2-0 victory over the Los Angeles Galaxy at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park. Colorado, now unbeaten in their last six league matches, did its damage shortly before and shortly after the halftime break, getting goals from midfielders Hendry Thomas and Dillon Powers.

The Colorado win made the day a disappointing homecoming for former Rapids captain Pablo Mastroeni, who was playing in his first match against his old club since being traded last month.

After missing on several chances midway through the first half, Mastroeni’s former team grabbed the lead on his new team in the 41st minute. Thomas, who received a yellow card for two hard tackles in the opening minutes and controversially drew one off what was ruled a foul on Galaxy midfielder Juninho, put a header off a Powers corner kick straight into the back of the net.

The Rapids took their narrow lead into the halftime break and doubled it shortly after kickoff. After playing a fine one-two with former Galaxy forward Edson Buddle, Powers cut through the middle of the visiting defense and fired a shot past Carlo Cudicini to make it 2-0. The midfielder from Notre Dame now has four goals and four assists so far in his rookie season.

The Galaxy, who were without offensive leaders Landon Donovan and Robbie Keane, started to create more chances after falling behind by two goals. Rookie Gyasi Zardes threatened to spoil the Rapids’ third shutout in five matches, but the forward’s late efforts were off the mark.

While Los Angeles tried to find a way back into the match, Colorado threatened to push its lead out even further. Even though the visitors controlled more of the second half possession, Thomas and Buddle came very close to making it 3-0 on several occasions.

Colorado (9-7-3), who moved up to second in the West with the victory, will host conference leaders Real Salt Lake next Saturday. Los Angeles (10-9-3) starts a three-match set in the International Champions Cup on Thursday and will return to league action on August 11 with a road match against FC Dallas.

Here are the match highlights:

http://player.ooyala.com/iframe.js#pbid=4bfc225f82bf46c48dfb065eda97f74f&ec=gwaGtvZDquIe6oTe9bukWzWwngcGxcRG

Comments

  1. The word desultory popped into my mind when I think about this game. LA had a lot of the ball, but never were very threatening and the Rapids goals came kind of without warning and were very uninspiring, except for Rapids fans. About as boring as a 2-0 game can be. As a Galaxy fan, I hope they can return to form when their stars get back.

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  2. Where is Rogers? every time I hear Magee score it check to see what the other part of the trade is doing. He’s not even playing?

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  3. Thomas should have been sent off in the first half, which would have drastically changed the game. The ref allowed a hacking style to obliterate a finesse style. Soccer lost today

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      • Nope, talking to Dog. (You can see who people are talking to by noting the staggered indenting of the replies.) That was specifically in reference to his melodramatic comment at the end.

      • maybe not lost soccer…how about butt ugly soccer then? No problems with it from me btw, it’s MLS. Only some of the teams can play attractive soccer in this league at this point (it used to be that none of them could), others can’t and it shows in their approach.

        is that hyperbole RB?

      • To repeat, I called the melodramatic statement, “Soccer lost tonight” — a gigantic, exaggerated conclusion based only on the miniscule evidence of a play or two in a single match — hyperbole. The word definitely fits.

        “No problems with it from me btw, it’s MLS”

        That might accurately sum up my take on it, yes, and that sounds quite realistic. (For that matter, it’s a whole lot of leagues and matches that aren’t MLS, too.) So that’s not melodramatic exaggeration or hyperbole, no.

    • Make up game for the Columbus game. You can’t get all the calls.. In conclusion, the LAG can go fukc themselves.

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  4. I think Cudicini gave up that goal at the start of the second half because he was still adjusting the onion on his belt, which was the style at the time.

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