The Rapids found a way to put a new ending on an old rerun Saturday night in their home opener against the Columbus Crew.
Six days removed from giving up five goals in a loss at Houston, Colorado was sluggish from the start and gave up the opening goal just 10 minutes in. The Rapids responded with hardly a yawn for another 20 minutes before Terry Cooke got the home fire lit.
Cooke assisted on Jovan Kirovski’s equalizer with a cross pass and then set up two more goals in the second half as the Rapids transformed themselves into 3-1 winners before 12,124 at Invesco Field at Mile High.
“You have to give credit to the whole team right now, they did well,” Rapids coach Fernando Clavijo said. “The second half was completely different than the first half.”
As sudden as the momentum shift was, the speed in which the team was infected was startling. The Rapids (1-1) started possessing the ball, creating space and dictating the tempo before wearing down the Crew.
Kirovski’s goal was his second in as many games and was followed by Kyle Beckerman’s crackling game-winner in the 50th minute. Kirovski scored just one goal in seven games with the Rapids last season, and Beckerman, who never has scored more than one goal in a season, has two in two games.
“It’s just coming around for me,” Beckerman said. “Things are starting to fall.”
Striker Fabrice Noel capped his first MLS start with a goal in the 67th minute, rookie Jacob Peterson nearly scored in his debut and goalie Joe Cannon made six saves after helplessly watching Chad Marshall’s thundering opening goal.
But Cooke undoubtedly was the heartbeat. The English winger was tireless and picked the Crew apart with crosses and knifing passes.
“He’s amazing,” Clavijo said of Cooke. “When you see him stepping up the way he did, not only the crosses, but the pressure on the right, was outstanding.”
Said Cooke: “We could have run riot in the second half.”
The victory was Colorado’s first in a home opener since 2002 and kept the Crew (0-2) winless at Invesco Field.
Clavijo made three changes to the starting lineup that lost 5-2 last Sunday to the Houston Dynamo.
Clavijo began the game with essentially four strikers to fill in for the injury absences of Clint Mathis and Dedi Ben-Dayan. Nicolas Hernandez started on the left side, Kirovski dropped into the midfield and Noel was paired with Haitian countryman Jean Philippe Peguero.
That formation might have attributed to the slow start. The Crew was active from the start, and midfielder Jacob Thomas and striker Kei Kamara pried at every opening and pushed the Rapids defense deep into its own end before Marshall scored on a set piece.
Columbus 1 0 – 1
Colorado 1 2 – 3
First half – 1, Columbus, Marshall 1 (Szetela), 10th minute. 2, Colorado, Kirovski 1 (Cooke, Peguero), 35th.
Second half – 3, Colorado, Beckerman 1 (Cooke, Hernandez), 50th. 4, Colorado, Noel 1 (Cooke), 67th.
Goalies – Columbus, Busch; Colorado, Cannon.
Yellow cards – Moss, Columbus, 13th minute; Hejduk, Columbus, 54th; Beckerman, Colorado, 59th; Freeman, Colorado, 73rd; Gargan, Colorado, 81st; Retiz, Columbus, 83rd.
A – 12,124 (27,000).
