CHAPTER 1 ATOP THE MOUNTAIN Simply making the playoffs was a big achievement for the 2010 Colorado Rapids The club had not qualified for the Major League Soccer MLS postseason since 2006 Making it to the playoffs meant progress But once there few people expected Colorado to do much winning The 2010 Rapids finished with the seventh-best record in the league But due to the playoff format they got a bit of a break Rather than playing a top team from the stronger Western Conference they got to play the second-best team from the Eastern Conference That was the Columbus Crew The Crew had won only two more games than Colorado had The Rapids lacked star power but they were a balanced team They had a creative playmaker in defensive midfielder Rapids goalkeeper Matt Pickens left leaps over a crowd to make a save against the Columbus Crew in the 2010 MLS playoffs 4
Pablo Mastroeni They had a shutdown defender in Marvell Wynne In goal Matt Pickens was as strong as anyone in the league And when it came to scoring Conor Casey had been their man for years SURVIVING AND THRIVING The Columbus series was anything but easy After a tough 1 0 win in the first game Colorado had to survive a penalty shootout in Game 2 to advance It was only after the Crew’s Brian Carroll missed his final attempt that the Rapids ensured their survival In the conference finals the Rapids faced the San Jose Earthquakes in a one-game knockout match San Jose had the same number of standings points as the Rapids It wasn’t easy but Colorado scored another 1 0 win to make it back to the MLS Cup for the first time since 1997 Colorado played FC Dallas in the final Dallas had won the same number of games as the Rapids did in the regular season so the final was tough to predict Both clubs were eager to prove they deserved to be champions The Rapids knew they weren’t the most talented team in MLS But they believed in themselves 6
Conor Casey left and Omar Cummings celebrate after the Rapids scored the only goal in their victory over San Jose 7
