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
Rapids players congratulate Macoumba Kandji after he helped put Colorado on top in stoppage time 8
The match took place on November 21 in Toronto It was one of the coldest finals in history The Rapids looked like they were the team that needed to heat up They allowed several Dallas scoring chances in the opening minutes Colorado soon shifted to a more defensive style But it wasn’t enough to prevent Dallas from taking the lead in the 35th minute MLS Most Valuable Player MVP David Ferreira buried goal off a crossing pass Colorado would have some work to do in the second half CASEY AT THE GOAL Casey became the club’s all-time leading scorer that season And in the club’s biggest-ever match he came up big again In the 57th minute Casey received a pass in the penalty box He and Dallas goalkeeper Kevin Hartman went for it at the same time Both players went to the ground Still on his back Casey kicked the ball into the net The Rapids had tied it 1 1 Neither team could score a winning goal in regulation so extra time was needed The match’s most critical and strangest moment came in the second extra 15-minute period Colorado forward Macoumba Kandji dribbled the ball into the Dallas box As a Dallas player arrived to challenge him 9
