Match Thoughts: DC United vs. Colorado Rapids

Conor Casey was back in action for Colorado. (Getty Images)

Last night MLS staged a midweek stinker featuring a tired Houston squad and a Portland squad coming off of a bye.  Tonight they did the same, with a tired DC United team hosting the well rested Colorado Rapids.  Perhaps the Rapids were too well rested.  At least there were goals in this one tonight, but that ended up being little consolation for the Rapids.

Not much went wrong for DC United, and not much went right for Colorado.  The first half was a particularly dull affair.  Colorado seemed to get the ball for some fairly decent spells, but most of the possession proved rather pointless.  Once in awhile, they would try to flip the ball into Conor Casey, but the service was never all that great, and when it was, the big man was often hit with fouls for pushing off his mark.

DC seemed to be mostly content to sit back and hit on the counter, and that's how they got their first goal of the match.  Lewis Neal and Dwayne De Rosario streaked up the pitch, and the Rapids fell all over themselves on the back line, leaving DeRo with an easy look which he promptly smacked past a bewildered Matt Pickens to make it 1-0. 

After attaining the first goal, DC seemed to smell blood and took a little bit more of the attacking initiative.  Both Robbie Russell and Andy Najar would test Pickens again before the half, but the Colorado keeper played extremely well and kept the score at 1-0 going into halftime.

The Rapids looked a little better in the second half and finally put some pressure on Bill Hamid's goal.   In the early minutes both Tony Cascio and Jamie Castrillon managed decent looks, but the US U-23 keeper kept both shots out.

DC United stepped up and put the game away at the hour mark.  De Rosario again found himself free of the Rapids defense, which was a mess all night.  He cracked a shot that Pickens was able to knock away, but the rebound fell to Hamdi Salihi, who jumped to his left to knock the ball into the open net to make it 2-0.  Colorado would not threaten the DC goal again, and United ended up with the comfortable 2-0 win at full time.

NOTES:  New Rapids signing Edu checked into the game in the 65th minute, but failed to materialize as a threat.  It was his first appearance.  The win moves DC United level with Sporting Kansas City for second place in the East.