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reprint of COLORADO RAPIDS NEWS RELEASE -- byline German Sferra
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DENVER, Colo. -- John Spencer's penalty kick canceled out a terrific early strike from Marco Etcheverry, but despite plenty of chances that was it as Colorado Rapids and D.C. United shared the spoils in a 1-1 draw in Denver. For the Rapids, it was their first point of the young season (0-1-1, 1 pt), while United played their second consecutive draw while still searching for a first victory (0-1-2, 2 pts).
It took Etcheverry and United just seven minutes to open the scoring. Ben Olsen took the ball down the right flank and sent a low ball into the area for Santino Quaranta, who laid it back to Etcheverry racing into the box from deep. The United captain hit a tremendous shot in full flight, giving Rapids goalkeeper Scott Vallow no chance as it flew inside the near post.
Colorado drew level in the 25th minute. Zizi Roberts broke into the area and tried to round United 'keeper Nick Rimando at the edge of the goal area. The two tangled legs, Roberts falling to the ground and referee Kevin Stott showing no hesitation in pointing to the spot. Spencer stepped up to take the penalty, sending Rimando the wrong way in bringing the home side level.
A few minutes later, Roberts was again sent in alone and Rimando again came flying off his line, this time the United 'keeper parrying the shot. At the other end, Ben Olsen tested Vallow with a sublime chip from just outside the area, the Rapids shot-stopper just tipping the shot over the bar at full stretch.
Chris Henderson had the first good opportunity of the second half, collecting a cross at the right post and hammering a shot from a tight angle that sailed just over the bar.
Hristo Stoitchkov made his United debut, coming on as a 67th-minute substitute for Quaranta, and had an immediate effect on the match. He nearly finished off a remarkable sequence where Spencer was all alone at the far post but somehow contrived to barely get a header on goal, then Rimando sent a long punt over the Rapids defense for the veteran Bulgarian to run onto, Vallow kicking his targeted shot away.
Stoitchkov nearly made the difference in stoppage time, first when he went down in a tangle of legs with defender Jeff Stewart, but Stott gave nothing, then seconds later when he ran down a poor backpass and headed it at Vallow who parried the shot into the air, Jeff Stewart then heading it away from goal, but in the end that was the closest either team came to taking the three points. Rimando was the MLSnet.com Man of the Match.
Colorado heads East next weekend, taking on MetroStars at the Meadowlands on Saturday, May 3.
1 2 OT F
D.C. United 1 0 0 0 1
Colorado Rapids 1 0 0 0 1
Scoring Summary:
DC -- Marco Etcheverry 1 (Santino Quaranta 1, Ben Olsen 1) 7
COL -- John Spencer 1 (penalty kick) 24
D.C. United -- Nick Rimando, Brandon Prideaux, Ryan Nelsen, Mike Petke,
Bobby Convey, Ben Olsen, Jose Alegria (Bryan Namoff 77), Marco Etcheverry
(Eliseo Quintanilla 84), Dema Kovalenko, Santino Quaranta (Hristo Stoitchkov
67), Earnie Stewart.
Substitutes Not Used: Ali Curtis, Doug Warren.
TOTAL SHOTS: 14 (Marco Etcheverry 4); SHOTS ON GOAL: 8 (Marco Etcheverry 3);
FOULS: 17 (Jose Alegria 3); OFFSIDES: 0; CORNER KICKS: 4 (Bobby Convey 2,
Marco Etcheverry 2); SAVES: 8 (Nick Rimando 8)
Colorado Rapids -- Scott Vallow, Alberto Rizo (Matt Crawford 63), Robin
Fraser, Jeff Stewart, Wes Hart, Mark Chung, Kyle Beckerman, Pablo Mastroeni,
Chris Henderson (Chris Carrieri 84), Zizi Roberts (Casey Schmidt 90), John
Spencer.
Substitutes Not Used: Nat Borchers, Byron Foss, Scott Garlick, Steven
Herdsman, Ritchie Kotschau, Seth Trembly.
TOTAL SHOTS: 16 (Zizi Roberts 5); SHOTS ON GOAL: 9 (Zizi Roberts 4); FOULS:
18 (Pablo Mastroeni 4); OFFSIDES: 4 (Zizi Roberts 2); CORNER KICKS: 6 (John
Spencer 5); SAVES: 7 (Scott Vallow 7)
Misconduct Summary:
COL -- Robin Fraser (caution) 17
COL -- Pablo Mastroeni (caution) 50
DC -- Jose Alegria (caution) 68
COL -- Jeff Stewart (caution) 99
DC -- Hristo Stoitchkov (caution) 99
Referee: Kevin Stott
Referee's Assistants: -Chris Strickland; Scott McCaslin
4th Official: Craig Burns
Attendance: 21,518
Time of Game: 2:08
Weather: Clear-and-70-degrees
"Physically I feel ok. Just a little bit tired near the end going into overtime. Overall I think it was a fair result getting the tie. We didn't create many chances tonight, but disappointed really."
"There's always positives. We didn't give up the winning goal. Scott Vallow made a great save near the end from Stoichkov and Jeff got back and cleared it. So there is positives but we still need to win our home games."
"I was nervous, a little bit of butterflies. I've worked pretty hard to get to this point. I would have loved to have gotten the victory. I think the guys have confidence in me and I feel pretty comfortable back there. It's a bit discouraging going down so early in the first half because we put ourselves behind the 8-ball right away and they kind of packed it in and didn't really let us play. We did well to come back and tie it up and in the end a tie was a fair result."
"I think we got a good response from the guys from last game. We played a little bit better tonight, but we still gave up an early goal and we had to play catch up. Second half we should have taken it more to them. We played a little bit into their hands, playing it slow. It's something to build on going into New York.
"I think it's a lineup that you can build on. Vallow was solid in goal, didn't really have much of a chance on the goal. Getting Spenny back on the park it helped us a lot, holding the ball, being creative. Rizo did well until he tired, but it's something to build on for next week."
"I've said it before that the level of play here has progressed greatly. I'm not yet 100%, as I was a bit sick this week. I need to keep improving and we expect to keep getting better as a team."
"I thought we played pretty well, we had a little lapse in the first half and it just got us. On the other hand, we showed some character coming back and putting the pressure on them. For me I felt good out there, playing simple if it's open and looking to play a more dangerous if it's there. We got a point after the first loss, so we know it's going to keep getting better."
"I thought we came out pretty well with a good game plan, scoring a great goal with Marco. Wish we could have held on to that a little bit longer, it would have really opened things up in the end, especially the last ten minutes. I really felt we could have done some damage."
"I feel we're getting better and better. I'm just looking at our team, you can't look too much at what's happening around you. I do feel we're getting better every week and that's important. The last road game we lost in overtime and now we at least kept this one. The next one we hope to win it."
"With this team I definitely feel more comfortable playing in the middle. We did well tonight, again we should have won, I should have scored half way through the second half I missed a header to put the team up. I thought we did alright, we should have scored a couple of more goals."
"This was the effort we've been looking for. Our boys are still not happy, but if we bring this type of football back to DC, we'll be heading into the right direction. I've been watching games this week and I believe we are the best team in the Eastern Conference. We are putting on a great show for MLS"
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