Bismark Boateng Game Winner Propels Colorado Rapids Past San Jose

Defense was a priority.

I said the Earthquakes could score goals compared to their peers in the Western Conference and they certainly tried.  I had confidence that the Rapids defense would rise to the occasion and stop the Earthquakes.  For the most part they did exactly that.

The Earthquakes were much more tenacious than I expected and they were constantly attacking.  They took 15 shots and had 6 of them on target.  Thanks to the spectacular goalkeeping of Tim Howard only one of the 6 shots found its way to the back of the net.  The Rapids had 2 blocked shots on top of that.  Great D by the Rapids.

The single goal that did make it in was a penalty kick that was taken on a yellow card for unsporting behavior doled out to Kortne Ford.  In all fairness to Ford on replay it looked like he had little to no contact with Magnus Eriksson.  The officials probably called it the right way in a tough to tell situation where it certainly had the drama of a yellow card. Tim Howard ended up diving the wrong direction on a good stutter step by Eriksson for the single Earthquakes goal of the night.

Overall the Colorado Rapids defense could not have been asked to do much more in a tight and highly charged game against a team coming off a win themselves.  Good job Rapids defense.