by William ‘BilFish’ Fisher

Denver, CO. September 11, 2004 (ASN) — It wasn't high noon, but it would be a penalty kick shootout at the K.C. corral.

Yes, Hollywood came to the Rocky Mountains as almost 12,000 home crowd fans were presented with the Colorado Rapids second consecutive come-from-behind thriller.

"I think tonight the team just came together," said keeper Joe Cannon, taking a page from Knute Rockne and channeling Ronald Reagan.

"We were focused on winning this game. We were going to win this game no matter what. It was a team effort. I have great things to say about everyone who stepped on the pitch tonight."

This was a dramatic contest of carnivalesque plot twists to hold every fan's interest.

Dives & acting. Boo! Last-minute goals. Yea! Bumbling referees. Boo! Over-the-top celebrations for fans. Yea! Wind and rain. Boo! Penalty kick stopped. Yea! Offsides. Boo! Home team prevails. Yeaaaaa!

In a made-for-the-big-screen cinematic ending, the underdog (who can't buy respect around MLS) won 3-1 over the powerful visiting Terminator-like K.C. Wizards, providing the moral of the story: humans are better than inflexible cyborgs.

Or perhaps team ball possession and aggressive attacks while owning the middle are a good professional soccer strategy.

At a point in the season where other teams seem to have worn through their quota of good luck, charm and good health, the Rapids seem to be just finding their form.

K.C. Head Coach Bob Gansler learned this the hard way.

"They play well collectively," Gansler said, "that's for sure and you have to give the defenders credit. Joe [Cannon] is having a career year. He's making all sorts of saves and when you're going good, good things happen."

Good things like a more aggressive, attacking style of play that starts with ball possession and central midfield ownership are helping the Rapids.

So is a suddenly talent-crowded bench that has infused the Rapids with a team spirit that seems both genuine and perhaps capable of accomplishing more than they've shown fans for much of the season.

It's as if the guys are saying, "Go on, dare to dream. Win one for the..."

Where most of the season saw a wide disparity in play between the top (Cannon for MVP anyone?) and the bottom (Insert Player Here) the Rapids now appearing weekly before fans seem to have achieved team unity and a certain sense of parity as the starting eleven plays hard for each other and subs come off the bench to provide the extra spark the troop needs to hold their hard-won booty.

Some would expect this quality performance week-in, week-out from a professional sports franchise, but even the best need an added spark.

Increased availability of healthy starters for Colorado has dramatically improved the competitiveness for positions and the play of every player in the squad.

"Now we have 18 guys capable of starting," said attacking midfielder Jordan Cila, who has made his way into the starting lineup. "Having to compete for a starting job every day, it raises your level so much more. It's great."

But even as the Rapids show themselves to be a recent force to reckoned with, taking four of the past five games, they displayed areas of weakness which made them seem all the more human as heroes of the pitch.

This was demonstrated nowhere better than Friday's grudge match against the K.C. Wizards, who lived up to their two-dimensional stereotype character by defending with abandon and attacking with reserve.

Throughout the game K.C. was clearly happy to leave the attacking half of the field to the Rapids' coordinated offense. The Wizards few opportunities came when they were able to play the occasional Route One counterattack to wingers that miraculously got open (as in 25 yards from the nearest Rapids defender open) through both halves.

From Jean Philippe "Pedro" Peguero's opening tally in the fifth minute (disallowed for an offside position), this was clearly not to be a picture-perfect match.

The teams had just settled into a midfield tug-of-war when a major plot variation was introduced and the game went into overdrive.

Perhaps the Rapids backline was stunned into boredom by the egregious methodology of play they faced.

Perhaps even Joe Cannon was stupefied to the point of failing to rush out fast enough to cut off the long-ball attempt which found K.C.'s Josh "McDiver" Wolff and heroine of past U.S. World Cup play.

Whatever the reason, fans found themselves downtrodden by rain and watching non-Rapid responses in the 10th minute, which led to Wolff's fouling by Cannon and subsequent penalty kick conversion a minute later, going hard and low with the shot to Cannon's right side.

Not to be outdone, Colorado had several decent offensive buildups before Peguero ignited his own storm, speeding past a Wizards' defender and going flying off a bump to earn a PK of his own.

Veteran of field and fame, midfielder Mark Chung stepped up and delivered a punishing boot with prejudice, tying the game 1-1 with a ball that struggled to blast through the back of the upper netting after stunning K.C. keeper Bo Oshoniyi into diving to get out of the way.

K.C. pushed up once in the 38th minute before they settled back down to receive the multiple rushes attempted by various Colorado team combinations.

Spencer started one such attack in the 40th, creating a yellow-card opportunity for K.C.'s Jimmy Conrad who took the Rapids' Captain down. But not before Spencer's pass found Cila moving with pace up the middle.

Cila pushed through several defenders before laying off a pass to Peguero whose creative one-touch chip shot curled over the K.C. keeper for another apparent run-of-play goal.

Take Two (back)
Unfortunately, Pedro was once again offside to ruin the perfect ending to a strange first half.

"I pushed a little hard," Pedro said. "Every time I check back and [try to] create...it's the type of player I am, I don't try to be slow...I like to make the move fast, and sometimes it is faster [than the players feeding me the ball], so I end up offside."

Several combination plays opened the Rapids bid to pull ahead in the second half.

Pedro dropped an initial header for Spencer to run onto, and the saved opportunity was quickly followed up with a through ball threader from Chung to Chris Henderson. Henderson's effort was blocked, but then Chung blasted the rebound towards goal only to see the Rapids' efforts stopped again by a gravity-defying Oshoniyi playing the role of Superman.

Colorado continued to face very occasional pressure from the Wizards of Counterattacks. In the 52nd minute defender Antonio De la Torre was forced to take a yellow card to keep K.C.'s Davy Arnaud from streaking past him.

But it was the Rapids constant attacking posture which would ultimately prove the better strategy.

In the 60th minute, Spencer sent a cross over to Henderson running into the top of K.C.'s 18-yard box.

Henderson brought the ball down, deftly schooled defender Conrad in a move reminiscent of Pedro's playmaking ability last week against Dallas, and crossed the ball behind Conrad to where Cila was parked unmarked near the keeper's area.

Jordan Cila has become the James Dean of Soccer Cool: calmly settling the pass before (and I swear this is true) running a comb through his hair, pocketing the sartorial device, and slamming home the Rapids go-ahead goal past a bewildered Oshoniyi looking in all directions to see where his defense had vanished to.

For obvious reasons, Hankinson likes the aggressive stance of his new midfield. "[Cila's] really finding a good niche playing centrally between the midfielders and the strikers. I like the freedom of Chung playing through the center."

The coach noted that they also worked Henderson into several spots on the field, starting him to the right and switching him left, where he was in position to provide the assist to Cila.

Cila also feels the packed center is working in their favor.

"Pablo [Mastroeni's] a ball-winner," Cila noted, "which is always good to have behind you. Playing with Chung in the midfield makes your job trying to possess the ball a million times easier.

"Since we've adopted a possession mentality, we haven't lost a game. It's giving teams more trouble, there's no reason to go away from that."

Chung agrees that possession and motion are key. "It's constant movement that opens things up, opens up teams. The past five games there's movement off the ball, and that's going to create opportunity after opportunity.

"I don't think this is a short trend, I think we're going to continue to get better and better and hopefully go on through to the finals."

Good Guys Wear Black
But the challenges were not over for the intrepid adventurers. Despite possession that ran to well over 10 touches at a time, the Rapids would face another test.

In the 80th minute K.C.'s Wolff had a(nother) long ball breakaway attempt. Yawn. But Wolff would soon change things up by competing for Lead Actor in a Fantasy Role.

Dressed in black to reflect the darkened skies, Cannon did not hesitate this time in coming out to meet the desperate attack, sliding towards Wolff and creating an opportunity for Wolff to dust off his thespian skills.

Wolff's method acting was good enough to fool the referee in real time as he appeared to have his feet cut out from under him by a sliding Cannon.

Several Jumbotron replays convincingly demonstrated that Wolff had embarrassed the referee and MLS again with a dive of epic quality and proportion, dragging his feet deliberately across Cannon to "win" the penalty kick opportunity.

Confident in his ability to put another low blaster past the Rapids netminder, Wolff stepped up and ripped off a poorly aimed shooter.

Guessing right (and right) Cannon quickly dove to deflect the shot up and away, earning his first PK block of the year and preserving the Rapids lead.

"I thought he was going to go the same way he went the first time," said Cannon.

"Luckily he wasn't accurate with it, going just a yard to my right. Were we lucky with it? Yeah, but you create your own luck."

Suddenly it looked like a dramatic win was in sight for Colorado's soggy-but-elated fans, who celebrated the block loudly with keeper and team.

K.C. looked down but not out, and so the Rapids stepped pressure up even further in the eye-crossingly long five minutes of stoppage time.

Henderson put a late shot on target and forced K.C. into a defensive shell from which they could not recover.

Late substitute Kyle Beckerman, who had been left out in favor of a more attacking posture including Pablo, Cila and Chung to start in the middle, would provide the final climactic punch for the evening's drama.

Fellow substitute Seth Trembly, who looked like a man driven to expend 90 minutes of energy in his 15 minutes of fame, hustled to win a leading pass from Pedro before slotting it through to Beckerman in front of goal.

Beckerman took his time and showed no hard feelings for not starting the game by picking out the upper right corner of the goal to put the Rapids up 3-1 and create another fantastic, last-minute reason for Rapids fans and players to celebrate.

And celebrate they did. Cannon streaked across the field to the supporters section to join his teammates in a rousing celebration dance before sprinting back towards goal to ward off a potential half-court volley from an impatient and dispirited Wizards side waiting for the restart while hoping for the whistle to end the befuddling nightmare.

"A great night, great energy in the stadium," said Hankinson.

"The save by Joe...inspiring to all the fans and players and that just lit the night up.

"For Kyle to come in and get that late goal, it showed great character. All in all it was a great night and Kansas City we've always struggled against and we finally, collectively, played with emotion, played with the urgency and determination to put a team like K.C. behind us."

Beckerman bravely played his supporting role to perfection. "We're going for first place. Everyone likes to be a starter, but you have to be ready to contribute whatever time you get."

And a cameo appearance played well can become the audience clincher for the night.

So the man in black made the big save, the guys in blue came through, and the rain stopped in time for fans to walk without wetness to their cars.

Another happy ending for the home side.