MLS Colorado Rapids

Rapids Defeat Los Angeles 3-2 Thanks to Conor Casey's Hat Trick

Published on April 5, 2009 under Major League Soccer (MLS)
Colorado Rapids News Release


CARSON, CA. (Saturday, April 4, 2009) - Colorado forward Conor Casey recorded his second career hat trick, as the Rapids won their second straight match 3-2 over the LA Galaxy at The Home Depot Center Saturday night.

The Rapids could not have asked for a better start, as Casey netted his first goal just 16 seconds into the match. The goal was the second quickest scored in the 14-year history of Major League Soccer.

With Los Angeles taking the opening kickoff, Alan Gordon played the ball back to Chris Klein. Klein trying to keep the ball from going out of bounds cleared it to Colorado's Ugo Ihemelu. Ihemelu played the ball into space a head of Omar Cummings down the right side of the pitch. As Cummings drew the defense, he found Casey with a pass across the center of the net allowing him to tap it in for the game's first score and an early Rapids lead.

The Galaxy would even the score at 1-1 before the half, as Omar Gonzalez would finish a corner kick from the foot of Landon Donovan in the 37th minute.

The second half began with a flurry of goals, as LA took their only lead of the game in the 48th minute. Sean Franklin found himself with the ball on the right side working his way back to the middle of the field, while he battled through multiple Colorado defenders. Franklin managed to squeeze a pass into Donovan, who with his second touch played a ball to Alan Gordon with the outside of his right foot setting Gordon up for the open net conversion.

The Los Angeles advantage was short lived though when just a minute later Casey registered his second goal in similar fashion coming from Cummings. With an exact same look as the start of the match, Cummings carried the ball down the right side of the pitch and played a pass across the face of the goal to Casey, who again was able to tap in the score.

The Galaxy would find themselves playing a man down over the last 31 minutes of action following the red card ejection of Dema Kovalenko, as a result of his foul on Mehdi Ballouchy.

Casey concluded his stellar night with a game-winner in the 84th minute coming from Colin Clark. Clark picked the ball off of Franklin and raced ahead before feeding Casey into space. Casey dribbled the ball into the box and right around an on-coming goalkeeper Josh Saunders before calmly sliding the ball into the net.

The victory was the Rapids first in Los Angeles since May 20, 2006 and gave Colorado a perfect start to their three-game road trip.

The Rapids will remain in Los Angeles as they take on the Galaxy three nights later in a U.S. Open Cup Play-In match at The Home Depot Center on Tuesday, April 7 at 9 pm MT. Colorado returns to regular season action next Saturday traveling to face the defending MLS Cup champion Columbus Crew on April 11.

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