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90th minute disaster ends Colorado's season
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AP Photo/David Zalubowski
Football’s a funny game, and one that often brings the most unexpected, freakish incidents to the forefront. The best team doesn’t necessarily win, as we find out all too often. Such aggravating occurrences often bring heartache to one team, and on Saturday it was the Colorado Rapids who were forced to come to grips with a horrific lapse in the 90th minute that allowed Real Salt Lake to claim a draw that put them in the playoffs and kept Colorado out.
One minute away from reaching the Promised Land, Colorado managed two shoddy clearances that led to a scramble of headers near the box, and suddenly RSL had a shot on goal from point-blank range that led to Yura Movsisyan’s rebound goal of salvation.
While it’s rough to be a Rapids fan right now, such an outcome isn’t that much of a surprise. In a Western Conference that gave us a lecture in Logjam 101 all season, it figures that a spot would come down to the last minute.
Now we see a nearly finalized playoff picture heading into today. Columbus, Chicago, New England and Kansas City are assured in the East, while Houston, Chivas USA and now Real have the three spots in the West. Fittingly, it will be another team from the East who claims the final spot. New York sits at 39 points after Thursday’s disappointing 5-2 loss to Chicago and is finished with their regular season. That means that D.C. United, who sits at 37 points, needs a win today on the road against Columbus to edge ahead of NY and claim the final spot.
It’ll be interesting to see who Columbus uses in their starting 11, as they already have the top spot locked up. We’ll check back in after the DC/CLB game later on. Enjoy the final segment of this year’s playoff scramble.
