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Rapids hand Red Bulls first loss of season

May 13, 2007 - 10:23 PM EAST RUTHERFORD, New Jersey (Ticker) -- The Colorado Rapids mustered up enough energy to beat the team named after an energy drink.

Nicolas Hernandez scored in the first half and the Rapids showed little signs of fatigue in a 1-0 victory over the previously-unbeaten New York Red Bulls on Sunday.

Just four days after battling to a 1-1 home tie against rival Real Salt Lake, Colorado relied on a conservative approach that featured a limited attack to hand the Red Bulls (3-1-2) their first loss of the season.

"Outstanding overall game and the best 90 minutes we have played all year," Rapids coach Fernando Clavijo said. "We needed these points after losing several points at home. The guys came in here with an intensity to play hard after playing on Thursday and they knew we needed some points."

On the counterattack, the Rapids (3-2-2) took the lead in the 24th minute on Hernandez's first goal of the season.

After Kyle Beckerman won possession at midfield, he made a pass to Gomez, who split a pair of defenders in the box. Gomez made a quick crossing pass to Hernandez, who fired a shot past goalkeeper Jon Conway.

"We played very well today finding the open spaces and attacking their defense," Hernandez said. "It was nice to score and give my team an early lead."

Hernandez's goal was the first allowed in three home matches by the Red Bulls this season. They had previous wins at Giants Stadium against FC Dallas and Houston by a combined 4-0.

Playing without midfielder Claudio Reyna due a strained right groin suffered in practice Saturday, the Red Bulls' attack looked out of sync for a major portion of the match as they became the last team in the MLS to lose this season.

"It was a bad performance on our part," Red Bulls coach Bruce Arena said. "We were very poor. No excuses. The second half technical side was horrible. The passing and offensive attack was bad. The effort was not there and it was just a poor performance. The center midfield was not good. I'm very disappointed getting outplayed from a team who just played on Thursday. There is no excuses for that."

However, the Red Bulls did fail to capitalize on some opportunities.

The best scoring chance for the Red Bulls came in the 48th minute, when Dane Richards was alone in front with goalkeeper Bouna Coundoul caught out of position. But midfielder Dan Gargan made a spectacular play by clearing the ball off the line.

"We came in here expecting to get a W or a point after playing to tie on Thursday," Coundoui said. "We have been losing some games at home and we knew we wanted the W."

Richards also was denied in the second minute of stoppage time as Coundoul sprawled to make a save at the right goalpost. Coundoul finished with seven saves en route to his second shutout of the season.

"It was good making the saves today and my teammates were just saying, 'how can he make that happen?'" Coundoul said. "The defense was execellent today."

In the 18th minute, the Red Bulls nearly solved Coundoul, but forward Juan Pablo Angel's header landed within inches of the right post.

"Everything was missing in the game for us today," Angel said. "The difference today was we didn't create too many attacks and we know we didn't play well today."

Conway, who got the start in place of Ronald Wattereus (ankle), finished with two saves.