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Rapids roll over Galaxy

Mar 30, 2008 - 4:53 AM COMMERCE CITY, Colorado (Ticker) -- An English midfielder stole the show in the season opener between the Los Angeles Galaxy and Colorado Rapids. But it wasn't who everyone expected.

Terry Cooke had a goal and two assists to power the Rapids to a 4-0 victory over the Galaxy and superstar David Beckham on Saturday night before a record crowd of 18,713 at Dick's Sporting Goods Park.

The storyline coming in was Beckham starting his first full season in MLS, but Cooke stole the show from his much more heralded countryman as Colorado extended its home winning streak over Los Angeles to seven games.

"Not our best night," Beckham said. "In the first half we didn't play our best but we created chances. When you don't play good football you don't deserve to win. Congratulations to Colorado."

Christian Gomez, Omar Cummings and Colin Clark added second-half goals for the Rapids (1-0-0), who spoiled the coaching debut of former Dutch standout Ruud Gullit with Los Angeles.

"I thought we performed very well tonight, we possessed the ball very well throughout the game and didn't allow them to get into a rhythm," Colorado coach Fernando Clavijo said. "Our young guys played well, I'm proud of them, and if you look at our lineup there are seven guys that could be considered rookies.

"We have to be realistic, it's just one game out of 30."

Cooke supplied the only goal the Rapids needed, ripping a shot past goalkeeper Steve Cronin in the 10th minute.

It was the third career goal for Cooke, who made his MLS debut in 2005 following two years with English Second Division team Sheffield Wednesday.

Beckham, who played in just five games last season with the Galaxy after joining the club in July, had a strong first half.

The former Manchester United and Real Madrid sensation delivered a series of deft passes that his teammates could not manage to finish.

Los Angeles' attack bogged down considerably in the second half, perhaps because Beckham and star forward Landon Donovan had competed in international friendlies for England and the United States, respectively, on Wednesday.

"We've got a good team, we've got good players, we just need to take the positive from this and move on," Beckham said.

The 32-year-old Beckham, who won his 100th cap with England's national team Wednesday, said he felt OK but "not at his best," attributing it to a combination of the travel schedule this past week and the altitude.

A dubious call on Galaxy defender Abel Xavier led to a penalty kick for Gomez, who easily converted with a bullet into the lower left corner to double the lead to 2-0 in the 60th minute.

"I think we knew we'd have trouble with the altitude," Gullit said. "I thought that we played reasonably well in the first half and the turning point in the game was the penalty kick. And we lost our head for a bit. We need to learn from that and learn from our mistakes and get on with it."

Colorado struck again just seven minutes later. Cooke made a long run down the right side and slipped a perfect pass to Cummings, who went around Cronin and punched a shot into an open net in the 66th minute.

Cooke picked up his third point - just four shy of his entire total from last season - by setting up Clark's tally in the 80th minute.

Goalkeeper Bouna Coundoul posted his 12th career shutout and third against the Galaxy.

A fight almost broke out toward the end of the match when the Galaxy's Carlos Ruiz was brought down hard from behind by Jose Burciaga Jr. and had to be taken off the field on a stretcher.