The young MLS season has had its share of surprising starts, and the Colorado Rapids have slowly started turning heads as they've strung four strong outings to earn a 2-1-1 record and a U.S. Open Cup win together for a growing supply of respect from around the league.
From a distance - which is where the hometown fans have to watch from as the Rapids schedule opens with four of its first five games on the road - the Rapids look like a team that stumbled at First Kick, losing 2-1 to Chivas, but have built momentum and rhythm without losing since then.
But that perspective might be deceptive, since to hear head coach Gary Smith tell it, that loss in the season's first match might have been one of the team's best showings.
"I thought we played some of our best football in the Chivas game and didn't get a result," Smith said, praising a squad that is increasingly comfortable working together on the field and has shown the ability to adapt to challenging conditions and championship teams. "We were by far the better side and lost the game in a five-minute period in the second half.
"The players have just reinforced what we were doing at the end of last season and are getting back into their stride," Smith said. "All we're seeing now is a group of players who've got a much better feel for each other. There's some nice relationships building - the obvious one is Conor [Casey] and Omar [Cummings] - and there's a real determination to get something out of these games. There's a difference between determination and getting the result and determination and 'oh, we didn't quite do it.'"
As Smith suggests, the tandem at the top of the attack has played an enormous role in elevating the Rapids productivity this season, accounting for six of the side's seven goals with Casey leading MLS with four goals in four games. The two strikers are fulfilling all the promise they've hinted at in their careers, and their success in pacing the Rapids offense has the team clamoring for a spot atop the table.
"We saw at the end of last season that Conor gets a run of games and he starts to hit the back of the net regularly," Smith said. "Same thing [this year]: good preseason, training regularly, playing regularly, and he's finding the back of the net again. He's a very good center forward not only in this league, but I would imagine, his time in Europe, had it not been for some injuries, might have been more productive."
Casey has tallied all the Rapids goals in the last two league matches, scoring a hat trick against L.A. as the Rapids won 3-2 and finding the back of the net in Columbus to pull the Rapids level with the Crew and play the reigning MLS champions to a draw on the road.
Cummings' maturing may be even more startling as he continues to add versatility to his game, matching his two goals with a pair of assists and tying midfielder Colin Clark for the team lead. He's played every minute of the season, and he's contributed on all fronts.
"He's been a bit-part player, a substitute, 60-mintue man," Smith said of Cummings' track record with the Rapids. "And now he's our mainline striker. He's really risen to the task. He's matured. He's shown a lot of qualities that I didn't even think he had. There's a lot more composure in his game. He scored two, but don't forget he supplied two in L.A. So we're getting more out of him, and as far as I'm concerned, I hope it continues."
And while Cummings' two assists against Galaxy made the difference in that win, it was veteran midfielder Pablo Mastroeni's chip to lead Casey to the net that set up the equalizer and a crucial point on the road in Columbus. It's easy to argue the case that Mastroeni's influence on a rapidly coalescing squad can be seen in the determination and perseverance of the players following his lead.
"Our captain comes back from two international games, El Salvador to Texas to Denver to Columbus," Smith said. "His body's not sure whether it's coming or going. I think he might have picked up a little bug. He had a stomach problem at the weekend. But that's the quality of the individual, that he wants to play 90 minutes and get something out of the game for the team."
Mastroeni's drive to put it all on the field for 90 minutes can be seen reflected in the relentless effort of his teammates, refusing to make a crutch out of a challenging early schedule. They've adapted to the loss of starting goalkeeper Matt Pickens to back spasms in the most recent two games, to Mastroeni's absence for the club's only home match while he answered a call-up to the U.S. men's national team, to adjustments to their midfield and back line, and to life on the road and the occasionally adverse conditions found far from home.
"We can look back at a tough week in L.A., those players had played a decent amount of football, and two good results on the back of that, but for sure they were fatigued after a long journey from there to here, one day to recover and back to Columbus on the plane again," Smith said. "The conditions [in Columbus] in the first half, the wind was blowing down the pitch. It does make it more difficult even though you might not think so, it adds to the pressure that [Columbus] was trying to build.
By the time they leave Houston Sunday, the Rapids will have faced the last two MLS champions and three teams in a row who are a combined 0-5-7.
"[Columbus], mentally, having not won a game yet, just looked slightly sharper," Smith said of a first half in which the Crew kept Colorado on its back foot. "They had a lot of appetite for the game.
"But look at the character of the team now," Smith said of his Rapids. "The type of players that are in that changing room now is the type of players that are going to give it everything until the final whistle, whether that's 90 minutes or 94 minutes, they're going to go for it. This week we got some reward for it. But I do think a lesser team would have come away from Columbus on the day with zero points."
If the Rapids can maintain their momentum, there will be more and more "lesser teams" looking up to them from the depths of the standings.
Owen Perkins is a contributor to MLSnet.com.
