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Saved by zero Kansas City, Colorado end in scoreless tie
DENVER (AP) -- The Colorado Rapids and Kansas City Wizards tied 0-0 Wednesday night, forcing a third game in their MLS quarterfinal playoff series. The third game will be Sunday in Kansas City. Colorado, which lost the series opener 1-0 on Saturday, broke a six-game playoff losing streak dating to 1997. Both teams pressed hard in the final minutes. Wizards goalkeeper Tony Meola cleared Colorado's Jorge Dely Valdes' shot in the 88th minute with a sliding kick save. Rapids goalkeeper David Kramer cleared a shot in the 90th minute by Preki Radosavljevic from inside the 6-yard box. With a 4-1 series lead based on three points for the win and one for the tie, a victory or a tie Sunday would allow the Wizards to advance to the semifinals under MLS rules. Colorado would have to win Game 3 and a subsequent 20-minute mini-game to advance. The winner of the Kansas City-Colorado series will play the winner of the Los Angeles-Tampa Bay series. Post-game quotesColorado coach Glenn "Mooch" Myernick "We're alive. I was very happy with the performance again tonight. Now we need to go back to Kansas City and take care of business. It's just going to take about twenty minutes longer than we had planned." "I'm happy to play the final game in Kansas City, because our field is awful, absolutely terrible. I think that playing on a good field is going to work to our advantage, the way we are playing right now." "It was nice to have so many of our players on the field together back from injury, but you could definitely tell that they had not played together. Hopefully, Sunday after having a game together, there will be a bit more cohesiveness and that can produce some goals." Kansas City coach Bob Gansler "I thought we played well, especially out of the chute. We created a lot of opportunities in the first half, but unfortunately nothing went in. As the game goes on, it becomes a more defensive struggle, more conservative. Our defense was sterling as always. In terms of compelling chances, we had a handful and they had one or two. We gave a good account of ourselves in the run of play. They [Colorado] moved the ball more tonight, but could not break down our defense. Their shots were from long range and acute angles. We have four points and look forward to Sunday's game three." Kansas City Defender Brandon Prideaux "They came at us a little bit at the beginning of the second half, but we held them off. After that, we countered well and had our chances. The game, however, should have been over in the first half. We had too many opportunities to score and we didn't." Kansas City Goalkeeper Tony Meola "We are in a good spot. They have to theoretically beat us twice in one day. We would have preferred to win tonight, but we are not in a bad place, that is for sure." Kansas City Midfielder Chris Henderson "Miklos [Molnar] and Preki and I had some good combinations. Preki played great through balls and Mikos was in good position all game. Our best play was a Preki through ball to me, I back heeled it to Miklos, but it hit a clump of grass and the shot went wide."
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