By Ridge Mahoney, Senior Editor
Galaxy stills Rapids
The juggernaut rolls on.
Three days after thumping Kansas City, 5-2, to win its quarterfinal series, Los Angeles opened the semifinals by blowing out Colorado, 4-0 at the Rose Bowl Saturday night.
Carlos Ruiz scored twice, Cobi Jones had two assists and Kevin Hartman saved a penalty kick.
Ruiz tied MLS playoff records for goals (6) and points (14) in a postseason.
TURNING POINT: Los Angeles scored twice within three minutes midway through the first half to take a 2-0 lead. Danny Califf headed home a Jones corner kick and Alejandro Moreno set up Ruiz after overpowering Ritchie Kotschau and Stephen Herdsman for a loose ball.
DEE-FENSE: Coach Sigi Schmid gave a lot of credit to his defense. The Galaxy limited the Rapids to 12 shots and keeper Kevin Hartman turned away a penalty kick by John Spencer in the 36th minute that could have cut its lead to 2-1 in.
CROWD: The largest crowd of the playoffs (24,472) came out to see the Galaxy, which in three home postseason games has scored 12 goals and attracted 53,770 fans.
No goals in 'The Razor'
As they had done Aug. 31 in their final regular-season meeting, the Crew and Revs tied 0-0 in their semifinal opener Sunday. New England had won five games in a row at Gillette Stadium, including a pair of wins over Chicago in the quarterfinals.
BIG SAVES: Revs keeper Adin Brown was the busier of the two goalies with seven saves. He twice stopped Jeff Cunningham with superb saves, including a point-blank stop in overtime. Brian Dunseth and Chad McCarthy pulled off the defensive gems for Columbus. Dunseth headed a Jay Heaps shot off the goal line after a Heaps' effort had hit the post, and McCarty robbed Steve Ralston of a breakaway chance with a perfect tackle.
STAT: The shutout was the Revs' sixth in the last eight games.
REDS: New England will again have to play without one of its defensive stalwarts. Carlos Llamosa missed Game 1 because of a red card he received in the Game 2 of the Chicago series and his behavior afterward. Douda Kante was sent off in the 82nd minute for his second yellow card against the Crew and will miss Game 2 on Wednesday.