Josh Wolff's stoppage-time penalty kick, awarded after Wolff was taken down by Colorado's Nat Borchers, who was ejected for the foul, gave Kansas City a 1-0 win over Colorado on Wednesday.
Colorado's Pablo Mastroeni, who was kept out of the U.S. national team camp by Rapids coach Tim Hankinson, was cautioned in the 80th minute and will miss this weekend's game against D.C. United on a yellow-card accumulation suspension.
Hankinson's refusal to let Mastroeni join the U.S. camp until after Wednesday's game prompted U.S. coach Bruce Arena to drop him altogether and leave Kansas City's Wolff, Tony Meola and Kerry Zavagnin off the U.S. roster. All three played in the win over Colorado, which remains last in the West.
Kansas City keeper Meola made one save while his counterpart, Joe Cannon, made four.
The loss ended Colorado's 16-game home undefeated streak. It had a 10-0-6 record in Denver dating back 56 weeks before yesterday's defeat.
June 9 in Denver
Colorado (2-3-4, 10 pts) 0 Kansas City (5-4-2, 17 pts) 1
Goal: Wolff (pen.) 93+ .
Kansas City — Meola, Burciaga Jr. (Zotinca 77), Conrad, Thomas, Garcia, Walsh (Gomez 46), Gutierrez, Zavagnin, Klein, Arnaud, Wolff.
Colorado — Cannon, de la Torre, Borchers, Mastroeni, Crawford, Henderson, Beckerman, Powell, Trembly (Kotschau, 86), Roberts, Spencer.
Yellow cards: Colorado — Beckerman 67, Trembly 78, Mastroeni 80, Borchers 90. Kansas City — Klein 52
Red card: Colorado – Borchers 92+.
Referee: Andrew Chapin
Att.: 12,546