Cunningham Chews Up Chivas USA for Rapids
It has been a long time since Jeff Cunningham has been called up to the national team, but in the space of only four days the striker for the Colorado Rapids has made sure that he is noticed again by U.S. Coach Bruce Arena.
Cunningham scored three goals Saturday night -- and could have had four but for a missed penalty kick -- as the Rapids rolled over Chivas USA, 3-1, in front of an announced 10,114 at the Home Depot Center.
The hat trick, the first of Cunningham’s career, came on the heels of his goal against the Galaxy in a 1-0 Colorado victory Wednesday night at Denver. He has eight goals this season, making him the league’s leading scorer, ahead of FC Dallas forward Carlos Ruiz.
“Am I?” Cunningham asked. “Oh. Congratulations. I wasn’t aware of that.”
The man from Montego Bay, Jamaica, has a sense of humor to go along with his obvious attributes as a player. On Saturday night, he was unstoppable, scoring in the 30th, 62nd and 78th minutes as his speed shredded Chivas’ defense.
When Cunningham was taken out of the match in the 82nd minute, even the Chivas fans acknowledged him with polite applause.
The question is, will Arena notice in time to invite Cunningham to next month’s Gold Cup?
“It would be nice but, honestly, Bruce has a good group of forwards and the guys are doing well,” Cunningham said, “so it’s a matter of waiting my turn.
“I think Bruce knows what I’m capable of when I’m fit and I’m sharp and I’m playing good football.”
Cunningham, 28, who moved to Florida at 14 and became a U.S. citizen in 2001, has played eight times for the national team, most recently in the 2002 Gold Cup. He joined MLS in 1998 and spent seven seasons with the Columbus Crew, scoring 65 goals and assisting on 48 others in 198 regular-season and playoff games.
This season, to Cunningham’s surprise, Columbus let him go.
“I wasn’t happy with how things ended,” Cunningham said. “The club and I ended on not very good terms. That was very disappointing, especially when I gave seven years of good service to the club. I thought I deserved better.”
Charlie Wright, the Rapids’ general manager, was delighted to give Cunningham a place to play and sent a 2006 first-round draft pick to the Crew in exchange.
“We thought it was a reasonable transaction,” Wright said after the match. “Last year we were, some would say, anemic offensively. We needed to add a quality striker, and they’re very hard to pick up in trades.
“When you see a game like tonight, you’re very happy you did something like that.”
Assists on Cunningham’s three goals came from Luchi Gonzalez, Jean Philippe Peguero and Dan Gargan, but Cunningham gave the entire Colorado team credit.
“When you play well as a unit, it looks easy,” he said.
It looked anything but for Chivas, which fell to 1-10-3 and is anchored in last place in the Western Conference. Colorado improved to 4-8-2 with its first road win of the season.
Thiago Martins scored the lone goal for Chivas, on a penalty kick in the 83rd minute.
The only other cheerful moment for the home team was when goalkeeper Brad Guzan guessed correctly, dived to his left and saved Cunningham’s 66th-minute penalty kick.
