A late goal in each half from Drew Moor and Quincy Amarikwa earned Colorado Rapids a deserved opening-day win over Columbus Crew at Dick's Sporting Goods Park.
Rapids started brightly and Omar Cummings forced a good save out of Crew goalkeeper Andy Gruenebaum.
Columbus looked set to reach half time with the scores level, but slack marking from a Kosuke Kimura corner allowed Moor to flick his header into the roof of the net and open the scoring.
New addition Jaime Castrillon was the stand-out performer for the hosts. The Columbian international was a continuous provider of clever probing passes and the Crew defence struggled to pick him up all game.
The victory was sealed in the 89th minute as Amarikwa calmly slotted his third career goal for the Rapids, after a swift counter-attack.
Matt Pickens' clean sheet was the 34th of his career.
Robert Summerscales
