Balboa Gives Crowd Reason to Cheer

With 53,126 at Denver’s Mile High Stadium, the largest soccer crowd ever in Colorado, the hometown Rapids put on quite a show Tuesday night, even before the Fourth of July fireworks display that attracted so many.

Marcelo Balboa scored the game-winning goal three minutes into the second five-minute overtime to give the Rapids a 2-1 victory over the Chicago Fire.

Anders Limpar tied the score for Colorado (9-2-2) with one minute left in regulation.

A quiet first half ended with Andrew Lewis breaking through the Colorado defense to run on to a Chris Armas pass and beat goalie David Kramer in the 45th minute and give the Fire (9-8-3) a 1-0 lead.

Tampa Bay 3, D.C. United 0--Eric Quill scored twice and Mamadou Diallo got his league-leading 17th goal as the Mutiny (11-9) won a game delayed 1 hour 26 minutes in the first half by a thunderstorm at Tampa, Fla.

Carlos Valderrama got his 19th assist on Quill’s second goal, tying United’s Marco Etcheverry for the league record. The game drew a crowd of 18,996.

Miami 2, New England 1--Jim Rooney scored on a header in the second half as the Fusion (7-8-4) rallied to beat the Revolution (7-7-5) before 6,329 at Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Rooney scored the game-winner in the 55th minute as he slid across the goal in front of New England goalkeeper Jeff Causey, and headed a short corner kick by Diego Serna. It was Rooney’s fourth goal of the season.

Kansas City 0, San Jose 0--The Wizards, the best team in the MLS, were held scoreless before 14,881 at San Jose and could manage only a tie against the lowly Earthquakes. The Wizards are now 11-2-5; the Earthquakes 4-8-8.