COMMERCE CITY — Rapids forward Omar Cummings might have to do the cooking tonight in the apartment he shares with defender Kosuke Kimura.

Cummings scored the game-winner in Thursday’s 1-0, wild-card playoff win over the Columbus Crew mere seconds before halftime, but it was Kimura who set the table with a deep foray into the right wing and a sharp pass to his roommate, who was wide open in the penalty area.

Coach Gary Smith had his team take an aggressive posture from the outset, turning Kimura loose to join the midfielders out of the back and putting extra pressure on Columbus. On the scoring play, Kimura took a nice pass from midfielder Brian Mullan and made the cross nearly at the Columbus goal line.

“When I got the ball, I looked up right away and the three defenders dropped off,” Kimura said. “Omar was standing there, just chilling by himself.”

Cummings pounced on Kimura’s pass and beat airborne Columbus goalkeeper William Hesmer from about 10 yards.

“We’ve been talking about it all day, even all week,” Cummings said of collaborating on a goal with Kimura.

The goal came at a devastating time for the visitors.

“For us, it couldn’t have come at a better time,” Smith said. “Right on the stroke of halftime. There’s no doubt about it. Goals change the mind-set of people, and we came in at halftime feeling as though we’re taking the game to them and got some reward for it. They must have felt as though they’d put a lot of hard work and effort into it and come away with nothing in the first half.”

The Rapids were the sharper team by far in the first half with patience, precise passing, creativity and ingenuity in the penalty area that resulted in some nice scoring chances. The Rapids had a 62-38 advantage in possession percentage in the half and were in firm command.

Cummings’ goal forced Columbus to be more aggressive in the second half, but the Crew was unable to seriously threaten the Rapids’ goal.

The Rapids played without captain Pablo Mastroeni because of lingering effects from the concussion he suffered in a penalty area collision Nov. 14 against Real Salt Lake. His spot in the central midfield was taken by Jamie Smith, who typically plays outside midfield.

Smith left the game in the second half with a potentially serious knee injury and was replaced by Wells Thompson.

Columbus was without a key midfielder too. Emmanuel Ekpo, who normally plays an attacking midfield role, was serving a one-game suspension because of a red card in the Crew’s final regular-season game.

With a game-time temperature of 32 degrees, most of the Rapids wore gloves and long-sleeve shirts, and attendance at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park was a sparse 7,803.

The Rapids now advance to a two-game conference semifinal series with Sporting Kansas City, beginning at home Sunday at 5 p.m. The teams had a pair of 1-1 ties during the regular season.

Columbus 0 0 — 0



Colorado 1 0 — 1



First half — 1, Colorado, Cummings 4 (Kimura, Mullan), 45th minute.

Second half — None.

Goalies — Columbus, William Hesmer; Colorado, Matt Pickens.

Yellow cards — Miranda, Columbus, 16th.

Referee — Jorge Gonzalez. Assistant referees — Greg Barkey. Kermit Quisenberry. 4th official — Andrew Chapin.

John Meyer: 303-954-1616 or jmeyer@denverpost.com