The 10-man Rapids ruined Chivas USA's home unbeaten record in the dying moments of the game when Conor Casey ran on to a through ball and slotted a pass across the face of the goal for Omar Cummings to score his second career MLS goal with a simple tap-in.

Chivas USA now has just one win its last four games.

Veteran defender Orlando Perez had raised Chivas USA's hopes of coming away with a point from their penultimate home game of the season when he scored the first goal of his career in Carson - and only his third MLS goal in seven seasons - on a 79th minute equalizer.

It was a lovely goal, with Sacha Kljesten intelligently chipping a static Colorado back line and Perez timing his run to perfection to score from inside the box.

Chivas USA scored what they thought was a winner in the 86th minute, but striker Laurent Merlin was clearly offside.

The counter-attacking Rapids team took the lead in the 64th minute after former Galaxy defender Ugo Ihemelu scored his first-ever MLS goal, slotting home a ball that was deflected from a Conor Casey shot.

Chivas USA has never come from behind to win an MLS game.

The Rapids played virtually the entire second half down a man, after defender Brandon Prideaux earned a straight red in the 46th minute for bringing down Maykel Galindo as the last man back.

Updated: After throwing away the chance to sew up the top spot in the Western Conference, it was an uncharacteristically quiet Chivas USA locker room after the game; even the usually voluble and quotable Jesse Marsch (who was unhappy about being subbed) wasn't talking.

Preki tried to put the best face on it, saying he had a "funny feeling" coming into the game it wasn't going to be his team's day.

"We had an incredible amount of opportunities we couldn't put in," he said. "It was one of those days."

As one of four original Chivas USA players from the first season still with the club, Orlando Perez, who was wearing a blue Smiths T-shirt in the locker room, (he didn't know Morrissey was on the side lines in a Chivas USA shirt for the Galaxy game) got a kick (ahem) out of scoring his first goal for the club.

"It did feel pretty good," he said. "I would much rather have had the victory.

"We've got to put this game behind us," Perez added. "We should have taken care of business."

Game story is here.