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Rapids aim to end losing skid against Fire

Apr 29, 2011 - 11:55 PM Commerce City, CO (Sports Network) - The Colorado Rapids will be trying to snap a three-game losing skid on Saturday at Dick's Sporting Goods Park when the club welcomes the Chicago Fire to town.

After claiming wins in its first three games to start the season, the defending MLS Cup champions have failed to score a goal in their last three games, all losses.

The latest setback came last Friday night when the club lost 1-0 at home to Seattle Sounders FC, with midfielder Brian Mullan being sent off just three minutes into the game for a terrible tackle on Seattle's Steve Zakuani, who suffered a broken leg in the challenge.

Mullan has since received a 10-game suspension from the league, but Colorado coach Gary Smith is looking for more of an edge from his team after the Seattle defeat.

"There were so many things that weren't right," Smith said following Friday's defeat. "I don't know whether that was because of the injury, or we were playing a man down. Our final pass wasn't good enough, when we got in good areas we never made enough of it, there wasn't enough cutting edge."

The return of striker Conor Casey to the lineup would help, but he is not expected to be back in time to feature against Chicago, while veteran midfielder Pablo Mastroeni returned against Seattle for the first time in three weeks, but didn't play the full 90 minutes.

Chicago has also had its share of struggles lately, extending its winless streak to four games last week with a 1-1 draw against the Houston Dynamo.

The Fire had lost its previous three games, but took a 1-0 lead into the final 10 minutes against Houston, only for Bobby Boswell to score the equalizer in the 83rd minute.

Chicago has now failed to keep a clean sheet in each of its first six games, and midfielder Baggio Husidic expressed his disappointment following the match with Houston.

"We had that 1-0 lead, and we just played not to give away a goal instead of just looking to play the way we did," Husidic told the Chicago Sun-Times. "We're very, very disappointed that we didn't get three points today."