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Rapids hope to continue impressive run

Jul 19, 2013 - 8:47 PM Seattle, WA (Sports Network) - The Colorado Rapids will be out to continue their impressive run of form on Saturday when the club heads to CenturyLink Field to face Seattle Sounders FC.

The Rapids featured in a midweek contest against the New England Revolution on Wednesday, earning a 2-1 victory despite conceding the opening goal.

"It's a great little push knowing that we can come out and play a decent game for both halves and get a victory," said Rapids defender Marvell Wynne. "And coming from behind always speaks a lot for a team's integrity and how we don't want to stop at any point. We felt good out there playing so now we've got to take it to a very difficult place and hopefully get a result in Seattle."

The win saw Colorado extend its unbeaten run to four games, giving the Rapids 10 points out of a possible 12 from that stretch to leave them neck-and-neck with the Los Angeles Galaxy for the final playoff berth in the Western Conference.

It puts Colorado six points clear of the Sounders, who have become a perennial playoff team since joining MLS in 2009. But Dillon Powers, who had a hand in both of Colorado's goals against New England, will not be taking Seattle lightly.

"We definitely need a result there against a conference opponent," Powers said. "It's very tight right now, that playoff race. We want to get in there and we don't want to look back. I think we're just going to have to go in there with a strong mentality and maybe ride the (momentum from the) last four games that we've had."

The Sounders will be ecstatic to return to its home turf as Seattle has not tasted defeat at CenturyLink since a 1-0 loss to the Montreal Impact in its opening match of the season, producing a 4-0-2 record in the Emerald City since.

But Sigi Schmid's side has lost two in a row to slip further away from playoff contention. The club's injury problems certainly have not helped matters.

"In five years here in Seattle, it's probably the worst injury run we've had," Schmid told the club's official website. "Cumulatively, it seems to all have hit at the same time."

Schmid's response has been to increase the intensity in training in an effort to foster regeneration.

"If anything, we've tried to step it up the last two days of training. We want the guys to compete a little bit more in training," Schmid continued. "We're not abandoning what we're doing. We feel like we're a fit team and that the recovery and the regeneration is an important part of our training rhythm. But we're asking in the short bouts that we work, that we're working."