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Rapids attempt to end slide against Timbers

Sep 13, 2014 - 7:52 PM Commerce City, CO (SportsNetwork.com) - The Colorado Rapids will attempt to bring an end to their franchise-record seven-game losing skid when the club welcomes the Portland Timbers to Dick's Sporting Goods Park on Saturday.

Colorado's losing slide has dropped the club seven points out of a playoff position, and with seven games remaining in the season, there is little time for the Rapids to get things turned around.

Portland is one place above Colorado in sixth in the Western Conference, but the Timbers are only two points adrift of fifth-place Vancouver, placing Caleb Porter's side squarely in the mix for the postseason.

The Rapids will be eager for Saturday's game to arrive after the team spent the past week recovering from a 6-0 drubbing at the hands of the Los Angeles Galaxy last Friday.

Goalkeeper Joe Nasco received the fastest red card in MLS history when he was sent off 34 seconds into the match, leaving the Rapids to play the remainder of the contest with 10 men and essentially throwing away the game plan of head coach Pablo Mastroeni.

"There was a decision made early that definitely flipped [the game] on its head," Mastroeni said. "I think it changed the whole landscape; the whole week, everything of the planning goes down the tubes and it's about survival at that point. You're down a goal; you're down a man 30 seconds into a game and now you're just trying to stay in it, stay organized."

Colorado will be happy to move on, but the team will be facing a Portland side that has lost just once in its last five games, and a team that has scored a combined eight goals in the last three fixtures.

The Timbers rolled over Vancouver, 3-0, two games ago, and the club played to an entertaining 3-3 draw with San Jose last time out in a game that saw midfielder Diego Valeri assist on all three goals.

In that match, Portland went two goals down to the Earthquakes but managed to rally and level the match. San Jose went back in front in the 85th through Chris Wondolowski, but the Timbers once more equalized one minute later through Kalif Alhassan.

"The positive is we came back from down two goals, came back from the death at 3-2. We are a mentally strong team to be able to do that," said Porter. "There are not many teams in the league that would be able to come back, to pull that out. Those are positives. Those things can't get lost in the shuffle of the craziness of the way this game played out and ultimately the disappointment in the fact that we got a draw instead of a win."

Including the match with Colorado on Saturday, six of Portland's final seven games come against playoff contenders in the West, so turning a few more draws into wins could get the Timbers back to the postseason.