The struggling Portland Timbers face a pivotal late-season match when they host the Colorado Rapids on Saturday night.
Portland is winless in its past six matches (0-4-2) entering the contest against Colorado (11-13-5, 38 points), which currently holds the ninth and final playoff position in the Western Conference.
The Timbers (9-14-6, 33 points) are tied for 10th in the West, along with Real Salt Lake and San Diego FC.
Portland’s troubles continued Wednesday with a 2-0 road loss against the Los Angeles Galaxy.
“There are a lot of things we need to improve, that’s for sure,” Timbers coach Marti Cifuentes said. “You can be unlucky in one game at the end, you can be unlucky in two games, but when we have this trend, that means that we have not done well enough in certain areas.”
The Timbers were missing forward Antony (knee) and midfielder Cole Bassett (illness) against the Galaxy, though both might be available on Saturday.
Forward Kristoffer Velde, whose eight goals lead among current players on the Timbers’ roster, took a match-high six shots against the Galaxy, three on target.
Over the past five matches, Velde has taken 24 shots — five on target — without finding the back of the net.
Colorado is winless in its past four matches (0-1-3) and is also a poor road team. The Rapids are 2-10-2 away from their high-altitude home.
The Rapids also have dropped five straight visits — one in Leagues Cup play — to Portland at Providence Park. The Timbers have won those games by a cumulative 16-4.
Colorado played visiting Minnesota United to a 2-2 draw on Wednesday in a match that frustrated Rapids coach Matt Wells, even though his team played the last quarter of the contest a man down.
Minnesota’s tying tally in the 83rd minute came when Colorado’s Loic Williams misplayed a clearance and it ended up in the net as an own goal.
“It’s only in your own hands until it’s not,” Wells said of having an edge in the playoff race. “I don’t concern myself too much with looking at the table or the results of the other guys. We need to do our job. Of course, we want to get to the playoffs, but we don’t want to sneak in there by default because other teams also haven’t put results together.”
Forwards Darren Yapi and Georgi Minoungou scored the Colorado goals.
The Rapids recorded a 2-0 home win over the Timbers on Feb. 28.
–Field Level Media
