Still vying for the Western Conference’s top overall seed, visiting Minnesota United will travel to Commerce City, Colo., to face the Colorado Rapids on Saturday night.
Minnesota (15-7-9, 54 points) has dropped consecutive matches for the first time this season but still sits third in the West behind San Diego FC (57 points) and Vancouver (56).
Coming off arguably its worst outing of the season in a 3-0 home loss to the Chicago Fire, head coach Eric Ramsay knows his team has to go up from here.
“I think it’s a bit of a reality check in a sense of what’s required to get over the line, and what’s required as a club in general to be in a position to win trophies,” Ramsay said. “Unfortunately it’s been a tough week across two competitions here. … The big point is this certainly shows the way in terms of what we have to get back to over the course of the last three games.”
Minnesota has gone 1-2-1 in four matches since its leading scorer Tani Oluwaseyi (10 goals) was transferred to La Liga’s Villarreal CF on Aug. 29. Kelvin Yeboah will be relied on to help break the club out of its offensive funk as the team’s second-leading scorer with nine goals on the year.
If Minnesota does snap its rare losing streak, it will have to take down a highly motivated Colorado squad. The Rapids (11-14-6, 39 points) have dropped three of their last four, including a 3-1 defeat at FC Dallas, and are holding on to the No. 8 seed in the Western Conference.
With 39 points, Colorado enters the weekend just ahead of Dallas (37) and Houston (36) in a congested lower half of the West table.
“We’re obviously really excited for the weekend,” Colorado head coach Chris Armas said. “Home game, a team that we know well in Minnesota. They’ll be playing for something big with positioning and we’re just excited this time of the year that we’ve put ourselves in a spot to make the playoffs and things are in our control. We have to earn every bit of it.”
The Rapids’ leader with 12 goals, Rafael Navarro will look to find his way back into the scoring column following a pair of scoreless outings.
Colorado won at Minnesota 2-1 on Aug. 10.
–Field Level Media
