Portland, Colorado set for rematch at DSG Park

Commerce City, CO – The Colorado Rapids dropped to the bottom of the Western Conference when they faced the Portland Timbers on Friday.

Now, the Commerce City club will be looking to return the favor in the rematch at Dick's Sporting Goods Park on Wednesday.

The two clubs are separated by a single point with the Rapids sitting in the cellar on 26 points. Colorado defender Drew Moor feels that the club's 1-0 loss at Jeld-Wen Field was a tough result, suggesting that a draw would have been a more just outcome.

"We're unfortunate to not have anything to show for it," Moor said after the match. "I thought other than the last five, seven, maybe 10 minutes of the first half where Portland were probably the better team, I thought it was a pretty even game.

"At the end of the day we had a couple pretty good opportunities to tie it up, which I think if you look at the overall game, it would have been more of a fair result. But, when you don't put the ball in the back of the net you get punished for it."

Colorado has faced Portland at DSG Park once already this season, trouncing the Timbers in a 3-0 win on June 30. The Rapids have won just once since then though, going 1-9-1 in their next 11 games.

A lot has changed for Portland since that drubbing in Colorado. The club fired head coach John Spencer and handed the reins over to Gavin Wilkinson on interim basis.

The Timbers also swapped goalkeepers with the Montreal Impact since then, acquiring seasoned veteran Donovan Ricketts in exchange for Troy Perkins. Ricketts came up big against Colorado on Friday, earning his first clean sheet with his new club.

"It's a good feeling," Ricketts said. "To get a shutout, it's always a good feeling. It means maybe we're doing something right. It might not be pretty, but results are being put on the board, and that's what we want, results."

Bright Dike has been an influential man for the Timbers as well. The striker registered 86 minutes in Portland's 2-1 defeat of Vancouver Whitecaps FC on August 25 before tallying the lone goal in the defeat of Colorado on Friday.

"It's definitely going to be a battle," Dike said of the rematch with Colorado. "They're going to be up for the challenge. They're going to be gunning for us. We just got to be creative, and come up with the win."