Sounders-Rapids Preview

With its lengthy scoreless and winless stretches in the past, Colorado can focus on ending its struggles against the Seattle Sounders.

The Rapids look to avoid a fifth consecutive defeat to a Sounders club in danger of going scoreless in four straight road contests for the first time Saturday night.

Mired in an 18-match winless stretch (0-13-5) that equaled the longest in MLS history, Dominique Badji ended Colorado's 601-minute scoreless drought with a goal in the second minute of last Friday's 4-0 road rout of FC Dallas. Dillon Powers added a goal with an assist for the Rapids (1-1-3), who hadn't scored since the 30th minute of a 2-1 victory at defunct Chivas USA on Oct. 11.

"We can take this confidence for shooting and making plays, and finishing," said Rapids director of soccer Claudio Lopez, who served as acting coach while Pablo Mastroeni served a one-game suspension Saturday.

"I hope that we can keep working in this way and show a few more things every week and win some games."

As the Rapids look to end an 0-5-3 home stretch by winning back-to-back matches for the first time since May 24-June 1, they believe a defense that's yielded a league-low two goals and recorded four shutouts can spur more offensive success.

"In my opinion, the better defensively you are, the better attacking you are," defender Michael Harrington told the Rapids' official website. "I think great offense can come from great defense a lot of the times.

"We're not sitting back and being defensive, but we're being pro-active defensively. ... That can turn into some great offense going forward, that turns into winning the ball higher up the field, which is going to turn into more chances on goal."

Colorado has been outscored 11-2 during a four-game skid to Seattle that dates to its second victory in 16 all-time meetings, 5-1 at home Oct. 5, 2013.

The Sounders (2-2-1), though, lost 1-0 to Los Angeles in the road leg of last season's conference finals and were blanked in the first two away from home in 2015.

After again falling 1-0 at Los Angeles on Sunday, Seattle has totaled one goal over its last three overall games but also conceded only one. Clint Dempsey and Obafemi Martins have split the Sounders' six goals this season and combined for all but two of the nine they recorded in three matches against Colorado in 2014.

Dempsey, however, could miss his second straight and third in four matches with a hamstring injury suffered while training with the U.S. national team.

Regardless of who is on the field, Seattle knows it faces a serious challenge trying to generate offense against a strong defensive side that's filled with confidence.

"It's not going to be easy," said midfielder Marco Pappa, who had a goal with two assists against the Rapids last season. "We'll show our character and try to get the three points."

The Sounders expect captain Brad Evans to play after appearing as a late substitute in the United States' 2-0 victory over Mexico in a friendly on Wednesday.

Colorado midfielder Sam Cronin, however, is likely to miss a second straight match while he recovers from a concussion.