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FC Dallas-Rapids Preview

FC Dallas is among the MLS leaders in goals per game while the Colorado Rapids are the lowest-scoring team in the Western Conference.

Their match two weeks ago didn't play out that way.

Dallas looks to avenge a blowout loss to the Rapids when it visits Colorado on Friday night.

FC Dallas (4-2-1) entered that April 10 visit from Colorado (1-2-3) with seven goals in its first five contests while the Rapids had gone scoreless in 601 minutes dating to last season and were on an 18-game winless streak.

Colorado, though, got a goal from rookie forward Dominique Badji in the second minute to end that drought and went on to win 4-0 to avoid setting a league record for most consecutive matches without a victory. The Rapids had four goals in their previous 10 games.

They scored again Saturday but couldn't contain Seattle in a 3-1 home loss. Gabriel Torres had the goal after also scoring and adding an assist against Dallas.

Colorado outshot the Sounders 27-17, but each team put nine on goal.

"We were really loose with our shooting," coach Pablo Mastroeni said. "There was a lot of hopeless shot selections. It wasn't really cultured. It wasn't with precision. Having said that, the effort was tremendous.

"... We're not as good as we were last week and we're not as bad as we were this week. It's a process. You gotta find ways to win games."

Dallas, fourth in the league with 1.43 goals per game, got back to its high-scoring ways with three in the first 27 minutes Saturday against visiting Toronto FC before holding on for a 3-2 victory in a game that had a three-hour weather delay.

Fabian Castillo scored the first two goals, including one 29 seconds into the match for the fastest goal in franchise history, and Blas Perez had a goal and an assist. Perez leads FC Dallas with four goals, which is tied for second in the league, while MLS player of the week Castillo has three.

"All week we practiced really hard, it was a hard week, a tough week," defender Moises Hernandez said. "We didn't want to come out flat like we did last week. ... We practiced hard so it rewarded us with those three quick goals."

Colorado is looking to end a franchise-record nine-game winless streak at home (0-6-3). Dallas handed the Rapids one of the losses during that stretch, winning 1-0 on Perez's penalty kick in the 56th minute Oct. 18.

The Rapids brought back forward Charles Eloundou from Charlotte of the United Soccer League on Wednesday. Eloundou had an assist in 11 matches last season for Colorado.

"This is the very reason why we loaned Charles to Charlotte," said vice president of soccer operations and technical director Paul Bravo. "We wanted to give him the opportunity to get his match sharpness and he has justified our faith since he has been there. He has earned the right to come back and be a part of the group here at Dick's Sporting Goods Park."

Colorado midfielder Marcelo Sarvas will miss this game and one other after being suspended for fouling and then stepping on Seattle striker Clint Dempsey.

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