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Rapids turn tables on Timbers, coast to home victory

Rapids (Getty Images)

What a difference a few days made for the Colorado Rapids and Portland Timbers.

After Portland stifled the Rapids with a 1-0 result at Jeld-Wen Field last Friday to put the 2010 MLS Cup winners in last place in the Western Conference, the Rapids bounced back with a comprehensive 3-0 victory over the Timbers at Dick's Sporting Goods Park Wednesday night. The win allowed the Rapids to leapfrog the now-last-place Timbers and Chivas USA and climb into seventh in the West, four points behind sixth-place Dallas with a game in hand and eight points behind fifth-place Vancouver with both teams having six matches remaining.

Andre Akpan scored the early match-winner in the sixth minute, finishing off a loose ball in the area for his first goal of the season. Rookie Tony Cascio made it 2-0 Colorado in the 27th minute, tucking home a rebound of his own saved shot off a bending cross from Jaime Castrillon to beat goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts.

Castrillon added the final tally late for Colorado off a close-range header following a corner kick to ice the match and help keep the Timbers, who had won two straight matches, winless on the road this season.

Match highlights are after the jump:

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What did you think of the match? Disappointed in the Timbers' showing? Thinking that the Rapids are better than their record shows? Do you think they can make a late surge and sneak into a postseason berth? Do you see Portland winning on the road once this season?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. Jewsbury should be on the bench, not a CM (we don’t have a CAM anywhere on the roster) or a defender. He is clearly on the downhill side of his career. Unfortunately we have so few options in central mid (Jewsbury, Chara … Alexander if desperate, that is the complete list) and so he keeps playing due to lack of any other options.

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  2. Boyd doesn’t fit well with a 4-3-3. He is better in a 4-4-2 or a 4-5-1. He also hadn’t been scoring and Dike had been.

    The reality is that Boyd was brought in for Spencer’s system. With Spencer gone Boyd doesn’t fit a team trying to possess more. I still think he is a decent striker, but he’ll be moved at the end of the season if not before. The only way he is still here next year is if absolutely nobody wants him and he is willing to sit and collect a paycheck.

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  3. Its the beginning of the cascio-akpan-castrillon era and the end of the Cummings-Casey era. Sad but true. Cascio has the potential to be an mls all star very soon.

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  4. F yeah Youth movement looked good tonight. Maybe play out the season with these guys. Cascio’s putback wasn’t just a rebound, that’s a GOTW nominee.

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