Coming off their worst defensive showing in nearly four years, the Columbus Crew hope Saturday night's road matchup with the lowest-scoring team in MLS can help them bounce back.
The Colorado Rapids, however, are enjoying one of their better offensive stretches of the season and had won three in a row before falling their last time out.
The Crew (8-8-7) were handed a 5-2 road defeat by Orlando City FC last week, giving up their highest goal total since a 6-2 loss at Seattle on Aug. 27, 2011.
"I felt like we rolled over and made it easy for Orlando. That's not the type of team we pride ourselves on being," coach Gregg Berhalter said. "We were an easy opponent to beat. This time was way below average. Not up to MLS standards."
The Crew had gone 2-0-1 in their previous three outings.
A better defensive result could be in the works against a Colorado side that's netted 19 goals, four fewer than the total of Columbus' Kei Kamara. The Rapids (5-7-9) have been more potent of late, though, scoring seven times in the past four matches.
Colorado surrendered three unanswered goals in last Saturday's 3-1 home loss to Los Angeles which ended its season-high three-game run. Marcelo Sarvas scored for the Rapids in the 12th minute.
"We've got a week to regroup, get our heads together and keep working on it," coach Pablo Mastroeni said. "The first 20 minutes of this game I thought we played fantastic. I don't know why that didn't trigger them in the rest of the game."
One of the league's top defensive clubs, the Rapids figure to be challenged by a Columbus squad that leads MLS with 120 shots on goal and is tied for second with 36 goals. Kamara's 15 are one off the total of Toronto's Sebastian Giovinco for the league lead.
Much of the Crew's damage has come at home, however. Columbus has scored nine times while going 1-6-4 as a visitor, and the Crew had been shut out in five straight trips to Commerce City before earning a 1-all draw last July 4 in the teams' lone 2014 meeting.
Colorado had won three straight in the series and is 13-5-3 at home against Columbus. The elevation of Dick's SG Park will play a role again.
"The first 15, 20 minutes (of games there) are pretty tough I guess," former Rapids and current Crew defender Chris Klute told the team's official website. "You kind of feel like you're losing breath a little bit after a couple sprints in there. The goal is to get the second wind, kind of get that tiredness out of you to push through that altitude."
Klute will be making his return to Commerce City after spending the previous three seasons with Colorado.
Columbus will take the field without defender Waylon Francis and midfielder Mohammed Saeid due to yellow card accumulations.
Midfielder Lucas Pittinari (hamstring) and defender James Riley (concussion) are expected to sit out for the Rapids.
