Chris Armas believes that the Colorado Rapids' 2-1 defeat to the Portland Timbers will only make his side better ahead of facing Austin FC this weekend. 

Djordje Mihailovic put the Rapids ahead just past the half-hour mark with a brilliant solo run, but Antony levelled the scoring in the 59th minute. 

Colorado suffered a serious blow when Wayne Frederick II was shown a straight red card after 67 minutes, leaving them down to 10 men for the remainder of the match.

Portland made the most of the numerical advantage, with substitute Kevin Kelsy scoring 14 minutes before time, firing a low finish into the bottom left corner.

Despite the loss leaving the Rapids in eighth place in the Western Conference standings, Armas remained optimistic, saying: "Believe it or not, games like this are going to make us better. 

"There's a lot we'll take from it, whether that means we can create chances being down a man, still stick to who we are, that we can sit in the mid to lower block and be very, very good for long periods of the game.

"We'll take some positives from this, I'm sure of it."

Armas also praised the resilience his side showed following Frederick's sending-off, adding: "I'm proud of my team, you know.

"The way they showed up tonight and the way they played, the way they stuck to what we set out to do, the way they stood tall in the tough moment after the red card.

"I'm proud of the effort. I have to accept that the game does this to you."

Colorado have a chance to break free from the mid-table tussle they find themselves in as they host Austin at DSG Park on Saturday.

Austin are coming off a similarly tough 2-0 defeat to San Diego FC, leaving them 10th in the Western Conference standings, two points behind Colorado.

Luca de la Torre broke the deadlock in the 60th minute, while Milan Iloski netted in the second minute of stoppage time to seal the win for San Diego.

The loss marked Austin's eighth-straight MLS match without a win, their joint-longest winless streak (along with August 21-October 1, 2023) in the competition. 

After a challenging month during May that saw Austin pick up three losses and four draws in MLS action, head coach Nico Estevez called for a reset.

"It's important to mentally and physically get away from the month of May," Estevez said ahead of Saturday's match.

"It was really heavy, and loaded with games of different competitions.

"We played against some really good teams this month, and we ended the month learning a lot about ourselves, what we can do and improve."

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Colorado Rapids – Djordje Mihailovic

Mihailovic (seven goals, three assists) has been involved in more than half of Colorado's 18 goals this season, including scoring the team's only goal in their 2-1 defeat to Portland last time out.

He should enjoy a return to DSG Park too, where he has scored five of his seven goals this season.

Austin FC – Diego Rubio

Rubio netted his first goal of the season – a stoppage-time equaliser for Austin against Real Salt Lake – earlier in May.

With that goal, Rubio has now scored in every MLS season since 2016, making him one of four players to score at least once in each of the last 10 MLS seasons (along with Diego Fagundez, Jonathan Osorio, and Cristian Roldan).

MATCH PREDICTION: COLORADO RAPIDS WIN

Colorado have won four of their last six home games (D1 L1), including a pair of 1-0 wins in their last two outings at DSG Park.

This marks the first time Colorado has recorded back-to-back shutout wins at home in regular-season play since a three-match run in April-May 2022.

The Rapids have also won three of their last four meetings against Austin FC (L1), including a 1-0 away win earlier this season. In fact, Colorado have lost only one of their last six meetings against Austin (W3 D2).

The Verde, meanwhile, are winless in eight straight regular-season matches (D4 L4), equalling the longest streak in club history (fourth time). They have scored just four goals during this run.

OPTA WIN PROBABILITY

Colorado Rapids – 44.9%

Draw – 26.9%

Austin FC – 28.2%