Minoungou hails Colorado's 'tough mentality' as playoff race heats up

Colorado Rapids winger Georgi Minoungou believes the team's "tough mentality" will be their key to reaching the playoffs, with the Portland Timbers next up in MLS.

The Rapids are winless in their last four matches (D1 L3), and they slipped down to ninth – the last wildcard spot – in the Western Conference in midweek after a 2-2 draw with Minnesota United.

Having had a man sent off midway through the second half, Loic Williams then scored a late own goal to gift the Loons a point, and it leaves Colorado three points off the automatic playoff spots.

But Minoungou is confident Colorado can rally and get back to winning ways with only five games of the regular season remaining.

"We have a tough mentality," he said after the draw with Minnesota. "We always want to give high energy in everything.

"But there's some moments that there will be ups and downs, and that's why we have a great coach [Matt Wells].

"He's always on the side, pushing us to keep going forward when we're down and injecting some urgency into players so we can raise the level. We're good, we're focused on the playoffs; we want to get there."

Portland are one place behind Colorado in the table, sitting 10th, but have a five-point gap to make up to the playoff places.

They are one of three teams on 33 points – though they sit above Real Salt Lake on goals scored – and have failed to win any of their last six matches (D2 L4).

They were beaten 2-0 by the LA Galaxy last time out, and head coach Marti Cifuentes acknowledged recent results and performances have not been good enough.

"There are a lot of things that we need to improve, that's for sure," he said.

"You can be unlucky in one game, you can be unlucky in two games if you want, but it's difficult when we have this trend that means we've not done well enough in certain areas.

"One of them is that we're conceding in every game, and we have been speaking with the guys that we cannot put ourselves in a situation where we need to score three, four goals every game to get something from them."

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Portland Timbers – Antony

Antony has scored five goals in six regular-season matches against Colorado, while the only other team he has scored more than once against is the Houston Dynamo (two).

He has scored in all three of his home matches against the Rapids, netting four goals over the three games.

Colorado Rapids – Darren Yapi

Darren Yapi scored his first goal since April in Colorado's 2-2 draw with Minnesota United.

He had gone 20 consecutive regular-season matches without a goal contribution prior to scoring against the Loons.

MATCH PREDICTION: PORTLAND TIMBERS WIN

Colorado recorded a 2-0 win over Portland on February 28 after the Timbers won both meetings during the 2025 season.

Colorado's only set of consecutive wins over Portland in all competitions came in the first three all-time meetings between the teams in 2011-12 (W3).

However, the Rapids have lost 20 of their last 28 regular-season away matches (W3 D5) dating back to April 2025, including five of the last six. Over this 28-match stretch, Colorado have been outscored 60-29, managing to keep just two clean sheets.

The Timbers, meanwhile, lost their last home match 1-0 against Atlanta United on September 19.

They have not lost two straight regular-season home matches since September 2019, avoiding defeat in the match following each of their previous 29 regular-season home losses.

OPTA WIN PROBABILITY

Portland Timbers – 46.7%

Draw – 26.4%

Colorado Rapids – 26.9%