Portland Timbers 3 – Colorado Rapids 1: Rapids Lose First Preseason Game

Portland opted to play a highly pressurized game by pressing whoever had the ball, trying to work more on the counter-attack with through balls to Darlington Nagbe. Though it took a while for the team to start holding the ball better, Colorado was opting to try and hold the ball and work it up to a roaming Martin Rivero as a link to the forwards. That's likely a preview of the sort of soccer we can expect them to try all season.

In the second half, as expected, the Rapids changed their entire starting XI, including putting all three SuperDraft picks onto the field.

Down 2-0 and already suffering one bad-looking injury to Martin Rivero, the Rapids played with a little less intensity following the Alhassan goal. It was not too much of a surprise when Jose Valencia finished off the scoring for Portland with a dribble through the defense and a fabulous in the 79th minute. A few more big Jimmy Maurer saves kept the goal-count at three.

It being the first preseason game of the season, there is just about nothing that can actually be gleaned from this game. Seriously. Don't try to analyze it with any real level of seriousness, because there are still fitness and chemistry issues abound with this squad. Just be glad that there's finally some Rapids soccer back on our computer screens.