COMMERCE CITY — The Rapids ended their seven-game losing streak Saturday night, but they badly needed a win and didn’t get it.
Colorado drew 2-2 with Portland, the team immediately ahead of it in the Western Conference standings. With each team gaining a point, that amounted to a win for Portland and a lost opportunity for Colorado.
Both teams were desperate to make a playoff push, each having seven games remaining in the regular season. Five teams make the playoffs from each conference, and Portland was two points behind fifth-place Vancouver going into the game. Colorado was seven points behind.
The game marked the return of the Rapids’ stalwart center back Shane O’Neill, the Boulder Fairview grad who missed nine games because of a knee injury suffered July 12 at Philadelphia. When he got hurt the Rapids were in third place in the Western Conference with a 7-5-6 record. In the games he was out, the Rapids went 1-8.
Both teams had chances early. Rapids midfielder Nick Labrocca forced Portland goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts to make an acrobatic save in the 24th minute, and Portland forward Fanendo Adi missed an open net seven minutes later. Three minutes after that, Rapids midfielder Carlos Alvarez made a superb run on the left wing and played it to forward Deshorn Brown, who was open on the doorstep of the Portland goal but his shot was high.
Portland took the lead just before halftime on a volley just outside the penalty area by midfielder Diego Valeri. Rapids goalkeeper John Berner got a hand on it and pushed it wide, but not wide enough and it found the right corner of the net in the 43rd minute.
The Rapids got a monumental break moments after halftime when referee Drew Fischer awarded them a penalty kick, calling Portland defender Liam Ridgewell for a handball in the penalty area. Replays showed Brown’s shot actually struck Ridgewell in the chest. Dillon Powers buried the PK for the equalizer in the 48th minute.
Brown gave Colorado the lead in the 66th minute with a beautiful header that beat Ricketts — his teammate on the Jamaican national team — to the far post off a great cross by left back Mark Burch. But 10 minutes later, Portland forward Gaston Fernandez got away with a handball, caught the Rapids defense in disarray and tied the score at 2-2.
The Rapids now have a huge game Friday at Real Salt Lake.
John Meyer: 303-954-1616, jmeyer@denverpost.com or
