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Defense wins championships, as they always say. Apparently it's somewhat important in non-championship situations as well, though the Colorado Rapids appear to be having some trouble figuring that out. Another rotten defensive showing doomed the Rapids to their fourth straight defeat, this one a 4-2 beatdown -- the scoreline doesn't show quite how bad it was -- against DC United.
As is the standard for the Rapids in the past few weeks, an early defensive breakdown gifted a goal to the other side. Luis Silva was the goalscorer, but more important for the Rapids was the loss of Drew Moor, who hurt himself on the play. His condition is still unknown, but the injury, which appeared to be some sort of pull, was bad enough to see him get immediately subbed out for Jared Watts. With a backline that could charitably be called 'mediocre' -- Chris Klute was probably the best center back on the back line, and he was playing left back -- it looked like things were going to go down the tubes quite quickly for the away side.
Dillon Serna gave a bit of hope to the Rapids in the 52nd minute with a volley that has already been described as a potential Goal of the Year candidate. With the game tied 1-1 and the buzz now on the side of the boys in blue, things looked like they were potentially about to turn around. Of course, this is a team in the midst of a horrendous slide for a reason, and it didn't. Within a very short time, United had stormed back to score another goal through Luis Silva, which knocked the wind right back out of Colorado's sails.
DC added two more goals from Chris Rolfe and Fabian Espindola, and there looked like plenty of chance that we'd see five or six goals put in by the time the game ended -- as expected, a center back tandem of Marvell Wynne and Jared Watts had a few issues keeping themselves in good positions to stop runs. Deshorn Brown did score a late consolation goal, but it was firmly one for the 'moral victories' camp, and nothing else.
Colorado have now lost their last four games by a combined scoreline of 11-3, and the schedule only takes a nosedive from here. The playoffs are out of the question unless something very drastic changes in the next few weeks.