VANCOUVER — The good news for the Vancouver Whitecaps is the Colorado Rapids don't score many goals.
The bad news is the Rapids, who face the Whitecaps Saturday in a Major League Soccer match at BC Place Stadium, don't allow many goals either.
The Rapids are second in the Western Conference with a 9-2-6 record and are riding an 11-game unbeaten run. They have scored just 19 goals in 17 games this season but have allowed a league-low 11.
"They are good defensively," Vancouver midfielder Andrew Jacobson said after a training session this week. "They get into shape well. They are tough to break down.
"They are organized. They work for each other."
The already stingy Rapids became even more miserly with the addition of goalkeeper Tim Howard. The most capped keeper for the United States national team, and former player with Manchester United and Everton, had a clean sheet in his first MLS match against Portland Monday.
Colorado is 2-0-3 in the last five games. The Rapids have scored one goals or less in four of those games.
Vancouver can't afford to be lulled to sleep. Rapids' players like Jermaine Jones, Luis Solignac and Kevin Doyle do have a touch around the net.
"They've done well defensively being hard to beat," said Vancouver goalkeeper David Ousted. "Then they have these guys who get them goals.
"A 1-0 win is as good as a 4-2 or 5-2 win. It still gives you three points. I think they recognized that and have done well defensively to come together."
The Whitecaps remain in the MLS playoff picture with a 7-8-3 record but have managed just a win and a draw in their last five games. Vancouver is also coming off a 2-0 loss to the L.A. Galaxy Monday.
The Whitecaps are almost the opposite of Colorado. So far this season they have allowed 31 goals, four more than they have scored.
"Individually we need to be better," said Ousted. "Collectively we need to be better as well.
"We have given up too many chances, too many goals. It's going to make for a hard game if you need to score three every time."
While the Rapids have the ability to score goals when needed, the Whitecaps can create chances but have trouble finishing.
"It would be frustrating if we were saying we didn't have any chances and we didn't score," said Jacobson. "We know they (goals) are going to come.
"Things go up and down during a season. As long as you are creating chances that's what you look for."
With the team struggling to score, eyebrows were raised when head coach Carl Robinson left forward Kekuta Manneh, Vancouver's second leading goal scorer, out of the lineup for the L.A. game.
Robinson didn't offer an explanation for his decision. Manneh called it "part of the game."
"The coach decided to rest me," said the Austin, Tex., native who has five goals and two assists this season. "I have missed a lot of games throughout the years I have been here.
"We have a bunch of games coming up. It's good for me as an individual. I'm getting ready for the next game so I can help."
Assistant coach Gordon Forrest was evasive when asked if the team was trying to send Manneh a message.
"As a coaching staff we went a different way against L.A. in the way we wanted to set up and how we wanted to play," he said. "For that, he wasn't part of that game."
Manneh is expected to return to the lineup against Colorado.
"We worked his socks off at training today," said Forrest. "He's a very important part of the roster for us.
"At times players will play and sometimes they will be left out for various reasons. He's back in the mix for this weekend."
Vancouver plays nine games beginning Saturday and ending Aug. 12. Included in that span is an international friendly against Crystal Palace FC and a CONCACAF Champions League game.
