The Rapids admittedly caught a break Saturday.

But soon, perhaps beginning tonight, the Rapids offense will need to awaken from its summer hibernation for the club to make the playoff push that was expected months ago.

After using an own-goal by the Western Conference-leading Houston Dynamo to earn a 1-0 win Saturday to snap a 10-game winless streak, the Rapids will take aim at another conference leader tonight at Dick's Sporting Goods Park.

The New England Revolution, which shares a league-leading 36 points with FC Dallas, makes its first visit to the new park (7, no television).

"The one thing I've looked at throughout my career when a team isn't scoring goals, there has to be team effort in everything else," said defender Mike Petke, who returned to the lineup Saturday after missing six matches because of an ankle injury.

"We've got to make sure we're limiting their opportunities. And I'm not just talking about the back four. It's all 11 guys. The times that we've done that are the times we've been successful. The times that we haven't done that we haven't been as successful."

Despite the recent 10-game winless streak, the Rapids' playoff chances are not as fleeting as they could have been as they begin the final third of the season's 30-game schedule.

The Rapids have managed to earn four points in two home games in which the opposition accidentally scored Colorado's only goals - against Houston on Saturday and during a 1-1 draw against Real Salt Lake on May 10.

The Rapids also managed to salvage one point in three draws during the winless slide, leaving them with a respectable, if not overwhelming, 21 points.

In Major League Soccer's new single table playoff format - the top two teams from each conference qualify with the teams with the next four highest point totals regardless of conference - the Rapids trail the lowest current playoff qualifier, Columbus, by five points.

Beginning tonight, if the Rapids can perform more like they did during the first third of the season (4-3-3) than the second (1-6-3), the playoffs remain a distinct possibility.

That would be a remarkable feat for a team that has scored two goals only three times in 20 games and only once in its past 16.

"We're at the end of the season now and we have to make a strong push," Petke said. "Our veterans understand how crazy the situation is right now. To not make the playoffs, none of us would take that well.

"All cliches aside - if this is a playoff game or 'must win' - from here on out we need as close to a perfect season as we can."

SANNEH SIGNED: The Rapids acquired the rights to national team and World Cup veteran defender Tony Sanneh and have signed him to an MLS contract. Terms were not disclosed.

The Rapids gave the Chicago Fire a fourth-round pick in the 2009 MLS draft for Sanneh, 36, who will be eligible to play tonight.

"He will add needed depth to the center of our backline," coach Fernando Clavijo said.