COMMERCE CITY — Painful as it was for some on the club and its fans, when the Rapids traded the popular Kosuke Kimura last week to Portland, it may have been like ripping off a bandage. The team finally feels back to normal — at least for now.

The Rapids have, for the first time this season, what seems like a settled defense with the re-emergence of veteran defender Hunter Freeman.

“As a player, you always want to be on the starting team,” Freeman said. “I knew it was a battle (for a starting job). I know if I was asked if I thought Kosuke would be traded, I wouldn’t say I knew it was coming.”

Freeman, one of two players on Colorado’s roster who actually played a game in a Rapids uniform before 2007 at the former Invesco Field, has started the past four games at right back. Pablo Mastroeni, on the injured list, also played at the Rapids’ former home, and Tyrone Marshall played one game at Mile High Stadium in 1998.

Kimura and Freeman had been swapping back and forth on the Rapids’ left and right sides, as coach Oscar Pareja juggled seven defenders through the season. But Kimura fell out of favor in recent weeks, going unused in three consecutive games in June and July, including two in which he was scratched from the game-day roster.

Instead, Freeman earned the spot. And in a game against Portland on June 30, his run down the right side, with a nifty move around a Timbers defender, set up a cross that Jaime Castrillon flicked in for a goal. It keyed the Rapids’ 3-0 rout.

“I feel much better,” Pareja said of the defense. “Hunter is settled. He’s certain there. We have more solidness there. He still needs to be better, he knows, because we demand it from him. But I spend a lot fewer hours thinking about it now.”

Freeman was the Rapids’ first offseason signing after Pareja was hired as coach. He returned to Colorado after playing in Houston and for IK Start in Norway’s premier league. He was originally a first-round draft pick of Colorado, at No. 7 in 2005, for former coach Fernando Clavijo.

By the time Freeman returned to Colorado this season, he was less familiar in a Rapids jersey than was Kimura, who had joined the team two years after Freeman did originally.

“We were friends,” Freeman said of Kimura. “You never like to see a teammate have to lose his job. But I’ve been traded a number of times. It’s part of the job. Hopefully our fans will realize that and appreciate what I can do.”

The Rapids are 2-6-1 with Freeman in the starting lineup. But their recent skid of four losses in five games seems to be a team-wide issue — Colorado was outscored just 6-5 over that stretch.

“It’s up and down,” Freeman said. “We need to become more consistent, and for 90 minutes. The frustration is, we’re not losing 3-0. It’s mostly by one goal. Sometimes that’s more frustrating than getting blown out.

“That’s the frustrating thing about soccer. But over the course of the season, those things even out in the results — hopefully.”

Nick Groke: 303-954-1015, ngroke@denverpost.com or twitter.com/nickgroke

Rapids vs. FC Dallas

It is Colorado’s first of three games in eight days before leaving for a two-game road trip to Toronto and Salt Lake City.

When: Saturday, 7 p.m.

Where: DSG Park in Commerce City

TV: Altitude Radio: 93.7 FM; 1510 AM

This article has been corrected in the online archive to indicate Hunter Freeman’s comment about the trade of Kosuke Kimura. He said he wouldn’t have known it was coming: “I knew it was a battle (for a starting job). I know if I was asked if I thought Kosuke would be traded, I wouldn’t say I knew it was coming.”