The Red Bulls coughed up the opening goal in all of their first three games this year. They can’t afford to do it again in their fourth, Saturday’s frigid MLS home opener against defensively-stingy Colorado (4 p.m., UniMas).

“We’ve had three games at the beginning of the year and gone down three times. Obviously if you do that often it sets you up for long games. We’re aware of that and want a fast start at home,’’ coach Jesse Marsch said. “Getting a lead is ideal. If you go down against Colorado (it’s tough).”

In both legs of their CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinals loss and again in their league-opening win at Atlanta, the Red Bulls fell behind. They can ill afford a repeat against the Rapids, who boast U.S. National Team keeper Tim Howard, allowed the fewest goals in MLS last year (32) and opened this season by beating the Revolution 1-0, a scoreline they’ve taken to an art form.

“They are certainly a team that can win 1-0, we have seen that. Our first three games we have allowed the first goal and we want to avoid that,” captain Sacha Kljestan said. “They’re a very good defensive team.

“They sit back well and they get in their block of eight-to-nine guys and they defend very deep. So it’s hard to play behind them. They were the best defensive team last year, so we know it’s going to be a difficult game. We know we’ll probably have a lot of possession, but that doesn’t always mean a lot of chances, so we have to be good at creating little chances we can make out.”

It’s expected to be 29 degrees at kickoff with 20 mile-per-hour winds that make it feel like 16 degrees, according to weather.com. That kind of weather, along with Colorado’s defense and Howard — a former MetroStar great — could make this an ugly, nasty affair. On top of that, attacker Gonzalo Veron is hurt and newly acquired striker Fredrik Gulbrandsen has his P-1 visa, but is just arriving.

“It might not be the perfect weather for a beautiful passing game, especially if it gets windy,” Kljestan said. There could be a lot of bouncing balls and 50-50s. The physical part we have to be up for. Last year we played Colorado in the snow, and physically they were a little better than us when not a lot of soccer player was being played but a lot of battles. We probably lost more duels than we won. If that’s the case on Saturday we need to be ready to put in the work.”

As good as Howard is, Red Bulls keeper Luis Robles is set to make history. His 142nd straight league game would break Chris Klein’s MLS record.