Both RSL and the Rapids come into this match desperately needing a win. The Rapids have now gone five straight without a win, 3 draws followed by 3 losses and sit 9th on 16 points in the West. RSL have one win in their last five and sit 11th on 14 points. RSL had a 0-0 draw at home v Portland midweek. The most recognizable name on the pitch for Rapids fans is Diego Luna who is their only player with more than one goal this season having scored seven of the team’s 12. He is the attacking CM in Pablo Mastroeni’si 4-2-3-1. Could the first game in the Rocky Mountain Cup be season defining for the Rapids? Just a few weeks ago they looked to be settling into the style Armas wants in the attack. Now, the wheels have fallen off as any cohesion passing has disappeared while they continue to leak goals. The goal scoring won’t get any easier tonight with Rafa Navarro out again due to his ankle sprain while the defense will potentially be missing Zach Steffen who is questionable due to a muscle strain. Adam Beaudry is off the injury list. Uncharacteristically, Armas went with a lot of squad rotation on Wednesday night and used all five subs. It’s likely that the back line will consist of the recent starters in fullbacks Reggie Cannon and Jackson Travis with CBs Andreas Maxsø and Chidozie Awaziem. Maxsø was the only one of these four who played Wednesday. If Armas goes with a 4-2-2-2, look for Josh Atencio and Oli Larraz to pair at the pivot with Cole Bassett and Djordje Mihailovic at the more advanced midfield spots. Forwards? Without Navarro, it's tough to know who in this group will provide serious goal scoring threats. It’s like Kévin Cabral will get a start again along with Darren Yapi. Both Ted Ku-DiPietro and Sam Bassett are likely to get some minutes in the midfield/forward if the Rapids are needing a goal late. Same for Calvin Harris up top. It’s possible Armas could go with a different formation given Navarro’s injury and the lack of production in the attack. Defensively, the Rapids are frequently getting exposed by quick counters out the middle of the pitch where the backline is put under pressure and often overloaded. This has been an ongoing issue that is going to require Armas to make some tactical adjustments. No midweek game this week. Up next the Rapids host St. Louis CITY on the 24th.
2-1 loss, goal by Mihailovic. FSL breaks our hearts with a late goal to win, again. Given our run of form and Navarro being out I just don't see where we get points in this one. Hopefully they can prove me wrong but I'm not getting my hopes up. https://view-from-the-couch.blogspot.com/2025/05/get-it-done.html
An optimistic 1-1 tie. Honestly, I’m sick of writing, “I hope I’m wrong.” Maybe if I predict a tie instead of a loss, I can say, “Hey, I was right.” Bennett on the goal. Either one. Where did this season go? How do we turn it around? Where would we be without Steffen?
Honest question - when will Ted KDP be healthy enough to play a 90?? We payed a good deal of cash for him in the offseason, and our offense is in need of a spark. I know he had shoulder surgery in the offseason, but he logged his first minutes of the season back on 4/12, and has logged a combined total of 91min in the last month.
Funny I was thinking Hansen might have been generating confidence by the weak shot RSL kept lobbing at him.
KDP > Cabral. Game changed when Ted came into the match. He’s good on the ball and better tactically than Cabral.
Our goal was directly due to his insistence to win the ball, so a bit of a dribble - and even though it didn’t go perfectly he kept hounding it, forced possession to the middle, allowing the overlap that took us to the box. Cabral doesn’t have as much “spunk” (or at least hasn’t shown it consistently)
I logged on to write this exact sentence! KDP changed the game almost instantly. Without that sub, I don't see how we could have won. I pray that this means he will now be the starter over Cabral as we move forward.
At the end of games, we usually ask whether the result was consistent with the flow of play. We thought the Rapids outplayed RSL. Mahailovic’s goal was a skilled play. Early in the season, we won by good fortune. This one was legit. Whew, the season isn’t over yet.
.@DjoMihailovic came up clutch in our Rocky Mountain derby and secured his fifth @MLS Team of the Matchday honor of the season 👏📰» https://t.co/o8RQmkHor1#Rapids96 pic.twitter.com/aZBa4X1vl2— Colorado Rapids (@ColoradoRapids) May 19, 2025
With the Rapids on a slide and facing their Rocky Mountain Cup rivals for the first time this season they broke a 0-0 tie in the 70’ and held on (no stoppage time goals) for the win. A big part of the Armas plan is for the Rapids to press and counter-press. Early in the match it was the high press that provided an opportunity for a goal when Darren Yapi nicked the ball and found Djordje Mihailovic who got the ball to Oli Larraz who fired a shot that was blocked. In the 70’ a counter-press got the goal when a series of well worked passes got the ball to the endline where Reggie Cannon’s pass was intercepted and then immediately won back by Cole Bassett. Bassett then slotted the ball to Djordje Mihailovic who hit it with precision for the goal. It was no coincidence that this sequence occurred after Ted Ku-DiPietro had entered the match in the 61’ for Kevin Cabral. KDP has good technical and tactical ability, superior to that of Cabral, which brought life to the Rapids in the attack. He was a critical part of the goal sequence and hit the bar with a curling shot a few minutes later. For a rivalry match this game at times lacked the spark that many others with RSL have had. There were yellow cards given, but they seemed soft. However, Pablo lost his mind when he disagreed with officiating which is always entertaining. Both sides came out in a 4-2-3-1. For the Rapids this was the first time this season that they Armas has used this formation. With Navarro out due to injury Darren Yapi started up top with Kévin Cabral and Cole Bassett on the wings and Mihailovic at the 10. The d-mids were Larraz and Josh Atencio with a back line of Reggie Cannon-Andreas Maxsø, Chidozie Awaziem and Jackson Travis. Nico Hanson got his second start of the season due to Zach Steffen’s injury. Lots of squad rotation from Wednesday night’s loss at San Diego. Every time Steffen is injured the Rapids’ faithfull hit the panic button. When it’s Nico Hanson on for him it’s been a success thus far. Hanson has conceded one goal in his two starts and it’s hard to fault him for the goal in the Seattle match. On Saturday night he looked more confident in handling the ball and had some good distribution which put pressure on RSL’s defense. St. Louis CITY is in town Saturday night. Following that match the Rapids travel to Portland for a midweek match that is the last of their May fixtures.
I believe it was Atencio that skied the ball. About three minutes after the goal, KDP hit the bar with a curling shot for just inside the box.
Armas really outplayed Pablo in this one. In the 58th minute Pablo made 3 subs and went for a park the bus tactic. 3 minutes later Armas put KDP in for Cabral, which immediately increased our offense and paid off with the goal in the 70th minute on a sequence KDP helped start. Then Pablo had to react by putting on two strikers with his last 2 subs and coming out of the park the bus shell.
Forgot to mention the play of Cole Bassett in this match in my original post. In the 4-2-3-1 he played wide and was able to use the space ceded by the defense on the wing to drive the ball to the end line on a number of occasions. In previous times in this role he hasn't looked as comfortable out wide.