Leagues Cup begins Thursday night in Portland for the Rapids. It has already started for the Timbers who came back to beat León 2-1 on Sunday night after going down in thee 16th minute with the winner coming in the 90th minute. A reminder about how Leagues Cup works - all Liga MX and MLS sides play in the competition. The groups have only three teams each with the top two advancing to the knock out round. If a match ends in a tie the teams go immediately to PKs with the winner getting two and the loser holding onto a point. Of course winning a match in regulation gets the full three points and a loss zero. The Rapids haven't played since they beat FSL for the Rocky Mountain Cup on July 20th. And they will not have Kevin Cabral and Djordje Mihailovic available. Kimani Stewart-Baynes just finished with Canada in the CONCACAF U20 championships so he may need to recover before being available for selection. The Rapids and León complete West 5 play on Monday night.
24 hours... chop chop 🪓 #PORvCOL | #LeaguesCup2024 pic.twitter.com/ljsbI6QXiW— Colorado Rapids (@ColoradoRapids) August 1, 2024
1-1 draw, goal by Bassett. Rapids lose in PKs. These are two very even teams, and we aren't the same Rapids who got blitzed in the season opener in Portland. I think missing Mihailovic though is enough to only get a draw, and not having our top penalty taker costs us in the kicks. https://view-from-the-couch.blogspot.com/2024/07/leagues-cup-2024.html
𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐗𝐈🆚: Portland Timbers🏟: Providence Park⏰: 8:30 PM MT📺: #MLSSeasonPass on @AppleTV📻: @AltitudeSR📝: https://t.co/lYbHktrV3z#️⃣: #PORvCOL, #LeaguesCup2024 pic.twitter.com/Qp3fpmLUMl— Colorado Rapids (@ColoradoRapids) August 2, 2024
They started well but really fell into a very unconfident negativism. Lewis went missing for 30 minutes. Vines has just been really tentative. The whole right side has been abandoned. Almost like they had a few shots turned away and decided, "well this isn't our night."
Difference in this is match so far is Maxime Céepeau. Two point blank saves in the first four minutes. Two big missed opportunities for the Rapids.
I'll say this for Armas.... The Rapids were pretty low energy at the end of the first half, but they've come out with more focus and effort.
Pretty much what I expect from the Rapids in a knockout competition at this point. Barring a surprise victory over Leon on Monday we'll continue our streak of not advancing against MLS/international competition. Last time we did it was the playoffs in 2016 against LA.
I assume Fernandez is cooked because I don't know why he wouldn't be shifted to the left and Lewis come off otherwise
Oi! The trap was not well executed. Unpopular opinion, Conor isn't a very good attacking mid. Caught in possession too many times. A little too in love with long crosses to no effect.
Barring a surprise victory over Leon on Monday the almost 8 year streak of not advancing in a knockout competition against MLS or international competition will continue
Conor was a bright spot amongst a very bad team last year. Now that the parts around him have been upgraded we're finding out he's MLS sub-quality at best.
If the Rapids don't get two or three points on Monday night they are looking at a long layoff before their next MLS match at the end of the month. That's not gonna be good. Not scoring on at least one of the two early chances was a killer. They were both point blank.
That's pretty much how I see it. He hits a pass once in a while that really flatters him, but in the more mundane moments there's just something missing. He's like a plumber whose main skill is using the plunger, it's a smart obvious solution but when something more is required he goes wanting. Saying that, at this moment. Loffelsend is demonstrating why he's not higher on the pecking order. I like Larraz a lot. Sometimes I get frustrated with him, but there's a quality player there that I tend to rate higher as I see his elders trying to fill the same role. This game keeps teaching me...
We have some defensive depth (Abubakar, Edwards, Seb, even Travis has shown some things). What we're finding out is beyond that there's not much after the starting XI. Yapi, Fernandez, Ronan, Loffelsend, Beaudry, etc. aren't ready for prime time.
Didn’t expect getting blown out. Painful to watch. Maihalovich cannot return too soon. A missing person report for Navarro is still out there. Also, are there any Moroccan players looking to play at high altitude?