The Rapids face San Jose for the second and final time in MLS play this season having defeated the Quakes 2-1 on March 15 at PayPal Park. For much of that match it looked like the Rapids had been outplayed, but Zach Steffen made 12 saves and Cole Bassett and Calvin Harris scored. Of course they conceded a goal in first half stoppage time. The Rapids are in 8th in the West on 16 points while SJ is 10th on 13 points. Both teams have midweek matches following this one - the Rapids will be at San Diego on Wednesday. Once again the Rapids conceded late in a half in their loss at DC United. Meanwhile, San Jose blitzed Portland at home 4-1, with three goals coming in the first half, two by Cristian Espinoza. Both Chris Armas and Cole Bassett are back and the only Rapids on the injury report are Adam Beaudry and Ali Fidal are out. San Jose will be missing key players in Josef Martínez and Bruno Wilson. It’s hard to know what Rapids team is going to show up. Just when they look like they have got it together they fall apart. Conceding goals late in a half has been their Achilles heel. And they often fail to finish good chances in the first half. With a Wednesday night match to follow, it’s likely that Armas will look to substitute at least four players in the second half. He has been more or less sticking to starting Rafa Navarro and Darren Yapi up top in recent weeks and with Bassett available he’ll likely start as well along with Oli Larraz and Josh Atencio in the midfield. With all four fullbacks healthy it’s hard to know who starts but it’s a good bet that the center backs are Andreas Maxsø and Chidozie Awazium. Looks like good soccer weather tonight.
Perfect weather. I have no idea which Rapids team will show. Given that, it really does seem like an important game. The slide has to stop sometime, so let’s make it tonight. 2-1 win with goals by Mahailovic and Maxsø.
𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐗𝐈🆚: San Jose Earthquakes🏟️: DICK'S Sporting Goods Park⏰: 7:30 PM MT📺: #MLSSeasonPass on @AppleTV📱: https://t.co/qnwufK2uXT📻: @AltitudeSR📰: https://t.co/Qb2IlBiAKn🤝: @MyKingSoopers pic.twitter.com/cuviOjy2NO— Colorado Rapids (@ColoradoRapids) May 11, 2025
The second gift goal sucked out all life. I concede defeat. Fair result. SJ was clearly more prepared.
My first in-person game this season, what an awful result. Not sure I understood why Navarro was taken out with over 30 minutes left and being down 1-0. I did see he was pissed and walked right past Armas with disgust and threw his gear. I did love that Armas and Arena had the same outfit, white sneakers, tight dark green pants and tight black sweater. Made me laugh
3 game week and BW thought he may have taken a knock right before being subbed out But this game sucked. No fight in the second half, same end-of-half lousy defense. Blech. Apparently Gary Smith was at the game.
All season the team has been mis handling passes, making bad passes, relying on Steffen to bail them out and the odd moments where it clicks and they score. The odds are pulling the team back to the mean.
That was just awful! Simply the worst performance I have seen this season. Give away after give away, nothing from the midfield, another (the 8th?) goal in the last 5 minutes of the half, and a game plan that seemed to be: kick it as far as you can over the top to Yapi, a player who possesses some skills but not numbered among them are settling long balls and being strong with the ball at his feet. But most disturbing to me was the lack of discipline that only deepened as the game went on. I will always marvel at Rafa's "never say die" attitude, but his response to being subbed--having suffered some kind of ankle injury in the moments before and facing two more games this week--was was unacceptable. Worse was Maxso screaming and cursing his coach from the field during the run of play. In my view, that was completely unacceptable. And then there was Mihailovic expressing his obvious disgust to several of his teammates during the game. This is not the first time that he has done this. He may think that this is behavior becoming a team captain; however, in my humble view, it is little more than selfishness and petulance that should disqualify him from wearing that arm band in the future. With two more games ahead this week, one hopes they will flush this performance down the drain quickly.
12 out of 20 goals conceded (all competitions) in 2025 have been in the last 5 minutes + stoppage of a half
I can’t tell if our problem is a failure of depth, a failure of strategy, a failure of planning, a failure of overall skill, etc. At the start of the season we were able to cover for our weaknesses, likely with god-level net minding. But now? It feels like our recent games every weakness is being exposed. Right now it feels like we are on a march to being out of the playoffs and unable to recover by July. In other words, it feels like our team is reverting back to its norm.
Awful performance. Little threat to score + defensive miscues = a loss at home to a team below us in the table. TV showed Rafa limping before he was subbed off. Dunno if his reaction was "Dammit I think I'm hurt" or "I was fine and didn't need to come off". But if he's out for a while we're in big trouble.
Yikes . . . once again the Rapids concede in stoppage time. San Jose’s DeJuan Jones put in a cross from Vitor Costa in the 45’+2’ mark and an anemic second half attack doomed them to their second straight loss. The Rapids started Connor Ronan in the midfield with a healthy Cole Bassett coming off the bench in the second half. Jackson Travis and Reggie Cannon were the fullbacks. Once again Darren Yapi and Rafa Navarro started up top. Colorado had as many shots on goal as SJ, but they all went right at the keeper. In the second half, the Rapids looked like they were out of answers in the attack despite Bassett’s interjection of energy when he came on in the 57’. At that point they were only down a goal. Unfortunately, Chicho Arango put the game completely out of reach in the 67’ when he blocked a clearance by Chidozie Awazium giving him a 1 v 1 on Zach Steffen who he chipped. Beyond the stoppage time goal, it was a bit alarming to watch San Jose get a lot of overloads by quickly countering the Rapids and thus taking the midfielders out of the defense. They had a lot of 3 v 2 and 2 v 1s and the Rapids were fortunate not to have conceded more goals. Additionally when one of the Rapids on the backline pressed an attacking player near the centerline they got spun which led to taking a tactical foul and a card. Midway in the first half Andreas Maxsø was really upset with something Chris Armas had said to him and vociferous in expressing his thoughts. When Navarro was subbed out in the 57’ for Bassett he was in disbelief. When he got to the bench, he threw down his shirt and kicked the chair in anger. The Rapids are at San Diego Wednesday night.