7:30 pm • Paramount + All seating in the East side only, enter through gate B. GA tickets are $11 on Ticketmaster - STM have free tickets in their account. The Owls came to DSGP for a round of 32 US Open Cup match. While this will be the first time since 2023 for the Rapids in this competition, Union Omaha has seen a lot of success regularly making it to this round. They beat semi-pro side BOHFS St. Louis in the first round 8-0 and then Indy Eleven (USL-Championship) 2-1 in the second round - with the help of an Indy red card to Indy’s keeper in the 65’. Union Omaha plays in USL-1, the third tier of soccer in the US. Since coming into existence in 2019, they have seen a lot of success with two championships and three players’ shields. Currently they are in third (out of 17 teams) on 12 points, one point out of first. This season they have won four in a row in league play after losing their first match of the season to first place Spokane Velocity. This will be Matt Wells’ first experience of fixture congestion thus it’s a bit of a guess as to how he will deal with squad rotation. Given his comments following the Dynamo win it seems likely we’ll see a lot of the regular starters in this match. He’ll have both Jackson Travis and Miguel Navarro back from suspension to go along with Keegan Rosenberry and Kosi Thompson at fullback. It would be wise to give players like Rafa Navarro and Lucas Herrington some rest with Inter Miami on the horizon. Could Darren Yapi get some time in the #9 role to give Rafa a bit of a break? Rafa’s hold up play has been key to the Rapids’ success this season, so it’s gonna be critical for someone else to prove they can do so as well to give him some rest. The winner of this match will face either SKC or the Switchbacks in two weeks - the Switchbacks host SKC tonight.
Wish I could make it tonight but need to wrap some stuff up before flying to a conference in the morning.
It's going to be nippy out there. One of those, "let's see who the die-hard fans are" type of games. Rapids should roll. Much like the Rockies this season, there's a different feel to the team.
OFFICIAL: The club has called up midfielder Nathan Tchoumba on a Short-Term Agreement for tonight’s U.S. Open Cup game.📰: https://t.co/XwKEj09Cjx#Rapids96 pic.twitter.com/PEmUUFJdxc— Colorado Rapids (@ColoradoRapids) April 14, 2026
Travis just a terrible sequence for him, gets beat as the last man, doesn’t track back deep enough, misses switch to the open player, flubs the clearance
In their first Open Cup match since 2023, the Rapids survived and advanced with the assist of a couple of big saves from Nico Hansen. Dante Sealy scored the only goal of the match (and his first of the season) in the 21’ minute and the Rapids survived several quality chances by Union Omaha to eke out the win. They will face the Switchbacks (who dominated SKC, winning 3-0) in the next round. Much of the match featured slow and methodical passing by the Rapids who dominated possession but failed to create many quality chances. Omaha was content to patiently defend a look to counter off a Rapids turnover. It was close to working for them. Matt Wells starting line up showed a lot of squad rotation including Nico Hansen in goal. Noah Cobb was at CB with Rob Holding. It was very fluid in the midfield with Jackson Travis and Miguel Navarro interchanging between playing a midfield role and LB. Hamzat Ojediran and Paxten Aaronson were the other midfielders. Darren Yapi started in place of Rafa Navarro and Sealy on the right and Alexis Manyoma on the left. Fifteen year old Nathan Tchuomba became the youngest Rapid to make a first team debut when he came on in the second half. After the match Matt Wells stated he was glad the team took the game seriously, especially given other results on the night. He wasn’t pleased with the play in the final third.
It was one of, if not the strongest squads I have seen them trot out this early in a US Open Cup. I feel like in years past Aaronson would not have even seen the bench, much less starting ,and a player like Navarro would not sub in. Its nice to see them taking it seriously. I believe I read it somewhere that since Switchbacks won we get to host again, but of course cant find that now. Here's to another fun one in 2 weeks!
Yeah, not quite how it worked out. I think I got a bit high on my own supply after Saturday. Omaha played a very physical game and I think they took us a bit by surprise with that. Glad we got the win though.
Okay, I was flipping around the dial with the Rockies and Avs, too, but from what I watched, the soccer was awful. Virtually unwatchable. Was it just me, just the times I happened to watch, or was the entire game that way?
The Rapids are going to host the Switchbacks on Weds., April 29 @7pm according to the US Soccer official website.