Last year’s Leagues Cup was a fairy tale for the Colorado Rapids, but perhaps also a cautionary one.
As the U.S.-vs.-Mexico club tournament returns, the Rapids are chasing the same highs that made August 2024 one of the most thrilling months in recent club history. After a 4-0 thrashing in its opener, Colorado went on an MLS-first four-match winning streak against Liga MX clubs to reach the semifinal round as the 46th overall seed (second to last).
That run included toppling powerhouse Club América in the quarterfinal. The Rapids lost to LAFC in the semifinal, but beat the Philadelphia Union a few days later to take third place.
Yet the pursuit of another run that deep comes with the risk of repeating the fallout that followed last season: five losses in the final eight regular-season matches, then a 9-1 thrashing over two games against eventual MLS champion L.A. Galaxy.
Nonetheless, the Rapids did take a lot of positives away from that run. And there are reasons to believe another could be beneficial with the tournament set to begin Thursday at home against Club Santos Laguna.
The run that made them
Zack Steffen: The 2024 Leagues Cup run was the beginning of the Rapids goalkeeper’s resurgence. He struggled in the first half of his first year in Colorado after leaving England with his first child and a recovering meniscus tear.
He found his form in Leagues Cup, earning Goalkeeper of the Tournament honors with an absurd five saves per game. He starred in three penalty shootouts, including an iconic keeper-on-keeper finish against Club América, where he buried his penalty before Luis Malagón missed his own.
Since then, Steffen has climbed back into the U.S. Men’s National Team picture and is making a case for a 2026 World Cup spot.
Darren Yapi: Yapi waited three long seasons to score his first goal for the Rapids. It came in a 4-1 rout of St. Louis CITY near the start of last year’s tournament. His next goal was a game-winner in stoppage time vs. Toluca in the Leagues Cup Round of 16.
Since then, he has become a spark plug, particularly as a substitute. Yapi has scored five regular-season goals since the winner vs. Toluca, four of which were go-ahead goals, game-winners or equalizers. The latest bit of Yapi-hour magic was the game-tying goal off the bench to cap a thrilling three-goal comeback at Seattle earlier this month.
Could use a boost
Cole Bassett: No Rapids player stands to benefit more from a tournament reset than Bassett.
After a career-best 2024 season playing a box-to-box role in coach Chris Armas’s double pivot, the Homegrown midfielder has struggled to replicate those performances. Injuries stunted his rhythm this year, but now that he’s healthy, goal contributions have not returned en masse yet: In 19 games, he has just two goals and two assists.
July was equally cruel and kind for Bassett last year. He was the first player left off the U.S. Olympic roster, then used the snub as fuel to explode for six goal contributions in the following four matches.
“We said (before the season) we wanted to get a trophy this year. … For me, I’m very focused on that piece because you have fewer games this year (with the new format) to get to the trophy, but you’ve got to be really good in these first three to advance,” Bassett said. “I think it can kickstart me toward the end of the year.”
Built to last
It’s not entirely unreasonable to be on the fence about another deep run. Last year’s tournament was remarkable, but it left the Rapids gassed.
Armas should shoulder some of the blame for that. He had a general unwillingness to rotate his squad on a game-to-game basis last season. But to his credit, the player pool getting big minutes this season is larger.
At the end of last season, only 14 players finished the season with more than 1,000 minutes — 13 if you exclude Moïse Bombito, who departed during Leagues Cup. That meant the starting 11 looked nearly the same every week, particularly after the tournament.
With nine games left after Leagues Cup this season, that number could jump as high as 18. Lineup experiments, greater trust in youth and more tactical flexibility all suggest Armas is thinking ahead.
“I would say we feel prepared for three really tough games. In terms of our health, in terms of our style of play, we’re better now than we were last year at this stage, and we have a lot of the same characters that had that experience and a year more of experience,” Armas said. “I do feel we’re prepared for that and maybe more ready than ever.”
This year, the Rapids don’t need to sacrifice balance for ambition. If they’re deeper, rested and more experienced, another Leagues Cup run could fuel the home stretch rather than derail it.
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