Colorado Rapids CONCACAF Champions Cup Preview: First leg in Colorado

COMMERCE CITY – The 2025 Colorado Rapids season kicks off in the CONCACAF Champions Cup against a familiar foe in LAFC. Tonight is leg one of two against the Californian side, with this leg at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park. Let’s take a look at this matchup.

When: Tuesday, February 18 @ 8:00 p.m. MST

Where: Dick’s Sporting Goods Park

TV/Streaming: FS2 / Vix Premium Deportes 2

New year, New team

The first game of the season is our first chance to look at the work Club President Pádraig Smith has done over the winter. Smith was transparent with his strategy: Infuse the team with youth. The Rapids went all out of this year’s draft, with four first-round selections and nine total drafted throughout the rest of the draft.

The Rapids also looked within the league for reinforcements with an early trade for FC Cincinnati center-backs Chidozie Awaziem and Ian Murphy, and more recent trades with D.C. United for winger Ted Ku-DiPietro and with Seattle Sounders for midfielder Josh Atencio. With the most notable departure being center-back Lalas Abubakar, I believe we will see a very similar team from last year, with one or two new starters and a whole host of fresh college kid faces to fill the bench.

Rapids Lineup Prediction:

With the Rapids running it back with a similar team, I think we see a similar team to start the 2025 season. Here is our prediction:

Steffen / Rosenberry (C), Maxso, Awaziem, Cannon / C. Bassett, Ronan / Cabral, Mihailović, C. Harris / Navarro

Other than Awaziem, this would be a fieldable team in 2024, and I think that will be the theme of the CCC for the Rapids. I don’t think we see any of Ian Murphy, Ted Ku-DiPietro, or Josh Atencio in the starting lineup, and in Josh Atencio’s case, it would just be too soon to throw them in. I would be surprised if we see many new faces in this game. Ku-DiPietro will be out for a month or two due to offseason shoulder surgery.

Ronan and Larraz could change places, and the winger opposite of Cabral is a coin toss between Omir Fernandez and Calvin Harris for me, but either way, we will see a similar team to the one in 2024.

The injury report has been pretty clean throughout the preseason, but left-back Sam Vines and forward Darren Yapi both gained injuries that kept them sidelined for some games. Yapi is out for more than just this game, so look out for one of the young guys trying to solidify their spot behind Rafa. While Sam Vines has been reported to be available for this game, I don’t think they rush him back, especially this early in the season.

How familiar will this LAFC team be?

LAFC may have lost attacker Mateusz Bogusz, and more recently Cristian Olivera. However, they still have a similar core and will be a similar team, headlined by Olivier Giroud, Carlos Vela, and Denis Bouanga. They looked intra-league for additions, acquiring Mark Delgado from LA Galaxy, Jeremy Ebobisse as a free agent, and Nkosi Tafari from FC Dallas. They also looked outward and acquired international players like Igor Jesus from Portugal, Marlon as a free agent, and Odin Thiago Holm from Scotland. LAFC reloaded for the 2025 season, opting not to run it back.

With the new additions, however, I don’t think they will change their MO, and they will be a tough opponent for the Colorado Rapids. LAFC was a thorn in the side of the Rapids, knocking them out of the Leagues Cup in the semifinal, and despite the Rapids winning 3-2 at home, LAFC won the season series, beating the Rapids 3-0 at the BMO Stadium. LAFC is 7-0 all time at BMO with an aggregate score of 21-2.

In that game, Chris Armas tried to stand up to LAFC and take the game to them and ended up getting beat on the counter. In the Leagues Cup defeat, he had the team sit back and try to hit on the counter-attack and they got beat by a high press. Armas will have to find a different way to break down this LAFC team. He will have to be adaptable, as LAFC is a team that can hit you in multiple ways.

They showed this in their preseason friendly against Club America. In the first 15 minutes, they switched from a high press to a low block for the rest of the first half, both able to exploit weaknesses in the Club America game. Both LAFC goals in that game were due to their pressure creating opportunities, so the Rapids must be good on the ball, especially in the back, for this tie. They can’t be expecting to score in a similar manner as Club America did, as Igor Jesus will probably be more hesitant to dribble in his own box after that game.

Dealing with LAFC’s versatility:

LAFC has shown to be a team that can hit you with a high press or drop off and hit on the counter, but in Colorado, they have had to be a little more one-dimensional. Whether it was due to the altitude, the cold, or just the game plan on the day, LAFC has gone with dropping off and hitting on the counter more times than not at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park. With a congested start to the season, I believe LAFC will do the same in leg one.

The Rapids will need to be dangerous in front of a low block, without allowing themselves to be vulnerable on the counter. Possession will be the key in this game, and so will being able to keep the ball away from attackers like Bouanga and Giroud. If the Pids can be dangerous in possession and through set-pieces, they can become a real problem for LAFC.

Prediction: The Rapids continue their good form against LAFC at home, winning 2-1, giving reasonable hope for the second leg.

Photo Credit: Colorado Rapids

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