Second Leagues Cup Game Preview: Colorado Rapids vs Tijuana

Commerce City, CO— The Rapids will have a quick turnaround to face Club Tijuana in the second match of Leagues Cup. Colorado will look to make it six straight victories over Liga MX sides after a successful start to the campaign against Santos Laguna. The Rapids came back from a goal down to win for the first time this season. Colorado will now face a Club Tijuana side fresh off a 5-2 loss against the bottom-of-the-league LA Galaxy. Club Tijuana will be fighting for their Leagues Cup lives, and the Rapids will be fighting to climb the table. Let’s take a look at the matchup.   

When: Saturday, August 3rd @ 7:30 p.m. MST

Where: DICK’s Sporting Goods Park

TV/Streaming: MLS Season Pass on Apple TV

First Comeback Win of the Season

It took another late Rafa goal for the Rapids to get all three points from the matchup with Santos. Leagues Cup continues to be special for Colorado. A dominant first half for the Rapids ended scoreless despite Colorado finding the back of the net through a Cole Bassett flick-on. Santos came out the better side in the second half and were rewarded with a spectacular scissor kick goal. It did not take long for Rafa to get his first. Nine minutes later, a well-worked counter-attack sprung Calvin Harris, and he found Rafa open across the box. The Brazilian was never going to miss that chance. The winner came with three minutes left in normal time. A beautiful ball from outside the box by Djordje Mihailović found Rafa, and he poked it home to give the Rapids the win.

Santos did not go down easily, with a well-worked chance. A few scuffles occurred just minutes away from the full-time whistle. With one ending in a straight red card to Santos’ goalkeeper, Carlos Acevedo. Santos had to finish the game with ten men and a field player in the net. But the referee did not prolong the match too long after the scuffle had been broken up. Santos wasn’t happy, but the Rapids pulled off the first comeback of the season.

It was a weird match for Colorado, as most Leagues Cup games are. The Rapids were the far better team in the first half, but could not find the opener. VAR intervention and a post were key contributors, but the Rapids continued a worrying trend. The Burgundy Boys had a staggering eight corners in the first half. Only one in the second, but did not score on any. Mihailović continued to put in good ball after good ball, other than a less-than-ideal short corner kick routine. Colorado just had no one in the box to finish off the deliveries. The additions of Noah Cobb or Rob Holding might help the team in this department. 

Lineup Prediction

Steffen / Rosenberry, Maxsø (c), Murphy, Travis / Larraz, C. Bassett / C. Harris, Mihailović, Ku-DiPietro / Navarro

Leagues Cup lineups in general, but especially this matchup, are difficult to predict. A lot of the motivation behind the team Chris Armas puts out will be on the mindset of the group about Leagues Cup. If Colorado wants to take this tournament as a test to see squad depth and move into the rest of the MLS season, we could see a lot of rotation. Armas did only make one substation in the win against Santos. He told reporters it was a bit of a tough game to come into energy wise and he felt the starters were in control. Fatigue may become a concern sooner rather than later, especially if the Rapids advance out of Phase One. 

If Chris Armas does rotate his lineup, it would be an excellent opportunity to see some new faces. The bench against Santos had four players available to make their Rapids first team debut. Ali Fadal, Daouda Amadou, Sydney Wathuta, and Noah Cobb were all available. However, only Darren Yapi saw the field from the sideline. Reggie Cannon got a yellow card and Sam Vines was targeted in at the scuffle on Thursday so maybe the fullbacks rotate as well. It would be challenging to balance rotation and putting an eleven on the field that will get the result. It is a chat that Chris Armas and his coaching staff will have to have and get right for Colorado. 

How to Approach Leagues Cup

Leagues Cup went from being one of the easier tournaments to advance in to being one of the hardest in just one year. Last season, Colorado was able to lose the first group stage game, then draw and win the shootout in the second. That was good enough to finish second place in a three team group and advance. Now, only the top four teams from each league advance to the quarterfinals. Portland beating Colorado 4-0 would be a death sentence for the Rapids in this year’s Leagues Cup. This sprouts a very interesting conversation when it comes to approaching the competition. 

There are two paths that teams will want to go down for Leagues Cup. You either want to be one of the top four teams that advance, or you’d like to be eliminated sooner rather than later to give the squad ample rotation and rest to hit the latter stage of the season well rested. Teams will always want to be in the top four and move on, but 14 teams won’t make it. Many teams will be stuck between these two paths. Fighting for the top four spots will take a toll on the team’s fitness. Pushing hard to advance but just not making the cut would make the next few months much harder on the team.

It will be a slippery slope for Chris Armas to maneuver. The win against Santos does give the team an incentive to fight for the top spots. If the Rapids don’t get a result against Santos, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the team rotate heavily and use the rest of the tournament to get the full squad some minutes. But Colorado won that game, which puts the Rapids in a tough spot on how to line up in game two against Club Tijuana. If Colorado can get all three points, I would expect another full-strength eleven. This could compound for Colorado, but for now, Club Tijuana is the most important thing for Chris Armas and his staff.

Disaster Start to Leagues Cup for Club Tijuana

Club Tijuana may fall into the group that sees this tournament as a method to get some squad rotation after losing 5-2 to LA Galaxy on Thursday. It was a tough result for Tijuana, giving up five to the LA Galaxy, which could have been six if Paintsil converted on his penalty attempt. Despite the scoreline, Club Tijuana managed to have thirty shots throughout the match, a majority of them coming in the second half. 16-year-old Gilberto Mora was the only one to convert on those shots, however, as the youngster had a brace in the loss. 

Despite the early loss, it hasn’t been the best tournament for Liga MX. While this is not great for the Rapids, this allows a team like Tijuana to come back from a heavy loss and still have a chance at the top four spots. It will be tough to anticipate how the rest of the tournament will go, but if the results continue to favor MLS sides, Club Tijuana could sneak into a top-four spot with two wins. It would not surprise me to see Tijuana’s head coach Sebastian Abreu send out a full-strength team at DICK’s to try and claw their way back into contention.

One player to expect if Abreu goes through and plays a full-strength eleven is youngster Gilberto Mora. The 16-year-old has already starred for Mexico’s National Team. He recently scored the only goal for the Liga MX All-Stars in their match against the MLS All-Stars. Mora will be coming off a performance where his two goals doubled his professional tally. He will be the danger man for Club Tijuana if he makes an appearance, and many who attend the game will be doing so to catch a glimpse of the youngster. If Colorado wants to keep a clean sheet against Tijuana, Gilberto Mora is the player they will have to keep an especially watchful eye on. 

Prediction: Colorado continues their win streak against Liga MX opposition. They will go to LA hopeful of getting in the top four. Rapids win it 3-1. 

Photo Credit: Spencer Baldwin

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