Commerce City, Colo. – It was the biggest Colorado Rapids home game since at least 2021. The Burgundy Boys hosted St. Louis City in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup Semifinal on Wednesday night. It was Colorado’s first appearance in the Open Cup semifinal since 1999. It was a crash out. The attendance was underwhelming but understandable. The performance was somehow worse than the previous games against City.
The big news was that Morgan Whittaker made his first start for the Colorado after his debut Saturday. Adam Beaudry at goalkeeper. Nico Hansen was on yellow card accumulation from way back in May. Wayne Frederick II started with Josh Atencio on the bench. Darren Yapi and Georgi Minoungou were up top. Head Coach Matt Wells had Sayed Abu Farkhi on the bench.
Rafael Navarro was unavailable for St. Louis as he was cap-tied to Colorado for the competition.
The first half was a competitive, chippy affair. It was similar to the August game against San Diego. Both teams pressed and found space. It was a chess match for the first 20 minutes. For all the action, shots on goal were limited. Colorado tried beating the press and switching the field with mixed results. There were plenty of fouls and angry no-calls.
Darren Yapi broke containment on nine minutes but Timo Baumgartl stuffed him at the top of the box. The German won the ball, no foul. A minute later Alexandru Mățan had a breakaway, running through the gap. Beaudry came off his line and made a great arm save.
The only goal of the half came in the 32nd minute. It was another mistake from a backpass by the Rapids. Reggie Cannon played it back to Beaudry. With Jeong Sang-Bin crashing the box, Beaudry took a poor touch. Sang-Bin got to the ball, was potentially fouled by the keeper, then passed it into the net.
Colorado had work to do in the second half. But it all fell apart.
In the 52nd, Chris Durkin won the ball off Paxten Aaronson at the top of the box. Three excellent passes and St. Louis were in on goal. Conrad Wallem made a deft touch around Rob Holding. That pass played Simon Becher in on goal who scored. The play went to VAR for a possible foul by Durkin on Aaronson. The defensive midfielder was ruled to have gotten the ball. The goal stood.
Matt Wells surely lost his head on the 60th minute. Play had stopped as Aaronson got a yellow card for a tackle on Becher. After a visit from the trainer, St. Louis took the restart with Colorado unprepared. Tomas Totland hit a ball over the top. Mățan got to it and scored. It was 0-3. The defending was reminiscent of Columbus a few weeks ago.
City played the scoreline after that. Darren Yapi and Donavan Phillip had half chances. The best was a Yapi diving shot on a set piece that he hit wide. Whittaker had a free kick into the wall. Abu Farkhi had a header chance in stoppage time.
Captain Loïc Williams had a hard tackle in the 81st in Becher. Williams stood over the striker and yelled at him. He was shown a red card but it was downgraded to a yellow. Williams didn’t go in with his studs.
The match ended 0-3.
So is the home winning streak fraudulent?
Fraudulent is too strong of a word. But that six game home winning streak has come against a soft schedule. Road teams have come in and been defensive. Colorado has controlled the game but relied on goals from set pieces and penalties.
Against the hottest team in MLS, they had nothing going. One shot on goal on 13 attempts, half of which came after the third goal. This is a team that can control games against poor teams but only win 1-0. This team is still poor from the run of play. The new signings need to acclimate quickly and become match winners. Whittaker was not as lively on the ball. Abu Farkhi hasn’t acclimated to the team. The role players need to step up as well.
This game and the Columbus game show they still have a stinker in them. That’s not conducive to winning road playoff games against good teams. Oh, and the Rapids still haven’t won a game after conceding first this year.
St. Louis City sweeps Colorado:
St. Louis has now won both regular season games and this game. Aggregate score is 5-0. The only thing improved about this game for Colorado was that there was no red card. Williams got lucky.
St. Louis are on an amazing streak. They’re also a well-oiled pressing machine. The game was interesting tactically in that regard. The difference is one team created half a dozen quality open chances. The other team didn’t. Colorado’s gaps were exploited. Their playing out of the back was imperfect enough. Beaudry’s mistake was just the tip of the iceberg. Wells will have plenty of film to go over.
When looking at this game and the recent home wins, there is a very clear way to beat the Rapids. Let’s see if other MLS coaches pick up on it. Colorado host the injured Seattle Sounders on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. MT. A playoff team would win that game by multiple goals.
Let’s talk about the attendance:
Lastly, attendance was 7,424. That’s surely a Rapids DSGP Open Cup record. It’s still disappointing. It’s been 119 days since the quarterfinal. Season Ticket Member presale started in May. The day-of get-in price was $20 plus taxes and fees. And the club still only opened up half of the stadium.
Yes it was a school night and Denver Summit had a home game. Still, attendance was about half of their floor for a Wednesday MLS game. Some aspect of the club or community do not prioritize the Open Cup. That breaks my heart.
What this means big picture:
The season isn’t over. There’s nine games left in the regular season. Colorado has a lot of winnable home games left. If they take care of business at DSGP, they will make the playoffs. What they do after that, depends on the seeding. Wells needs to optimize the playing out of the back and the press. They need to start scoring goals from the run of play.
Big picture, this is a chance at a trophy wasted. Every MLS team is back in Open Cup going forward. This year’s Open Cup omitted MLS teams that made the playoffs last year. Colorado played two USL teams and a banged up San Jose side all at home. You won’t find an easier path to a semifinal. It’s hard to see this team being deep enough to make a run at the Supporters’ Shield. They don’t have the top end talent for MLS Cup.
This was their best chance at a trophy since 2010. When’s the next time they’ll be this close in the MLS 4.0 Era? Contemplating that question makes this game all the more disappointing.
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Spencer Baldwin 
Eamon Shaw 