Commerce City, Colo. – Colorado Rapids hosted Chicago Fire on Halloween Night for the final home game of the regular season. It was the first match between the clubs since 2019 (a 4-1 Fire win), with massive playoff implications. Colorado were coming in with a chance to clinch playoffs by the end of the weekend. Chicago were battling for seeding in the Eastern Conference. It was just Colorado’s second ever game on October 31. At the end of 90 minutes, I was sick like I ate too much candy.
Keegan Rosenberry started at right back with Kosi Thompson suspended and Reggie Cannon still hurt. It was Hamzat Ojediran and Wayne Frederick were in midfield. Darren Yapi was up top having scored midweek. The lineup was otherwise as expected.
Robert Lewandowski and former Rapid Andrew Gutman were on the bench.
The first half was even all the way down. Both teams built slowing out of the back, probing for space. The defenses kept the everything in front of the them and covered space well.
The first real chance of the game came in the 17th minute. Noah Allen got played in on a breakaway from just outside the box but he shot wide.
Whittaker finally got on the same page with Minoungou in the 22nd. Loïc Williams played great ball out of the back. Minoungou ran onto it and battled to separate from his defender. He found Whittaker in a bit of space. Two touches and Whittaker sent the ball top right corner.
It was his third goal in three games. Minoungou was on four goal contributions in five matches. Colorado had a good spell after that but couldn’t find a second.
Jonathan Bamba made it 1-1 at halftime on a broken play. Johnathan Dean got in behind. He stumbled then the ball deflected to Bamba who passed it in. Williams and Rosenberry both took a tumble on the play.
Matt Wells was furious at the halftime whistle, waving the players to run into the locker room for the team talk. It was a bad omen. He has a rule that at halftime, they run into the locker room at the whistle. The team did not do that well enough so he gave it to them. It was a microcosm of the performance perhaps.
Chicago had the better restart because of course they did. After two chances, Bamba scored again in the 56th. Dean made another run, squaring it to Bamba for a tap in. Again, Williams and Miguel Navarro had a break down.
Colorado had a rapid response. Two minutes later, Minoungou had great cross to Paxten Aaronson for a volley. He put it in off goalkeeper Chris Brady.
From that point on, the Fire were the superior team. Lewandowski subbed on and scored in the 74th. He found space in transition, rounded goalkeeper Nico Hansen and put the shot off Rob Holding and in. Puso Dithejane made it 2-4 in the 88th. Again Colorado were too spread out and Navarro was up field with Williams 1-v-1.
Colorado had just three shot attempts after the Aaronson goal. The best opportunity was a Whittaker shot from just inside the box that whistled wide. The had one shot after the fourth Chicago goal. The match ended 2-4.
Playoff chances took a dent:
LA Galaxy got a win but RSL lost at San Jose. As a result, Colorado dropped to 8th at the end of the night. They are ahead of Seattle on the wins tie breaker. Sounders play Vancouver and Portland play Houston Sunday. Colorado’s just a point above the red line.
Next Saturday is Decision Day. Colorado is at Dallas, a tough away game normally. RSL host Galaxy. Seattle host LAFC. Portland play Austin who are already out. Given the head-to-head matches elsewhere, Colorado needs a result. It’s hard to see them losing at Dallas and still making the playoffs.
Tonight continues the narrative that this team can’t protect leads, doesn’t react well to conceding, and isn’t good enough on the ball. The team hasn’t won a game in which the opponent has scored since April 11. They have 1 point total from games in which the opponent scores first. They are flawed. A playoff run seems unlikely after tonight.
They need to recover their identity and be the best version of themselves as Aaronson said:
“I want the team to just look like the Colorado Rapids. We’re best when we’re 100% aggressive on the duals, 100% on the press. I need to do a better job of leading that press. With the ball, I need to take better care of it. What makes us a special team is how good we are with the ball and how good we are at pressing. Impose ourselves on the game. Fearlessness.”
Next Saturday is a final. They need a win. And they might still need help elsewhere. That’s how much this loss hurts.
All Western Conference games kickoff at 5 p.m. MT.
Defense pulled apart:
Speaking of the defense. Three goals where the space between Navarro and Williams was punished. That got exposed. It’s not just a personnel issue, it’s structural at this point. The fullbacks got more aggressive by design and that left space in behind. Chicago found space, created big chances and they buried them. Colorado did none of those things.
“Need to be more aggressive. Keep our runners in front of us. Be more dialed in. Little details cost us games,” Wayne Frederick told Burgundy Wave.
“Lewandowski happened. On the two goals, we lost our marks a little bit. On the third goal, we had them trapped, we weren’t aggressive enough. The last goal, by that point, we were really chasing the game. We felt we needed three points. We lost a little bit of structure. We played the wrong pass into the middle of the pitch. When you do that, you’re always susceptible,” Wells said.
It’s a calculated risk. It’s been an exploitable weakness all season. Overload the wing, send in a cross into space, score. It’s happened dozens of times. It could be the reason they miss the playoffs. See Aaronson’s point about lost identity above.
Whittaker and Minoungou:
On a better note Whittaker and Minoungou continue their form. Whittaker has three goals in three games. Minoungou had assists on both goals. He now has four goal contributions in five games that was started by his first goal of the MLS season vs San Jose. Whittaker’s now on five goals. He and Aaronson are playing at a DP level in terms of their goal contributions.
Minoungou subbed off with a hamstring injury. It was nice to see Ted Ku-DiPietro sub on for his first appearance since March 14 after surgery on both shoulders. Colorados’ attack dropped off at 2-2 however. Wells lamented the injuries and depth differences with Chicago:
“That shows the strength and depth that they have (subbing on Lewandowski). It was a direct contrast to the strength and depth that we (didn’t) have. We were short tonight. We had too many players missing tonight. We had a couple on the pitch that went missing.
“There’s players out there tonight playing with injuries. We weren’t able to press as aggressively as we would want. He (Whittaker) could barely run. He put in a good performance with the ball.”
We’ll have more thoughts on that and the roster build at the end of the season.
On the crowd/atmosphere on Halloween night:
Announced attendance was 15,031. This was the only night game of the night, on Halloween night. The latest games elsewhere were all over before 6 pm local. “Stan Kroenke hates kids,” was a joke on X. Plenty of Bayern and Poland fans in the crowd. The three loudest moments of the night were for Lewandowski subbing on, scoring, and having his goal announced. That’s embarrassing.
There has not been a World Cup attendance bump for the club. The 70,000 fans who got tickets to the Messi game at Mile High is stat padding the attendance this season. Freddy (the German World Cup fan who’s gone viral for experiencing America) went to the CU Buffs game.
The club is not revenant in this sports market. They struggle to sellout games with reasonable ticket prices and a family friendly atmosphere. Unless there’s fireworks. They were outdone by fans who showed up for an opposing player. Just like Decision Day last year when Son came with LAFC.
If this is the last home game of 2026, tough.
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