If there’s a trophy to be won, the Colorado Rapids will have an eye out for it. That will certainly be the case with the second annual Leagues Cup, which starts Thursday.
Since first-year head coach Chris Armas joined the club and implemented that mindset, the Rapids are 1 for 1 on winning trophies after taking the Rocky Mountain Cup back from rivals Real Salt Lake.
After a 12-day break from play following the 3-2 win over RSL, the next prize is on the table.
“The thought that there’s a trophy out there, somewhere out there (is exciting),” Armas said Wednesday morning. “We know trophies don’t come to you. You have to go out and get them. We’re excited to get after it.”
First on the list is the team’s Leagues Cup opener: a rematch at the Portland Timbers, a team that stomped Colorado to start the regular season, 4-1, and currently sits eighth in the MLS Western Conference. Here are three notes heading into the tournament:
Competition, spirits high at training
The 12-day break has been much needed, particularly for Rapids midfielder Cole Bassett, who admitted on Wednesday he had been dealing with ankle pain for some time after the RSL game.
Naturally, the focus was to rest his body and mind and look forward to a challenge that was short-lived last season. He said his ankle “still doesn’t feel 100%,” but feels much better than it did two weeks ago.
As for the mind, his and the rest of the team’s are good to go.
“(The break) gave us a couple of extra days to really compete,” Bassett said. “I feel like we haven’t been able to do that in training for a while, but that’s always the fun part.
“At the end of the day, we’re athletes and we love to compete. We got a couple of those days in training this week, which I think were important for the group, and it allowed guys who haven’t played as much to really show themselves.”
That competition could come to good use with numerous absences on the roster, including midfielder Djordje Mihailovic (Olympics), winger Kévin Cabral (elbow) and winger Kimani Stewart-Baynes (international duty). For the time being, the midfield and wings are wide open for the taking, particularly if the Rapids make it out of the group stage, which they didn’t last year.
“Not necessarily revenge”
A shell-shocking loss to Portland to start the year will go down as one of the Rapids’ worst losses of the season.
That said, the team is looking forward to the get-back, but not entirely for the get-back’s sake. Both teams are different than they were five months ago, and the Rapids have played their way into allowing themselves to forget that result.
“I’m just excited it’s back up there (in Portland). I think getting another chance in their building gets me going because it’s a tough place to play, but it should be a great atmosphere as well,” Bassett said. “For me, we want to play against teams towards the top of the table and they have a lot of quality players in the attack. I wouldn’t say it’s necessarily revenge; we know we have a job to do.”
Different league, unique opportunity
Playing against a Liga MX squad has not been friendly to the Rapids. Last season, in the first iteration of the Leagues Cup, the Rapids were blown out by Toluca at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, 4-1. Toluca ended up losing to Minnesota United in the round of 16.
In many ways, the level of competition and style of play are different between the two leagues, which makes the tournament interesting and fun to watch.
“When you play against Mexican teams, you play against the Mexican players and South American players, and with that — you saw it with the U.S. and Canada in Copa America — it poses a different challenge,” Armas said. “There are individual skill sets of players, different tactics and that’s not always easy.”
Last season, games between leagues were quite competitive. This year, as of Wednesday morning, MLS teams were 10-2 against Liga MX sides.
Bassett isn’t paying much attention to the trend but certainly would like for his team to keep it that way.
“We have a confidence about ourselves regardless of who we’re playing,” Bassett said. “But we’re not just playing against Liga MX teams, we’ve got MLS teams to beat, too, so it really doesn’t matter to us who we’re playing. We’re excited that it’s a different opponent, but we’ll take that game as it comes.”
The match at Portland will kick off at 8:30 p.m.
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