Rapids Visiting Old Friends For USOC

The USOC Round 4 draw was held today, which is the stage that MLS teams enter.  The other Colorado teams were eliminated in earlier rounds, including Colorado Springs earlier this week.  This left Colorado to be placed geographically in a wide E-W group stretching from Salt Lake to Nashville and also including KC.  The good news, we were drawn against USL side Nashville SC while FSL and Sporing KS play each other.  The bad news, we're going to Nashville for the game.  Date and time have not been set but we know it will be June 5th or 6th.

Nashville is in their first year as a USL team but its in preparation for an already awarded jump to MLS in 2020.  They are coached by one Gary Smith, the best coach in Rapids history.  To help him build out this new squad he brought some old hands in to help, Matt Pickens and Kosuke Kimura.  I would have loved to have been drawn at home to welcome all three back to the Dick.

I don't hold out much hope for this draw.  Historically the Rapids have never put much effort into the USOC.  Add to that a road match against a team facing their first ever MLS competition and wanting to make a splash and three key players who want to show their old team what they can do and the odds are not with us.  I expect Hudson to treat this like the CCL, a glorified friendly, and I expect a loss and a short end to our USOC run.