Rapids Win An Open Cup Match, Comfortably?

Well that was unusual.  In the Open Cup match last night the Rapids largely looked like a MLS side playing a lower-league team and won the game 3-1 without too much tension.  Jonathan Lewis opened the scoring in the 5th minute but Northern Colorado levelled it right before half.  Then in the second half the home side pulled away on a pair of goals where Lewis and Max each scored one and assisted on one.

Its great to see Lewis get on the board finally, and credit to Max particularly for the assist on Lewis' second which was a creative backheel through the backline that Lewis ran onto.  It was also good to see a mixed lineup put out there, with some starters like Abubakar and Maxsø  and younger players like Anderons and Markanich.  We also got our first look at Ilic.  It was clear we were taking this one seriously when after goin up 3-1 we subbed in Barrios and Ronan.

Today the draw for the next round was held and the Rapids were in a group with LAFC and USL Championship sides Sacramento Republic and Monterey Bay FC.  Both USL sides were drawn as hosts and Colorado was matched up with Sacramento, who made the USOC final last year before losing to Orlando, taking out SKC, the Galaxy, and SJ along the way.  They won't be intimidated hosting a MLS side.  The game will take place either May 9th or 10th.  The Rapids play the Galaxy in LA on the 6th so my guess is that they'll stay in California and try to get the game scheduled on Tuesday.  They then come home to face the Union the following weekend (who themselves are playing an away USOC game in Minnesota midweek after being on the road the prior weekend).

Also just before last night's game Tom Bogert, now at The Athletic, reported some details about the Leyva loan.  The reason the odd number of $92K of GAM was included in the deal was a nice bit of accounting work by the Rapids FO.  They got Seattle to agree to keep $92K of Leyva's salary cap hit, which allowed the Rapids to roster him on the supplemental roster instead of taking a senior roster spot.  In return we agreed to compensate the Sounders for that salary cap hit by giving them the same amount ion GAM.  So in the end the load deal is really just for a 3rd round pick in 2025, which is nothing.