Leagues Cup, No Open Cup For Rapids In 2025

US Soccer. and MLS announced the plans for the Leagues Cup and the U.S. Open Cup today (as well as confirming all 3 Canadian teams will play in the Canadian Championship as normal).  In order to avoid too much load on any team MLS made the decision that each team would only play in at most two additional competitions per season in 2025 and 2026 including the CONCACAF Champions Cup.  They also announced how those competitions would be determined.

Obviously the top competition is the CCC and any team who qualifies for it will play in it.  That includes the Rapids in 2025.

For the Leagues Cup the top 9 teams in each conference will qualify.  The Rapids finished 7th last year so will play in the 2025 Leagues Cup.  Since Vancouver qualified for the CCC and are the defending Canadian Champions they will not take their place in the 2025 Leagues Cup and will be replaced by San Diego.

16 American MLS teams will qualify for the Open Cup.  Any team not who doesn't qualify for CCC or Leagues Cup automatically qualify for the Open Cup.  Any additional spots (7 this year) will go in order of the prior year's Supporters Shield standings, excluding any CCC teams.

So every team gets at least one competitions and this year two-thirds of the league get two.

MLS Next Pro ('2' teams) will also be in the Open Cup with 11 spots.  These will go to the two independent teams (not associated with a MLS club) and nine of the twelve teams who's first teams are not in the Open Cup themselves.  San Diego doesn't have a '2' team yet so they won't be represented at all in the USOC.  The other two teams not included were decided by the 2024 MLS Next Pro standings.  Atlanta was third to bottom in the East but the two teams below them (NE and NSH) have their first teams in the competition so they're not in the USOC.  Last place in the West last year was...Rapids 2.  So Colorado won't be represented in the Open Cup by either the first or 2 team.

Also as part of this news the USSF announced all the teams in the Open Cup.  Colorado will be represented by Harpos FC (USASA), Flatirons FC (USL-2) and the Switchbacks (USLC).  Harpos and Flatirons will enter in the First Round where they're each guaranteed a matchup against a fully professions USL-1 or USL-C team.  The winners of the first round will face off in the second round, and those winners will face the remaining USL-C teams including league champions Colorado Springs in the Third Round.

We're still waiting to hear the competition format of the Leagues Cup for 2025 and 2026, but we know the league won't be taking a break for it this year, the games will happen mid-week between league games.  It does appear that MLS has cleared a 10 day spot at the end of July/beginning of August to allow a couple of games to be played, the last weekend of July all the games are Fri/Sat and the first weekend of August there are no league games.

Finally, Some News.

Sorry I've been quiet here but nothing's been going on.  We traded an international slot for some GAM and got Toronto's 1st round pick next year so they could hire Neil Emblen and Jase Kim but otherwise even the couple of rumors that popped up have been pretty weak.

Two preseason matches ended in a 2-2 draw (goals from Josh Copeland and Sam Bassett, with Cole setting up his younger brother) and a 1-1 draw (goal by Rafa).  too soon to really draw any lineup conclusions from those.

Today though we got a bit of news.  Both Abe Rodriguez and John Berner have left camp in Mexico now that Steffen and Beaudry are back from their various National Team duties.  We'll see if they show up in Rapids 2 camp or not (which I just found out from Burgundy Wave is in Orlando).  Also Josh Copeland, Charlie Harper and Matthew Senanou have also left camp to join back up with Rapids 2.

That leaves Academy players Zack Campagnolo (GK) and Noah Strellnauer (M) in camp along with Rapids 2 players Nicolas Defreitas-Hansen (GK), Anderson Rosa (D)< and Sydney Wathuta (F).  No other unsigned players are currently in camp and Kevin Cabral has not arrived yet from working on his green card.

First game is 3 weeks from Wednesday when we host LAFC in the first leg of the CONCACAF Champions Cup.

Off To Mexico With Some Old And New Faces

Colorado left for preseason camp in Mexico today and gave all of us a roster to work with while they're there.  There are three names not on the roster for good reason.  Zack Steffen is at the Nats camp and Adam Beaudry is at the U-20 camp (the teams trained together today).  Kevin Cabral is back in France finalizing his green card and will join the team when that's done and he no longer takes up an international slot.  Other than that all the expected names were on the plane.

They were joined by some old and new names, some under new contracts and some trying to earn a contract.

GOALKEEPERS: John Berner (Trialist), Zack Campagnolo (Rapids Academy), Nicolas Defreitas-Hansen (Rapids 2), Abraham Rodriguez (Trialist)  

DEFENDERS: Chidozie Awaziem, Reggie Cannon, Daniel Chacón, Michael Edwards, Nate Jones, Andreas Maxsø, Ian Murphy, Anderson Rosa (Rapids 2), Keegan Rosenberry, Matthew Senanou, Jackson Travis, Sam Vines  

MIDFIELDERS: Daouda Amadou, Cole Bassett, Sam Bassett, Josh Copeland (Rapids 2), Omir Fernandez, Wayne Frederick, Oliver Larraz, Djordje Mihailovic, Connor Ronan, Noah Strellnauer (Rapids Academy) 

FORWARDS: Alex Harris, Calvin Harris, Rafael Navarro, Kimani Stewart-Baynes, Darren Yapi 

Michael Edwards signed a new deal for 2025 yesterday with an option for 2026.  Rosa was a 2024 SuperDraft pick who went back to college for a year and has now signed a deal with Rapids 2, while Copeland signed with R2 coming out of this year's draft.  Alex Harris was our top pick in this year's draft and was already signed to a Generation Adidas deal prior to being picked.

We've got a couple of former keepers trying to catch on as the third keeper while Steffen and Beaudry are away.  Rodriguez is back after spending last year with Toronto 2 and John Berner makes his return have 7 seasons.  In between he played for Phoenix, Oklahoma City, Saint Louis, Memphis, Huntsville, ant Atlanta 2.

Guys like Campagnolo, Defreitas-Hansen, Rosa, Copeland, and Strellnauer are on the trip to get experience, something the Rapids regularly do with their young Academy and R2 players.  Senanou was our second highest pick in the first round this year and is hoping to make the team.

Nate Jones is on the trip but Tom Bogert is reporting that a deal has been worked out for him to be loaned to the Las Vegas Lights for the season once the USL team gets started for the year.

Awaziem, Cannon, and Murphy, all defenders, are the only experienced additions to the team since roughly this time last season.  While defense was the weaker side of the ball in 2024 adding two central defenders (after selling one in Bombito) and a versatile defender in Cannon is barely enough to trad water.  Its not enough to get better.  We appear to be betting everything that a highly-rated homegrown (S. Bassett), a Generation Adidas player (A. Harris), and a whole bunch of young guys will find some rookie magic.

The Badge, The Players, The Fans Deserve Better. Still.

In September of 2023 Centennial 38 staged the protest above and released a statement about it.  I reviewed the statement and KSE's response in March of 2024 and my conclusion at that point was:

To answer the question I asked in the title of the piece, no, we haven't gotten better yet.  While we have some shiny new pieces on the field (that haven't yet changed any results), the rest of the organization is still far behind even a midlevel Major League Soccer team. This isn't an org that can expect to compete year in and year out, which is the bar Padraig Smith has stated on multiple occasions.

Now 10 months later has anything changed?

C38 wanted, above anything else, more investment from KSE.  Both in terms of $$ but also in terms of interest.  I noted in March that we had invested heavily in the roster during the 2023-24 offseason.  Of course since then we haven't.  We did bring Navarro in on a transfer but beyond that its been free agent signings (Cannon), draftees, and trades.  None of which cost KSE anything.

But I hear you saying, we did invest in Navarro, Mihailovic, Vines, and Steffen.  Yes, we did.  And that counted for something last year.  But since we did that we sold Moise Bombito for $7.7m, which escalators up to $10.7m.  Meanwhile we reportedly spent $3.5m on Rafa, $3m on Djordje, nothing on Steffen, and an unknown amount on Vines.  And there's been no other significant transfer fee paid since the protest.  So somewhere between $6.5 and $7.5m total (there's no way we spent over $1m on Vines, and we probably spent less).

In other words KSE didn't invest, they just pre-spent the transfer fee they were going to get from Bombito (a player they got for free in the draft) and at this point they're at least $1M in the black on player movements in the last 15 months.

Moving beyond the roster another area of focus was the facilities.  This weekend the Denver Post launched a series of articles about the stadium situation of Denver's teams.  Their article about the Dick was not kind.  Nor should it have been.  We have seen no notable investment in the stadium.  The scoreboard is still a joke, the lack of game day features are still lacking, and even the rollout of the new food options last season seemed to end before the play did (by the last game of the season none of the new food options were available anymore).

There were some rumors flying at the end of the season that some sort of construction project was going to start at the Dick this offseason.  There was a report that Phish will not be back for Labor Day (now confirmed) due to the stadium not being available for a construction project (not confirmed).  Paired with the season-ticket holders lot going away which is on the north end and it seemed to suggest that something was going to be going on at that end of the field.  Yet nothing happened.  Now I've heard multiple reports that something was planned, but KSE has since cancelled it and there will be no renovations.  I know the Front Office is working with the supporters to do what they can around the stadium, but that's a far cry from the full court press the stadium needs.

KSE itself (above Padraig Smith) seems to have continued to ignore the Rapids.  We had a couple of big, yet uninformed, statements from the new President of Team and Media Operations when he took the role in March but since then I haven't heard anything of note about the Rapids from anyone at KSE who doesn't work in Commerce City.

Going back to KSE's response to the C38 statement:

On the field, we are focused on returning the team to the level of competitiveness we expect and have seen in recent years

Well, to be fair, we're back to being a one-and-done playoff team so I guess that's an improvement?  Yes, great Leagues Cup run they should get credit for.  The next step is to become a team that can be dangerous in the playoffs though.

Over the next few months, we will be finalizing the master plan for our exciting Victory Crossing Project. When this is ready in early 2024, we will be hosting several open forums with supporters and members of the community to gather feedback on our plans for the club, stadium and entire project.

That was written in September of 2023.  Its January of 2025 and no plans have been shared with supporters.  So needless to say they badly missed their "early 2024" date.  Dave Wegner, speaking for C38 in the Post article above (and also a personal friend, just to be transparent) confirms we've seen nothing from KSE.

So KSE has shown no new investment in the 15 months since the article.  They haven't met their own stated deadlines for planning.  If rumors are to be believed they in fact cancelled plans to invest in the facilities.  And their well received investment in the team last offseason turned out to just be an advance on their upcoming transfer fee windfall.  So to answer the question I asked in the opening, in the last 10 months has anything changed?  Yes.  Its gotten worse.

The Badge, The Players, The Fans Deserve Better

What's Better Than One Bassett? Two Bassetts!

Yesterday the Rapids made official what seemed to be obviously coming, they signed Sam Bassett to a homegrown deal.  For anyone who isn't in the loop Sam is Cole's younger brother and has playing at DU the last few years.  He was a Hermann Trophy (NCAA best men's soccer player) finalist and Top Drawer Soccer's player of the year this season.

Sam got a one year deal with 3 option years.  Its a bit of an odd contract but Nate Jones who was the highest of our draft picks last year got a similar contract.  I wonder if this gives the players more flexibility to renegotiate should they kill it early in their career or something.

I don't think we'll see Sam immediately impact the first team.  He can play both central mid and on the wing and if he's going to make an immediate impact it will likely be on the wing.  Between Mihailovic, Larraz, Ronan, and older brother Cole there's not many minutes to be had in central midfield.  More likely he'll get some time off the bench and some starts with Rapids 2 in 2025.

Oh and to avoid confusion going forward Cole will be Bassett and Sam will be S. Bassett when I discuss them.  I'm reminded of when the Mariners signed Ken Griffey Senior and Dad and son were debating which one got to be "Griffey" and which one had to add the "Sr./Jr." suffix to their jersey.  Junior's point was he was in Seattle first so he got to be Griffey, Senior's point was that he had been in the league longer so he had seniority.  Junior won.

One other transaction this week, the Rapids sent a 2025 international slot to Miami for $175K in GAM.  As the Rapids only have 5-6 internationals (depending on if Chacon actually joins the roster or gets loaned out again) this still leaves them room to sign at least one international before hitting the limit.