Open Rocky Mountain Cup

I was wrong about how today's draw for the Open Cup worked.  They did set the bracket for the rest of the tournament, but they still used regional groups to do it.  The Rapids were placed in a group with the three remaining teams west of them, namely the LA Galaxy, LAFC, and FSL.  And sure enough, the draw pulled out a Rocky Mountain Cup and a El Traffico matchup for the group.  The Rapids will host FSL on Wednesday May 24th at 8pm.  Yes, 8pm.  It seems like the game may have been picked up for CBS Sports' Golazo show and it needs to kick off after the earlier game finishes, including any potential overtime and penalty kicks, thus the late kickoff time.

The winner of this matchup will host the winner of the El Traffico matchup in the quarterfinals, and then the winner of that matchup will face the winner of the Central group (Austin, Houston, Minnesota, and Chicago) in the semifinals.  Hosting for the semifinals and final will be drawn after the quarterfinals.  This means the Rapids don't have to travel until the semis at the earliest, and even that would be a 50/50 coin flip.  There's never been a better chance for Colorado to go deep in this tournament.  Only one other time have the Rapids ever hosted two USOC games in the same season, and that run ended in 2014 in the infamous Atlanta Silverbacks game.  They have never hosted 3 games in the same season, and they would do that if they beat FSL.

The other interesting twist about the scheduling is that this game comes just 4 days after the Rapids host FSL in a league match, and the first of three Rocky Mountain Cup matches this season.  The teams will now play 4 times this season (not counting any possible playoff or Leagues Cup matchups) and three of those games will be in Colorado.  The U.S. Open Cup match will not count towards the Rocky Mountain Cup competition, but a rivalry game is a rivalry game, Cup or not Cup.

Overall this is a tough schedule for the Rapids.  Going back to the start of this week:

    May 6th - @LA Galaxy - Win

    May 9th - @Sacramento - Win

    May 13th - Philadelphia

    May 17th - @Atlanta

    May 20th - FSL

    May 24th - FSL

    May 27th - Cincinnati

    May 31st - @Columbus

    June 3rd - San Jose

    June 7th - LA Galaxy/LAFC (if the Rapids advance in the USOC)

    June 10th - @Orlando

Up to 11 games in 36 days, including three Eastern Conference road trips.  The good news is that 6 of the potential 9 remaining games are at home, and one of the road trips is at the end of the run where the team will get 10 days off afterwards.  Next week's trip to Atlanta is going to be tough though.  Also everyone of those teams other than FSL and potentially the Galaxy, are currently in a playoff position so none of them look like an "easy" match.

If we get through that run and are in the U.S. Open Cup semifinals or in a playoff spot I think that has to be considered a win.  If we manage both then Fraser is back in the running for coach of the year.

In the other big story there's not much new on Max and what there is isn't favorable.  The main thing is that Brendan Ploen of the Denver Post translated (with help) the statement from Max's agent, copied below:

He is very sorry and heartbroken about what happened. He sent me a text apologizing about the situation and thanking everything I’ve done for him. He will not hide,” Oliveira told the outlet. “… I talked to a lawyer and it would be ideal for him to come to Brazil. Since the investigation is in Brazil, I think he will be able to leave the United States.

That doesn't sound like somebody who's been misidentified or is completely innocent of what he's been accused of.  His agent also said he's willing to cooperate with the investigators.  I expect we'll hear shortly that Max has returned to Brazil to deal with this, and it will be a while after that before we get any resolution.