Why not the Colorado Rapids?
The Rapids have spent the Leagues Cup wondering how much magic was stored in their reserves. Saturday night against Club América in the quarterfinal, every last drop was required.
Tense at every touch of the ball and turn of the feet, the Rapids somehow held on against Liga MX giants — and arguably the best team on the continent — Club América. Colorado held them scoreless, then beat them in penalties, 9-8, to move onto a semifinal date with LAFC.
Rapids goalkeeper Zack Steffen once again came up huge for the Rapids in penalties. After forward Rafael Navarro missed his team’s third penalty and América not yet missing, Steffen had to come up with an enormous save on the last of five penalties to send the shootout to sudden death.
All four of each team’s next shooters stepped up and scored, including one by América that bounced off the post, ricocheted off of a diving Steffen’s head, then right back in the net. Last up were the goalies: América’s Luis Malagon and big-game Steffen. Steffen sent Malagon the wrong way; Malagon painted the grass outside of the left post.
Ball game.
That late in the order, Rapids coach Chris Armas said the next penalty-taker would be decided by who wanted it more. Defender Lalas Abubakar was halfway done with the long walk from midfield to the spot for the Rapids’ 10th penalty of the night. Steffen, who admitted to having to overcome mental and confidence struggles this year, waved Abubakar off.
He wanted it more.
“At one point, there were a lot of critics out there about Zack Steffen, but what I’ve gotten to see on the inside of our locker room and on the pitch is a professional, top talent,” Armas said. “He’s a real man on the pitch and he’s a leader, leads by example. He’s everything we want the Colorado Rapids to be about: quality, aggressive, humble.
“Another day in the office for Zack Steffen.”
In regulation, the match felt much like last Tuesday’s jaw-clenching win over Deportivo Toluca, sans the ball hitting the back of the net.
The best first-half chance for the Rapids was in the 44th minute, when midfielder Cole Bassett made a nice move at the top of the box to free up space for a finesse shot to the bottom right corner which went just wide.
In the second half, the Rapids’ best chance came from winger Calvin Harris after midfielder Djordje Mihailovic glanced a header to a streaking Harris down the middle. Harris took a long distance shot which Malagon had to save. That went down as the Rapids’ lone shot on goal all night.
América, like Toluca, shot 21 times (four on goal). The possession wasn’t as one-sided as it was four days ago, but América still led in that category, 58% to 42%.
The Rapids were forced into uncomfortable possession for long stretches of the game as América sat in a compact defense, not allowing for any easy build-up play or transition moments.
Defensively, the Rapids suffered. Bent, but didn’t break. Lots of talk around the club over the past week has been around being able to come out on top of games in which they suffer.
For Armas, that mentality has been forged from day one. As the stakes get bigger and the suffering gets worse, the feeling of advancing gets stronger.
“I think it’s rare that you get to be a part of groups that are really team first, all about the team, who run for each other, suffer together,” Armas said. “They win together, they lose together, they are together. I try to remind them that it’s rare and you’ve got to keep fighting for it and appreciate it (in real time). It’s pure joy that only football and sport can do for you.”
With the win, the Rapids have now beaten four Liga MX teams in a row and have knocked out the last Mexican team left in the tournament. Before this tournament, the Rapids had never beaten one in sanctioned play.
They’ll stay in Los Angeles to face LAFC next Wednesday after it beat the Seattle Sounders, 3-0, earlier on Saturday.
Perhaps even bigger for the Rapids: advance to the Leagues Cup final or win the third-place game, and they’ll punch their ticket to the CONCACAF Champions Cup for the first time since 2022.