With their first playoff berth in three seasons wrapped up, the Colorado Rapids will try to build on one of the best turnaround stories in Major League Soccer when they travel to Saint Paul, Minn., to face Minnesota United on Saturday night.
Colorado (15-10-5, 50 points) clinched a postseason berth with a 2-0 victory over Toronto FC last Saturday. The Rapids enter the contest one point behind second-place Real Salt Lake (14-7-9, 51 points) in the tightly-bunched Western Conference with four matches remaining. That’s quite a reversal from a 2023 season that saw Colorado finish last with just five wins (5-17-12, 27 points).
“We’ve reset it this year where guys come in ready to work, we bring in some different energy and go after it,” Rapids coach Chris Armas said. “This is how our sport goes.
” … We have the right group of staff and players. They naturally are hungry for more. They all want to win. … They want more. Nobody’s going to sit up here and go, ‘Yep, that’s it.'”
For one thing, Colorado can’t afford to take their foot off the pedal. Seventh-place Vancouver, the last team above the wild-card line, is just four points behind with a match in hand.
Brazilian forward Rafael Navarro leads Colorado with 14 goals, while U.S. men’s national midfielder Djordje Mihailovic has 11 goals and 13 assists.
Ninth-place Minnesota United (12-12-6, 42 points) is five points ahead of FC Dallas for the final playoff spot. The Loons have won three of their last four matches, including a 2-0 victory at Sporting Kansas City last Saturday, the team’s first regular-season road win at SKC in eight MLS campaigns.
Forward Kelvin Yeboah, a midseason designated player signing, has added a much-needed boost to the front line with five goals in five games. Yeboah scored the match-winner at SKC in the 65th minute, while Bongokuhle Hlongwane, who leads the team with 11 goals, sealed it with a score in stoppage time.
“We weren’t in any way dominant in the game,” Minnesota coach Eric Ramsay said. “But what you saw at the end was a group of players that are desperate to put the points on the board that are required to do what we want to do this year.”
–Field Level Media
