Backpass: The Rapids have a history of US Open Cup misery
The Lamar Hunt US Open Cup, American soccer's oldest competition? We suck at it.
I had a miserable day Thursday. I had a headache. My wife had the car - it was 85 degrees, and I had to walk to work. And back. I had a meeting that was lousy all around. When it was time to get the kids from school, I discovered that my wife locked the keys in the car. So I had to walk to her work to get the keys. And back. Did I mention it was 85 degrees?
And of course, the worst thing about the day was the Rapids getting bounced early from the US Open Cup - yet again. The team now has a 13-20 record in the quest for Lamar Hunt’s grail. According to my count, we have a 4-9 record against MLS teams, and a 9-11 record against lower league teams. Just pathetic. Terrible.
Here’s a short and woeful summary of the utter futility of the Rapids in Open Cup play.
The Rapids are one of only two MLS originals to have never won the Open Cup - the other being San Jose Earthquakes. Colorado have lost 4 straight games in USOC; and it is the 17th consecutive tournament they have failed to win multiple games. The only redeeming factor this year is that, unlike in 2018 and 2019, at least the Rapids did not get knocked out by a team from a lower league.
In 2019 the Rapids were knocked out by New Mexico United on PKs. In 2018 it was a pre-MLS Nashville SC that dismantled the ‘Pids.
In 2017, we lost to FC Dallas, but at least that year we got to play and win a match against a lower seed, getting a 3-2 comeback win over the USL Oklahoma City. In 2016, it was an early round win over the Colorado Springs Switchbacks, followed by a loss, also to FC Dallas. Etcetera, etcetera.
In fact, you have to go all the way back to 2010 to find a Colorado Rapids side that won over another MLS team in Open Cup, as Colorado beat the KC Wiz, 2-1. Oddly, due to the format that year, the win counted not as a ‘US Open Cup’ win, but a ‘US Open Cup Qualifier’ win – the top six MLS teams from 2009 earned an ‘automatic’ berth, while the other 9 teams duked it out for two remaining slots, which ultimately went to DC United and NYRB. NYRB had dispatched the Rapids, 3-0, to earn that spot.
But because it was in the qualifiers, it doesn’t actually count in our official Open Cup W/L tally. That last ‘official’ Open Cup win over an MLS side is from 2006, against Real Salt Lake.
Before that, the Rapids last qualified for US Open proper in 2007. After a first round victory over California Victory, a USL-1 team, the Rapids got schwacked 5-0 by Seattle Sounders, who were a USL side at the time. By 2008, the Sounders were in MLS, and the Victory had ceased to exist.
And of course, the most ignominious fact about the Colorado Rapids and the Open Cup is that in our best year, 1999, we went all the way to the US Open Cup Final, where we faced Rochester Rhinos of the USL. The Rapids lost 2-0. The Rhinos are the last non-MLS team to win the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup. So, that’s kind of embarrassing, I think.
Since 2013, the Rapids have 4 wins, 8 losses in the Open Cup . Those wins are all over lower division teams. And four of those losses … are against lower division teams.
In short, here’s a summary of the Colorado Rapids in Open Cup:
It simply defies explanation as to why a team could be this bad; this unlucky; at a specific competition for so long. There are a few possibilities as to why this is.
Theory 1 - A lack of spending means a lack of depth.
Colorado have been doing it on the cheap forever. And beyond not signing expensive designated players, an additional way to keep costs low is to make sure you pay as little as possible for roster slots 15 to 28; you know, the guys that rarely play, EXCEPT for Open Cup. Open Cup early rounds take place midweek, and thus you’d rather not exhaust your veterans. So you rest them and send in the scrubs. Additionally, you send in the youngsters and the benchwarmers to give them a chance to shine. And also to let them actually play once in a while instead of growing bitter and sullen in their un-usefulness on the bench or with the reserve team.
If your bench and reserves are good - no problem! Then can certainly beat a USL side. If your bench is basically of the caliber of a USL side, whelp, you’re running out a USL side vs a USL side. Except your USL-caliber guys are rusty, while theirs get lots of game day experience. No bueno.
Theory 2 - We Actually suck at everything. Sucking at Open Cup is totally on-brand for us.
The Colorado Rapids have never won Supporters Shield, or Leagues Cup, or CCL Championship, or the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup. They won MLS Cup once, in 2010, in an ugly, scrappy, nasty match in which the Rapids scored the game winner, late, on a chance own goal that rattled around just right and went into the net. To make matters even stranger, Rapids striker Macoumba Kanji, who was responsible for the shot that went in, tore his ACL on the play. Many fans hold this game, and this play, up as the most Rapids moment in Rapids history. Our one moment of glory, and we can’t even truly enjoy it. And it was kind of a fluke. There. I said it.
Colorado has been good the past two year of 2021 and 20221. We also had good seasons in 2010 and 2016. In 1997 the Rapids made MLS Cup final, albeit with an overall losing record. The 2002 Rapids finished fourth overall, make it to the MLS playoff semi-final, and led the league in attendance. Not bad.
Other than that - in the other 21 seasons of our existence - we’ve sucked. As of the start of the 2022 season the Rapids had 346 losses in MLS regular season play - that’s more losses than any other team in the league. So it stands to reason we should suck at Open Cup, too. Why not? We suck at everything else.
Theory 3 - We truly are snakebitten.
Because I am a man that ponders the mysteries of the universe, the Divine, the infinite, and the meaning of life as part of his day job, I am a mystical and metaphysical dude by nature. So of course I believe in things that are unexplainable. And perhaps the Rapids terrible luck in Open Cup is simply bad luck. A hex. A curse.
How else can I explain our defeat in 2018 to a worser Nashville side due to misfortunate own-goal and a sudden failure to simply make and receive passes?
How else to explain one of the most bizarre Rapids loss of all time - an ugly 2014 match against the now-defunct Atlanta Silverbacks which resulted 7 red cards, including the sending off of head coach Pablo Mastroeni for entering the field of play, after the referee *waved him over* (allegedly.) The GK in that match was … Clint Irwin. The Silverbacks head coach was bombastic, well-travelled USMNT legend Eric Wynalda.
Maybe the Colorado Rapids just collectively and inexplicably are terrible at this specific competition. We can have a good year, or a couple of good years, and yet the Open Cup trophy will continue to elude us. It is the proverbial Colorado Rapids brass ring. Forever just beyond our reach.
…
I’m not reconciled to misery forever. Eventually, we’ll have a good team and the stars will align and we’ll make a run at this thing. For now, we need to acknowledge the ugly truth of our history, which perhaps has never been clearly and succinctly spelled out clearly and concisely.
We suck at it.
You could argue we were good in 2020, but I would say that the Rapids missed so many games due to Covid that using a PPG model in a shortened season doesn’t really inform you if they were good, or bad, or lucky.
Hello darkness my old friend