Key to Chris Armas and Rapids ending Rocky Mountain Cup drought

In the past, the Rocky Mountain Cup has been dipped in burgundy, cobalt blue and true gold. On Saturday, the Colorado Rapids have the chance to paint it burgundy and blue for the first time since 2020.

After a 2-1 come-from-behind win at Real Salt Lake in March and a 5-3 loss in May, the Cup is now up for grabs – and for the first time in a long time, the Rapids can win it at home.

Because of the unusual way the cup is awarded, the Rapids need to win to win it. RSL, who have won the cup 14 out of 19 times, only need a draw. The last time the Rapids won it outright (not on goal difference) was in 2013.

To add an interesting twist to the matchup, Colorado’s Cole Bassett and RSL’s Diego Luna were surprisingly left out of the U.S. Olympic squad. In addition, Luna and Rapids defender Moïse Bombito were both named to the MLS All-Star squad on Friday to replace injured players.

Both teams will be without their stars Djordje Mihailovic (Olympics) and Kévin Cabral (arm) from Rapids as well as Cristian Arango (suspended) from RSL.

Coach Chris Armas has a real chance to make good on his promise and win games like this. Here are three ways the Rapids can bring home the trophy on Saturday at 7:30 p.m.:

Silence the noise

Given the Rapids’ fifth place in the Western Conference, the historic dominance of third-place RSL, and the Rapids’ seven-game winning streak at home, this matchup carries a lot of weight.

Captain Keegan Rosenberry has to do all the hard work on the field.

“We like to call it a lot of noise. That external noise has everything to do with emotions and has everything to do with things that try to distract our focus from the task at hand,” the defenseman said. “We just try to block all that out and continue to execute our game plan and focus on the checklist that every player and our team has.”

It all starts when the game kicks off. The key, according to Armas and Rosenberry, is to play the game on their terms rather than letting RSL dictate the pace of the game.

If you are taking an early tour, don’t get too comfortable.

“We’re most focused on having the right mindset from the start and playing a little more intentionally,” Rosenberry said. “And I think something we experienced in our last game there is trying not to rest too much or not resting after a safe lead or goal.

“I think we need two or three goals to win the game. … So we talked about 100 minutes of concentration. That concentration will be absolutely necessary tomorrow.”

Luna Border, Goméz

In games like this, the stars have to shine brightly, but usually the team that can outshine the other team’s stars as much as possible wins. That’s been a problem for the Rapids lately.

Take LAFC and LA Galaxy. In both games, Denis Bouanga (one assist), Mateusz Bogusz (three goals), Joseph Painstil (one goal, one assist) and Gabriel Pec (two assists) had the Rapids defense under control.

To Armas’ credit, he made sensible changes in both games that slowed down the opposition, most notably switching from a 4-2-3-1 to a 4-1-4-1 at halftime against Galaxy to clog up the wide areas.

With Arango out, the dynamic trio is reduced to the still dangerous duo of Luna and Andrés Goméz. Armas knows that his team cannot think like that. All cylinders must continue to fire.

“(RSL) has increased the tempo on the field and they are creative. This is not a one-man show. They have a lot of weapons and that’s why they’ve done so well this year,” Armas said. “Against teams that can attack and score a lot of goals, it’s important to limit the transition, have good rest defense and have good structure behind the ball during the attack.”