Preview | LAFC @ Colorado Rapids - 2025 Concacaf Champions Cup - Round One - First Leg

LAFC @ Colorado Rapids - 2025 Concacaf Champions Cup - Round One - First Leg

Tuesday, Feb. 18 at 7 p.m. PT

🏟: DICK'S Sporting Goods Park - Commerce City, CO

🖥: FS2

Following a 2-1 home victory over Liga MX team Club América in a club friendly that concluded its postseason, LAFC moves on to its first competitive match of 2025, a Concacaf Champions Cup fixture against the Colorado Rapids at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City, CO.

Tuesday’s game is the first of a two-leg matchup in Round One of Concacaf Champions Cup (CCC) play. Colorado and LAFC will face off in the second leg next Tuesday, Feb. 25, at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles. The aggregate winner – the team with the most combined goals over the two games – advances to a two-leg matchup with the Columbus Crew in the CCC Round of 16 in early March.

THE TOURNAMENT

North American club soccer’s biggest prize, Concacaf Champions Cup is a 60-year-old competition that pits the 27 best clubs in the continent against one another until a champion is crowned in June. That champion earns an invitation to the 2029 FIFA Club World Cup and 2025 FIFA Intercontinental Cup.

LAFC reached the Concacaf Champions Cup final in each of its two previous appearances in 2020 and 2023.

THE MATCHUP

Colorado finished 7th in the Western Conference in 2024 (15W-14L-5T), 14 points behind first-place LAFC.

The Rapids scored 61 goals and conceded 60 last year, and were an impressive 10W-4L-3T at home in regular-season play. LAFC, meanwhile, had the best away record in the Western Conference in 2024 (8W-6L-3T, T-Minnesota) as well as the conference’s best goal differential, with 63 goals scored and just 43 conceded (+20).

After winning the 2024 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, LAFC was eliminated from the 2024 MLS Cup Playoffs in the Conference Semifinal round. Colorado was defeated in Round One by eventual champions LA Galaxy.

RECENT HISTORY

LAFC and Colorado met three times in 2024, with the Black & Gold holding a 2W-1L-0T edge in those three games. Last March, the Rapids scored two late goals to pull off a 3-2 comeback win in Colorado. LAFC defeated the Rapids 3-0 at BMO Stadium in late June and shut them out again in the 2024 Leagues Cup Semifinal, 4-0, in August at BMO Stadium. That win secured LAFC’s spot in this year’s Concacaf Champions Cup. The Rapids’ win over the Philadelphia Union in the Leagues Cup third-place match sealed their bid to CCC 2025.

RAPID(S) CHANGE

Both teams look different than they did when their 2024 campaigns ended three months ago. Seven of the nine goals LAFC scored against the Rapids in ’24 were tallied by players who are no longer with the Black & Gold. Mateusz Bogusz (four goals vs. COL in ‘24), Eduard Atuesta (1), Lewis O’Brien (1), and Kei Kamara (1) departed Los Angeles in the offseason.

Their roster spots were filled by two MLS veterans in their prime: forward Jeremy Ebobisse (60g, 18a in his MLS career) and midfielder Mark Delgado (22g, 38a career), along with two MLS rookies who will man the Black & Gold midfield, Igor Jesus and Odin Thiago Holm. Veteran defenders Nkosi Tafari and Yaw Yeboah also joined the club, adding depth to a side that expects be among the MLS leaders in total games played for the third straight year.

Key returning players for LAFC include forward and 2024 MLS Best XI selection Denis Bouanga (who this year can become the first player in MLS history to record three straight 20-goal seasons), forward Olivier Giroud, midfielder Timmy Tillman, defender Aaron Long, and goalkeeper Hugo Lloris.

Lloris and Bouanga were MLS All Stars in 2024. So were Colorado defenders Keegan Roseberry and Moise Bombito. Bombito departed Colorado for Ligue 1 team OGC Nice last August.

RAPID RETURNS

Returning to the Rapids in 2025 are midfield stars Cole Bassett (9g, 7a in ’24, both career highs) and Djordje Mihailovic (31 career goals, 50 assists; including a career-best 11 goals in ‘24). Mihailović was named Team MVP by his teammates in 2024 after he set a new club record for single-season goal contributions (25).

Brazilian forward Rafael Navarro enjoyed a breakout season in ’24, leading Colorado with 15 goals. Defender Andreas Maxsø was one of just three MLS players – and the only non-goalkeeper – to stay on the field for every minute his team played in 2024 (3,060 total minutes).

Last week the Rapids acquired 23-year-old midfielder Ted Ku-Dipietro from D.C. United. Ku-Dipietro has tallied 7g/7a across 65 regular-season MLS games. Over the weekend Colorado acquired midfielder Josh Atencio from the Seattle Sounders.

THE ELEMENTS

The National Weather Service predicts that Tuesday will be the coldest day of the week in the Denver area, with highs in the low 20s, lows near zero, and a 12 percent chance of snow.

THE RAPIDS CAN WIN IF

Their acclimation to the Rocky Mountains’ wintry conditions gives them an advantage over a visiting side that has been training in southern California. The Rapids trained at altitude in Mexico in January, then played two closed-door friendlies in Palm Beach, Florida, before returning home to frigid Denver last week.

LAFC WILL WIN IF

The temperatures hover closer to 20 than zero, and if the bonds the team built during a warm and unifying preseason hold firm through 90 minutes of play on icy turf. Eight players on LAFC’s current roster played in the memorable “Snow Game” against Real Salt Lake in Utah a year ago, a 3-0 loss that for some of LAFC’s younger players marked the first time they had ever seen snow.

LAFC opens MLS regular-season play on Feb. 22 at 7:30 p.m. PT against Minnesota United at BMO Stadium. Season ticket information. Single-game ticket info.