The Colorado Rapids’ reintroduction to the U.S. Open Cup was neither flashy nor a breeze, but they managed to beat USL Championship team Union Omaha, 1-0, in the round of 32.
The Rapids, who have not participated in the competition since 2023, were dominant in the first half outside of a couple of key plays where Omaha could have pounced and stolen a goal. Inside 40 seconds of kickoff, Omaha took advantage of a 2-on-1 and narrowly missed a shot wide. And near halftime, Rapids goalkeeper Nico Hansen — in for Zack Steffen — made an incredible save on a must-score shot by the Union, also on a sudden 2-on-1.
Other than that, the Rapids held the ball for 73% of the frame. Colorado’s lone goal was a result of some Matt Wells tactical fiddling — and Keegan Rosenberry playing like his job’s on the line — gone right.
Wells used the match to toy with a rotated squad and a formation change. In defense, it looked like a 5-3-2, but with the ball it switched to a 3-4-3 with versatile wingbacks given the keys to roam the entirety of the field. Rosenberry, a right back who played as a center back on Tuesday night, won the ball after joining the high press. He poked it to Dante Sealy, who took a touch, cut in and slotted a shot to the far bottom corner.
“It felt great. My process never changes. Every week I try to keep the same mentality, same work rate,” Sealy said. “I knew eventually they were going to start going in.”
Itap been a frustrating first stretch of matches for the winger, who Wells targeted as a must-acquire over the offseason. He scored nine goals for a bottom-tier CF Montréal team in 2025, which raised expectations for the Rapids, who haven’t had that caliber of goal-scoring on the wing in at least a decade.
He went the first seven games with Colorado scoreless. Late in a 6-2 win over Houston on Saturday, teammates were working hard to feed the ball to Sealy in an effort to get him his first, but it didn’t pan out.
In that, Sealy got away from some of the “habits and processes” it takes to score, Wells said. After the Houston game, he reminded the 23-year-old to stay grounded — that the process leads to scoring rather than trying to force the spectacular.
“I think probably if you asked him, he’d say sometimes I’m quite hard on him, but thatap only because I see massive potential in him as a player, and he’s a great person,” Wells said of Sealy. “I know he can shoulder that responsibility. For sure, the lack of a goal to this point had started to weigh on him. I could see that in the way he was training and in his decision-making.
“… Itap brilliant now that he doesn’t have to worry about that — the goal finally came.”
The second half ground almost to a halt with a few minor dustups for fouls and arguments. Neither team threatened too hard for a goal, but the Rapids came closest with a Jackson Travis header off the post on a corner kick.
The Rapids will match up with fellow Colorado club Colorado Springs Switchbacks, which won a USL Championship title two seasons ago, in the round of 16. The date, time and location of that match will be announced at a later date. The Switchbacks demolished MLS squad Sporting Kansas City, 3-0, at Weidner Field in Colorado Springs on Tuesday evening to earn their spot in the round of 16 — the furthest run in club history.
