Preview | LAFC vs. Colorado Rapids - 2025 MLS Season

Wednesday, July 9 | 7:30 p.m. PT | Hello Kitty Night

🏟 | BMO Stadium - Los Angeles, CA - Gates open at 6 p.m.

📻 | 710 AM ESPN, ESPN LA App, and KFWB 980 AM La Mera Mera

🛍 | LAFC HQ open 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. via exterior entrance and 6-10 p.m. via interior entrance.

🕹 | Level Up Arcade open pre-game from 5:30-7:30 p.m. and for 90 minutes after the final whistle.

LAFC welcomes the Colorado Rapids to BMO Stadium on Wednesday night for a critical Western Conference matchup between clubs seeking to rise above their current position at the playoff line.

With its regular-season schedule halfway complete, the Black & Gold (7W-5L-5D) stands in seventh place in the conference, which sends its top eight teams into the MLS Cup Playoffs in October. Because of LAFC’s run to the Concacaf Champions Cup Quarterfinals and its appearance in the FIFA Club World Cup, LAFC has played four fewer MLS games than the Rapids, and has at least three games in hand on every other team in the 15-team conference.

Wednesday night’s match was rescheduled from May 31 due to LAFC‘s participation in that evening’s unforgettable FIFA Club World Cup Play-in match against Club América.

HOT AND COLDColorado sits in ninth place in the West (7W-9L-5D) and is coming off a 2-1 home loss to Sporting KC on July 4. LAFC and the Rapids will square off again on MLS Decision Day, October 18, when every club plays its final regular-season match and completes the MLS Cup Playoff picture. That contest will be played on the Rapids’ home turf in Commerce City, Colorado—the same place that LAFC and the Rapids began their 2025 campaigns, on a blindingly frigid day in February. Colorado defeated LAFC 2-1 in the first leg of their two-game Champions Cup series on Feb. 18, only to be eliminated by LAFC in the second leg a few days later in Los Angeles.

LAFC holds the advantage in the all-time regular-season series, with a record of 7W-4L-1D, and a goal differential of plus-11 (24 goals scored and 13 conceded). LAFC has never lost or tied a home game against Colorado in regular-season play (6W-0L-0D), scoring 17 goals and conceding just two.

FORM CHECKLAFC is exactly halfway through its 2025 league schedule, having played 17 of 34 games. Last year the club made it to the midway point on June 15, a testament to LAFC’s busier non-league schedule this year. So far in '25, LAFC has allowed the third-fewest goals in the conference (24, tied with Minnesota), is fifth in the West in points earned per game (1.53), and has stood strong at home with a league record of 6W-2L-1D at BMO Stadium.

“If I had one word to describe this season it would be ‘consistency,’ and sometimes it would be lack thereof,” LAFC head coach Steve Cherundolo said after training on Tuesday. “The potential we've seen from the group has been great … and I think that's something we need to clean up for the second half of the season in MLS. We need to have more really good performances and certainly less poor performances. Everything needs to balance out a little bit in order for us to reach our goals [and] catch up on points and put ourselves in a position to play for a trophy.”

After conceding just four goals to elite global competition in its three matches at the FIFA Club World Cup, LAFC returned to MLS play on June 29 with a 1-0 home defeat to Vancouver, which sits second in the West and fifth in the MLS Supporters’ Shield race. The Black & Gold’s match in Austin last weekend was postponed due to inclement weather.

Forward Denis Bouanga, who was recently named an MLS All-Star for the third straight season, is one of four finalists to be named captain of the 2025 MLS All-Star Team [VOTE for DENIS]. Bouanga leads all MLS players in goals scored since January 2023 and is seeking to become the first player in league history to record three straight seasons of 20 or more goals. Bouanga contributed eight goals and four assists to LAFC’s recent nine-game MLS unbeaten run, which ended with the one-goal loss to Vancouver on June 29.

RAPID RETURNSDjordje Mihailovic, who scored both goals in the Rapids’ 2-1 Concacaf Champions Cup win over LAFC on Feb. 18, has accounted for four goals and one assist in his five matches against LAFC across all competitions. Mihailovic was denied by the post twice in last weekend’s 2-1 loss to Sporting KC, including on a first-half penalty kick. Darren Yapi won a penalty in the second half and Rafael Navarro converted it to finalize the 2-1 score line. The defeat did not reflect the Rapids’ 61.5 percent advantage in possession or their 25 total shots to SKC’s five. Colorado generated 4.6 expected goals to Sporting’s 1.1 xG.

“There’s a real burning desire to win games, get points, and inch closer to our goal, which is the playoffs,” said Rapids head coach Chris Armas. "Lots of reasons to get after this one, last but not least, LAFC. You always love putting yourself up against the best … They are the benchmark.”

RAPIDS CAN WIN IF
Armas’ youth movement takes hold and turns chances into goals. The SKC match saw the return of midfielder Cole Bassett (age 23) from injury. The perennial All-Star candidate performed well, as did other second-half substitutes Yapi (20), Kimani Stewart-Baynes (20), and 17-year-old Homegrown Ian James.

“I have a young team, but they fight so much, they run so much, they put so much into it,” Armas said. “I want us all, especially the players and our fans, to reap the ultimate rewards of this. We have planted the seeds.”

LAFC CAN WIN IFIt responds to the nine-day gap between games with the sort of energy and consistency that Cherundolo pointed to in his Tuesday media session. “We have work to do, we have a lot of points to catch up on to fulfill our goals,” Cherundolo said, “and time is running out."

“When you have a congested schedule, when you are in a good moment and you're winning games, that's also a great time to have a congested schedule because things are flowing and going in the right direction. So, it's important to get the ball rolling in the right direction tomorrow.”