St. Louis CITY SC will travel to face the Colorado Rapids in the U.S. Open Cup Semifinals on Wednesday, Sept. 16, with a place in the final on the line. The match at DICK’S Sporting Goods Park will kick off at 8:30 p.m. CT and will be shown on CBS Sports Network and Paramount+.
The semifinal lands at a busy moment for CITY SC. On Saturday, it beat Minnesota United FC 4-2 and stretched its unbeaten run to 16 matches across all competitions, a surge that has kept the club moving on every front while the cup bracket narrows. Rafael Navarro did the heavy lifting in that win, scoring twice, including a penalty in the 57th minute, and he now has 14 MLS goals this season. Daniel Edelman and Carlo Holse also scored.
That form gives St. Louis CITY SC a reason to believe it can extend a season that has already turned into the club’s deepest U.S. Open Cup run. The team reached the U.S. Open Cup Semifinal for the first time in club history by beating FC Tulsa 4-0 in the Round of 32, then taking Chicago Fire FC 2-1 on the road in the Round of 16 before outlasting Houston Dynamo FC 4-2 on penalties after a 2-2 draw through 120 minutes in the Quarterfinal. The winner on Wednesday will move on to the U.S. Open Cup Final on Wednesday, Oct. 21.
There is one wrinkle that keeps this from feeling like a simple rematch. St. Louis CITY SC has beaten the Colorado Rapids 1-0 twice already this season, once at Energizer Park in July and once at DICK’S Sporting Goods Park, but Wednesday’s semifinal will be their first meeting in the competition. It will also be their ninth meeting across all competitions, with St. Louis CITY SC holding a 3-3-2 record in the series. Colorado arrives after a 1-0 win over CF Montréal and after winning six straight at home, with six consecutive clean sheets in that run.
That is why this semifinal matters beyond the bracket. CITY SC has handled Colorado twice, and Colorado has turned its home field into a shutout streak, which leaves Wednesday as the rare game where both clubs can point to something real. One of them will keep a first-time Open Cup run alive. The other will walk into October with the season’s biggest chance gone.
