Published for Colorado Rapids 2 fans — October 2026
By Toxlay Sports Editorial Team · Last updated October 23, 2026
⚽ Colorado Rapids 2 Fans — Your Future Is Waiting!
Rapids 2 are the Western Conference playoff champions of 2025 and the final step on the road to the Rapids’ first team — and in 2026 the kids wear the first black home shirt in club history. Black shirts, full voice: this is the season to wear the future’s colors.
The Club
Colorado Rapids 2 — Rapids 2 to everyone in Colorado — were announced on December 6, 2021, as a founding member of MLS NEXT Pro, and kicked off in the league’s inaugural 2022 season. There is no separate crest and no separate identity: this is the Colorado Rapids’ reserve team, owned by Kroenke Sports & Entertainment, and the final step of a pathway that runs Rapids Academy → Rapids 2 → first team. Daniel Chacón became the first Rapids 2 player to sign a first-team MLS deal in July 2023, and goalkeeper Nico Hansen followed him up after the 2025 season. When you watch Rapids 2, you are watching next year’s Rapids.
The home life is split between two worlds. League nights belong to the University of Denver Soccer Stadium — 2,000 seats, natural grass, as close to the pitch as professional soccer gets in Colorado. The big dates move up the road to DICK’S Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City, the first team’s MLS home, which hosted six of the club’s remaining 2026 home matches and the 2025 playoff quarterfinal against Vancouver. Intimate or epic, depending on the week.
The dugout has known exactly one man: Erik Bushey, appointed on February 10, 2022, and head coach ever since — 143 matches in charge by September 2026. Bushey built the side that topped the entire league in 2023 and took the West in the 2025 playoffs, and he is the coach trusted with the rebuild that followed. General manager Brian Crookham, the Rapids’ Senior Director of Soccer Development, runs the pathway above him.
And then there is the shirt. Rapids 2 wear the first team’s kit, and the 2026 home jersey is a landmark: the “Colorful Colorado” kit, the first black home shirt in club history, with burgundy stripes on the shoulders and accents of blue, green and gold drawn from Colorado’s night skies, alpine forests, red sandstone and golden aspens. The sponsor UCHealth and the numbers are rendered in the classic sky blue, and a four-quadrant jock tag at the hem honors 30 years of club history. It is the most searched-for Colorado Rapids 2 jersey ever made — and the one this young squad gets to define.
⭐ FAN FAVORITE
#42 Copeland — Colorado Rapids 2 Style Jersey
$59.99
The top scorer’s shirt. Copeland’s 42 on the first black home kit in Rapids history — Colorful Colorado, fan-inspired apparel made for the Rapids 2 faithful.
Last Season (2025): One Shootout From Glory
The 2025 Rapids 2 were the best story in MLS NEXT Pro. They finished third in the Western Conference — 15 wins, 51 points, 55 goals scored — edging Real Monarchs to the 3-seed on goal differential, with Mamadou Billo Diop’s 16 goals powering the attack. Then, under the league’s Pick-Your-Opponent format, Colorado chose Vancouver Whitecaps FC 2 for the quarterfinal and beat them 3–2 at DICK’S Sporting Goods Park on October 19. A 4–2 win away at The Town FC followed, and on November 2 they beat Minnesota United FC 2 2–1 to become Western Conference playoff champions. Alex Harris led the playoff scoring with three goals and two assists; Zackory Campagnolo’s 11 saves were the second-most of the entire postseason.
On November 8, 2025, at Sports Illustrated Stadium in Harrison, New Jersey, Rapids 2 played the MLS NEXT Pro Cup Final — and led Red Bull New York II 2–0 at half-time. New York dragged it back to 3–3 after extra time, and the shootout went the hosts’ way, 3–1. Runners-up, and heartbroken — but Western Conference champions, in a national final, three years after the club was founded. It remains the high-water mark of Rapids 2’s short history, on top of the 2023 regular-season championship, when Bushey’s side finished first overall in the league with 66 points.
Best Players Right Now
Josh Copeland — #42, forward. The team’s top scorer in 2026 with five league goals and an assist in roughly 1,257 minutes. One of the nine contracted returnees from the Cup-final squad, and in a low-scoring side he was the attack’s most reliable finisher — the name on the scoresheet when Rapids 2 needed one.
Sydney Wathuta — #47, midfielder. The standout performer of the season: a 7.23 average rating, four league goals and a team-high three assists. The Ugandan, Canadian-raised playmaker is the side’s chief creator and its most watchable player — the one first-team watchers in Commerce City track closest.
Chris Aquino — #44, midfielder. Four league goals and two assists in 2026, starting from the very first kick: Aquino’s free kick at North Texas SC was Rapids 2’s first goal of the season in the March opener. A set-piece threat who kept producing in a team that found goals hard to come by.
Zackory Campagnolo — #51, goalkeeper. The Cup-final run’s shot-stopper — 11 saves in the 2025 playoffs, second-most of the postseason — and one of the contracted returnees anchoring the rebuild. On a young team that conceded 52, his experience behind the back line mattered every single week.
James Cameron — #35, defender. Signed his first professional contract in January 2026 after loan time with Vancouver FC in the Canadian Premier League, and stepped straight into the side. He had already announced himself with a goal in the 2–0 win at Ventura County that closed the 2025 regular season.
Kimani Stewart-Baynes — #27, forward. The pathway in human form: a Rapids 2 forward who also pulls first-team minutes. Every appearance is an audition, and his pace gives Bushey a different kind of threat at the top of the pitch.
Star Spotlight
The night Rapids 2 nearly won it all. November 8, 2025. A reserve team from Colorado, three years old, leading the MLS NEXT Pro Cup Final 2–0 at half-time in New Jersey. New York II’s comeback and the 3–1 shootout defeat hurt — but nobody who made that trip forgets it. Rapids 2 left Harrison as Western Conference champions with the club’s name in a national final, and the 2026 squad wears that standard every day.
The run that built a reputation. Three playoff wins in fifteen days: Vancouver chosen and beaten 3–2 at DICK’S, The Town FC beaten 4–2 on the road, Minnesota United FC 2 beaten 2–1 in the Western Conference Final. Harris scored, Campagnolo saved everything, and a club built to develop players discovered it could win when winning was the only thing that mattered.
The 4–1 in a lost season. August 24, 2026: Real Monarchs came to town and the young attack finally clicked — a 4–1 home win, the best result of a hard year, against the Rocky Mountain rivals. In a rebuild season defined by a league-weakest attack, that afternoon was the reminder of what this group can become.
🔥 More Fan Favorites
More Rapids 2 stars, same Colorful Colorado black.
This Season (2026): The Rebuild Year
Honesty first: a year after the Cup final, 2026 was the hard reset. The 2025 core thinned out at the end of that season — Antony García’s loan purchase option was not executed, options on Anderson Rosa and Matthew Senanou were declined, four more players went out of contract, and Nico Hansen graduated to a first-team deal. Nine players returned under contract, but the goals never came: Rapids 2 finished 14th in the Western Conference with 21 points — four wins, seven draws, 17 defeats, 28 goals scored and 52 conceded. The league’s weakest attack in the West, and no playoff place to defend the conference crown.
But the season was not wasted, because development is the point of this club. The scoring load was shared by academy-age attackers — Copeland, Aquino and Wathuta all produced — and the team closed with two wins in its last five, including the 4–1 rout of Real Monarchs and a Decision Day victory. On September 20, 2026, Rapids 2 beat North Texas SC 2–1 at the University of Denver Soccer Stadium to end the year on a high. Now the West’s playoff crown they won in 2025 gets handed on without them — and the winter’s work is building the side that takes it back in 2027.
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Mark Your Calendar
October 23–25, 2026 — MLS NEXT Pro Conference Semifinals. All four semifinals land on Sunday, October 25. In the West, regular-season champions Austin FC II (65 points) headline the round — the same side that beat Rapids 2 1–0 in September — while the East plays out its own Pick-Your-Opponent drama. Colorado watch the crown they won last year get contested.
October 30 – November 1, 2026 — MLS NEXT Pro Conference Finals. The four semifinal winners meet for the two conference titles and the right to host-or-travel in the Cup. A year ago this was Rapids 2’s stage, beating Minnesota United FC 2 2–1; this year it is the target for the rebuild.
November 6–8, 2026 — MLS NEXT Pro Cup. The final, hosted by the finalist with the highest regular-season points total. Every playoff match streams on OneFootball.com and MLSNEXTPro.com — and somebody new lifts the cup Red Bull New York II took from Colorado on penalties last November.
Rapids 2’s own 2026 season is complete — it closed on Decision Day, September 20, with that 2–1 win over North Texas SC at the University of Denver Soccer Stadium. The club’s next competitive fixtures arrive with the 2027 MLS NEXT Pro season; the schedule has not been announced yet, so circle the playoff dates above and watch the winter roster moves instead.
Biggest Rivalries — The Wars
1. Real Monarchs — the Rocky Mountain feud, reserve edition. The reserve arm of the Rapids–Real Salt Lake rivalry, and it bites at this level too. In 2025 Colorado took third place off the Monarchs on goal differential; in 2026 the meetings split the pain — a 2–0 Rapids 2 defeat in Utah in May, answered by the 4–1 home rout on August 24 that stands as Colorado’s result of the season. Same mountains, same grudge.
2. Minnesota United FC 2 — the playoff nemesis. The team Colorado beat 2–1 in the 2025 Western Conference Final to reach the Cup — and the team that shut them out 2–0 in September 2026. This fixture has decided a conference title, and both squads know it. Whenever the Loons’ reserves come up on the schedule, the stakes feel bigger than one match.
3. Sporting Kansas City II — the Frontier Division staple. Met at least twice a season since 2022, with the all-time series a street fight: the club’s own count before 2026 read four Colorado wins, six defeats and a draw, including a 3–2 Rapids 2 win in Kansas City in August 2025 and a dramatic 2022 shootout finish. The 2026 away meeting finished 1–1 in August. Geography and repetition make this the most-played grudge on the calendar.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where do Colorado Rapids 2 play their home games?
Home matches are split between the University of Denver Soccer Stadium (2201 E. Asbury Ave., Denver — 2,000 capacity, natural grass) and DICK’S Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City, the Rapids’ MLS stadium. The club announced six remaining 2026 home dates at each venue.
Who is Colorado Rapids 2’s best player right now?
Forward Josh Copeland (No. 42) led the team with 5 league goals in 2026, while the standout all-round performer was Sydney Wathuta (No. 47) — a 7.23 FotMob average rating with 4 goals and a team-high 3 assists. Historically, the name to know is Mamadou Billo Diop, whose 16 goals powered the 2025 Cup-final run.
What trophies have Colorado Rapids 2 won?
The 2023 MLS NEXT Pro regular-season championship (best overall record, 66 points) and the 2025 MLS NEXT Pro Western Conference playoff championship. Rapids 2 also reached the 2025 MLS NEXT Pro Cup Final, losing to Red Bull New York II on penalties after a 3–3 thriller.
How can I watch Colorado Rapids 2?
MLS NEXT Pro matches stream live on OneFootball.com and MLSNEXTPro.com (the league’s 2026 broadcast arrangement). Home matches in Denver are among the most affordable pro soccer tickets in Colorado — check coloradorapids.com for the Rapids 2 schedule and venue split.
⚽ Colorado Rapids 2 Fan Shop
The full Rapids 2 trio — Copeland, Wathuta and Aquino in Colorful Colorado black, fan-inspired apparel for the pathway faithful.
Sources & official links: Colorado Rapids 2 official site · MLS NEXT Pro official site · 2026 Colorful Colorado Kit release
Black shirts, full voice, the future wears burgundy and blue — come on you Rapids 2.
