Rapids Fall 2-0 on the Road against Seattle Sounders
MLS Colorado Rapids

Rapids Fall 2-0 on the Road against Seattle Sounders

Published on February 23, 2026 under Major League Soccer (MLS)
Colorado Rapids News Release


Notable Notes:

HC Matt Wells made his official MLS debut, after joining the club in December of 2025 after spending the past two-plus seasons on the first-team coaching staff at Tottenham Hotspur of the English Premier League.

GK Zack Steffen wore the captain's armband for tonight's match, the first under head coach Matt Wells.

Lucas Herrington, Hamzat Ojediran, Dante Sealy, and Miguel Navarro all made their club debuts.

Lucas Herrington and Hamzat Ojediran made their MLS debuts.

COLORADO RAPIDS POST GAME QUOTE SHEET

COLORADO RAPIDS HEAD COACH MATT WELLS

On his decision to start Lucas Herrington and Noah Cobb...

"Those two [Lucas Herrington, Noah Cobb] have trained really well. They were excellent against Orlando, so they deserved their opportunity to start. That's the culture I want here. If you train well, then you get opportunities to play, and that goes across the squad. I'm very comfortable with the decision that those two guys started."

On what he said to the team at halftime...

"Definitely none of that stuff was mentioned at halftime. Absolutely no issue with the referee, injury time, or added time. The concern for me in the first half was how we showed up, our performance. I didn't recognize it at all. I have not seen elements of that even in our training. The full halftime was spent on debriefing that, analyzing that, and then trying to give the lads some solutions for how we could improve in the second half and trying to help them channel some intensity into the game, because, in the first half, the lack of intensity, we want to be a pressing team, and I didn't see any pressing in the first half. The two times we arrived on the press, they gave the ball away. Even then, we were pretty halfhearted. I was not impressed with that. Neither was I impressed with our build-up. There was a lot to correct at halftime, a lot of that being the attitude, but also some tactical bits as well. The second half was marginally better. It was a poor imitation of ourselves, but at least I recognized it."

On where he feels the team fell short and how they can improve...

"We go in the same vein. We have to get on the right path, because tonight, certainly the first half, was an anomaly, and I hope it will definitely stay that way. I'll ensure that it does. I didn't recognize anything in terms of how we pressed the game. I didn't recognize anything really of our tactical plan, and then with the ball we were a combination of scared, fearful and also passive, which, of course, is not a good combination. It was about adjusting those things at halftime, but trying to give them some tactical solutions to try and channel that based off how Seattle was pressing. As you could see, in the second half, we had a lot more territory. We were able to progress to their half, but then we lacked conviction and ruthlessness in our one-v-ones on the side of the pitch. We didn't attack the box well when crosses came in, and it wasn't until Alex Harris came into the game that I saw a player playing with the correct level of intensity, enthusiasm, and energy. A good night for Alex Harris, but not so much for the rest of the squad."

On how he felt Seattle reacted to his tactics...

"It's not about changing. It's about making the right process, which obviously takes more than four weeks for the guys to recognize in the moment on what passes to play at the right time. It's not a case of changing course. Obviously, they're [Seattle] quite flexible with their pressing. Sometimes it's the nine and ten, sometimes it's one center midfielder up. When they only put one center midfielder up top, we had to be there with one with our pivots, and we didn't find the second pivot well enough. Then at times, they pushed the second midfielder up. Then it was about finding Paxten [Aaronson] and Rafa [Navarro] in between the lines, and every time we did, if we made the right choice with the pass, we then got the touch wrong or we were too flicky with possession. We were nowhere near secure enough. Then at times, when they were narrow and we had to build on the outside, same thing really until [Alexis] Manyoma came in and just were able to progress up the pitch because he looked tight with his first touch, and usually dropped inside and found the right offload. Then we're able to switch the play, and instantly you have territory and jab them back. But if you don't get the basics right technically, in combination with the fact that obviously, for a while,we're not going to have perfect tactical recognition. It's going to take a lot longer than four weeks. Those were the issues. Again, we changed a couple of things at halftime, and that seemed to help our build up, but still nowhere near the level that it has been, and I expect it to be."

On what he saw during Seattle's first goal...

"We completely switched off. Obviously the ball went through to the other side of the box, and we made the incorrect assumption the ball was going out, so we didn't close downquick enough and stop the cross. Then we were all in the wrong position in the penalty box. Noah [Cobb] was way too far forward, so there was spacing behind him, and then someone arrives unmarked and scores a header. To be honest, the goal didn't really change the game for me. I wasn't happy with everything we were doing before the goal. That was a matter of time. Everything about me at this stage, I don't expect to it to be perfect, that would be very naive of me. We're so early into the process, but I expect to see the identity, the personality,and the mentality to turn up and play our football and embody this vision that I have of us being a big team. We didn't show that, certainly for the first 45 minutes tonight, and as I say, in the second half, at least we had the correct identity, but then we were just really poor within that identity. That's definitely a step up from what we delivered in the first half. For me,it's about analyzing the game now and then making the correct decisions and to change the lineup. Every shirt is available for the Portland game, for sure."

On how he played Keegan Rosenberry after subbing him in...

"It was just about attacking the spaces. When we made our second phase build up shape, the left back was extremely narrow, and the out ball in the first half was to Dante [Sealy], but we were never connected when the ball arrived with Dante. We were too late to make the inside run. It was a tactical change to give us more impetus with the ball, to get us to the byline. Obviously, you saw that a couple of occasions. Second half, down the right-hand side, we still didn't do it enough in the right moment. We either didn't play the pass, or we did play the pass, but players were in the wrong positions. As I say, I'll tolerate those things, because that's about tactical cohesion. That's going to take a long time for it to be to the level that I will get it to. What I won't tolerate certainly is the first half performance in terms of a lack of energy, intensity, mentality to press. The amount of second balls and duals that we lost, the amount of tackles that we jumped out of will never, ever be a feature of this team. I'll ensure that. I need to analyze it. I need to give the players the right feedback, and we need to make sure there's a much-improved version of us from the mentality side and the aggression side, come the Portland game."

On the club's buyout of Sam Vines' contract...

"Pretty straightforward one, really:I came in to make decisions. I've said this before, I think on the Cole Bassett stuff, this is a period of change for the club. I'm going to move this club forward. I'm going to give this organization the level of respect that it deserves, and part of that is putting an identity in terms of a football team on the pitch. It's been an open book for everyone. Everyone's had the chance to earn their shirts and make the right impression. So far, Jackson [Travis] had an incredible preseason, even though he was off it tonight. Then obviously, Miguel [Navarro] coming through the door. I only want two players at left back, so that contributed to the decision, and now it's about us moving on and shaping the squad further. Tonight you see, and we're working hard behind the scenes, we need reinforcements. You can see the depth they're bringing off the bench and the impact that had on the game. We need to do that. But also, I need to create an environment here where there is no hierarchy and anyone who comes on and performs that way like Alex Harris, who shoulddefinitely start the next game, as long as he trains well. I've just told him in the dressing room, the shirt's his, so that's the environment here. That's the culture that we will have here. That's what high performance is, and I'll be relentless in the pursuit of that. Especially after tonight, we need to go up a gear this week."

On Hamzat Ojediran's performance...

"No concerns. I've not had a chance to catch up with the doctors. No concerns from anyone from a medical stance tonight. In my mind, we probably didn't hit the intensity levels to risk an injury. We need more than that. We need a much higher level of intensity and aggression. The run from Hamzat [Ojediran] was a small moment in the first half where the shackles were off and we were positive, we were aggressive, and we won a duel. Every single lost ball fell to a Seattle shirt, and if you look at us positionally, we were in pretty goodpositions. It's a facet of the game that we worked harder on in preseason, because we know if you want to be a possession team, you have to be incredible on second balls. The opposite side of our possession is our pressing even though we didn't see that first half. When we do that well, we're going to force teams to go long. We need to then manage the second ball, be in position, be strong in the jaws, and we were none of those things in the in the first half. That Hamzat example you used was a rare glimpse of that, but they were way too few and far between, and that's something we have to improve."

On Dante Sealy's performance tonight...

"He was pretty much on par with every other player, below his usual standard. My frustration...one of my biggest frustrations, was the lack of solutions on the pitch. From a personality perspective, it took until the substitutions...each substitute moved the game forward. I don't think anyone could dispute that. That to me is a good sign for the guys coming on, but it'svery frustrating for me in terms of, we're not going to be a successful team this season if that's the that's the level of personality that we have. We have to be able to affect things on the pitch, in the moment. Otherwise, you're always waiting for me to intervene. You're always waiting for halftime. You're always waiting for me to make a double sub, a triple sub. Truth be told, I said at half time with the concussion sub, I could have made six substitutions at halftime, and no one could have accused me of being unfair. Dante...I wouldn't single out individuals tonight. We, as a group, me included, were way off the level that we have set. By the way, that's not a level that's unattainable. It's a level that we have set in preseason. It'sa level that we delivered last weekend against Orlando, and a lot of those positive aspects that we showed last weekend were missing tonight for 45 minutes. That's something we'lladdress this week, and we'll be a much better version of ourselves come Saturday."

On the message to the fans ahead of next week's home opener...

"That they should be excited. They should have the same level of excitement that I've got. Right now, I've got a lot of anger, but I consider anger a positive emotion. I just said to the players in there, I'd much rather those guys be angry, because anger leads to feedback. Anger leads to solutions. Anger leads us to moving forward. We have to make sure that the biggest victims of our poor performance tonight is Portland. We have to make sure we turn up this week to train a much better version of ourselves, get back in terms of playing our football, recover our identity, show our intensity throughout the training week, and then that will naturally follow on to the weekend. I've got a lot of selection headaches based off what I saw tonight, so it's going to be an exciting week for me to see how the guys train, how they respond, and then it's about us putting our identity on the pitch on the weekend. I don'twant anyone to mistake me, and I'm not naive. I've been here four weeks, so I know for sure the complexity of the game model that we're going after. There's going to be mistakes. There's going to be mistakes in the build-up. We're going to conceive goals from build-up. There's going to be mistakes in the mid-third, when we don't arrive in the right positions. There's going to be mistakes in terms of attacking the box, because I'm asking for a high level of cohesion. There's going to be mistakes in terms of the pressing and the wrong player pressing at the wrong moment. There's going to be mistakes in terms of our compactness, our defensive line. All of these things I'm willing to accept because they're natural courses of evolution where we are at the moment. There's no way anyone could expect it to be perfect. What I will not accept is the lack of personality, the lack of intensity, the lack of aggression that was on display in the first half. That, for me, should be set in stone from this moment forward, and it will be. I can guarantee to the fans, at the very minimum, they'll see against Portland a much more committed, aggressive, high intensity performance, because that's who we are. We just weren't that for the first 45 minutes tonight. I've got to work out why, and I'll be analyzing the game as of tonight and tomorrow to get the answers to that, and then I'll give the feedback to the guys, and trust me, come Saturday, we'll see a much more exciting, energetic, aggressive version of ourselves. We're on the right path. Just said that to the players there. We continue, we have the right level of anger to motivate ourselves to train well this week and to improve come the weekend in front of our fans, I'm excited for that. And by the way, our fans are incredible tonight. I could hear them from where I was saton the bench, which was which is ridiculous, and I'm just sad we didn't repay him with a proper performance, at least for the first 45 minutes. We'll make sure all of that's corrected by Saturday."

COLORADO RAPIDS GOALKEEPER ZACK STEFFEN

On the tactics from tonight's match...

"We weren't good enough tonight, clearly, And that starts from me back there. Building out of the back, we just weren't ourselves. We'll learn from it and we'll be better."

On young players having bright spots on the night ...

"I thought they, Lucas [Herrington] and Noah [Cobb], did a good job. They're competitive. They were calm on the ball. But we just didn't have many solutions and much help around tonight. We really have to look at ourselves in the mirror and learn from it."

On the difference between both halves...

"Tonight, just for me, we were so far off of it, myself included. We were just so far off of it. I didn't recognize anything from tonight. We had a good couple moments, but that wasn't us. That wasn't us."

On stoppage throughout the match...

"It's obviously not easy. Football is a game of rhythm and momentum and flow and with so much stoppages, that obviously messes all that up. It's something that we need to adapt better with, and need to be able to reset. When those stoppages happen, reset, and then when it starts up again, we just find our find our rhythm again."

On approach to set pieces...

"Different setups for us this year, but I thought the boys competed well, and we set up quickly, and we were sharp on that. I'm happy with how the boys competed tonight in the set pieces."

On being named captain...

"It's obviously a privilege and an honor to lead these boys and to get that from the gaffer. But I needed to be better tonight. I need to be better going forward, and I need to be a better leader for the boys."

On areas of opportunity...

"It has everything to do with ourselves. We didn't show up tonight. We didn't show up as ourselves. We were just not ourselves. In this league, you'll get punished when you don't come up for it and you're ready for the game."

On the goals scored against the club tonight...

"The cross...I would have loved to get after it. The second one, I need to put my hands higher and then be able to fall back and get my hands up and get a touch to it."

On the home opener next week...

"It has to be three at home, and we have to be ourselves. We have to show up and be men."

Colorado Rapids 0, Seattle Sounders 2

MLS Regular Season | Sunday, February 22, 2026

Lumen Field | Seattle, WA

Highlights and Match Summary

Postgame Press Conference:

Head Coach Matt Wells

Goalkeeper Zack Steffen

The Colorado Rapids opened the MLS season on the road with a

Goal Summary:

Minute Team Scorer Assist

15' SEA A. Rusnak P. Rothrock, J. Ferreira

62' SEA P. Rothrock --

Disciplinary Summary:

Minute Team Player Result

23' COL R. Navarro Yellow Card

30' COL N. Cobb Yellow Card

40' COL D. Sealy Yellow Card

42' COL R. Cannon Yellow Card

61' SEA A. Roldan Yellow Card

73' SEA S. Brunell Yellow Card

Lineups:

Colorado Rapids: Zack Steffen (C); Jackson Travis (88' M. Navarro), Noah Cobb, Lucas Herrington, Reggie Cannon (46' Rosenberry); Hamzat Ojediran (59' Frederick), Paxten Aaronson (68' Harris), Josh Atencio; Dante Sealy (68' Manyoma), Rafael Navarro, Darren Yapi (74' Ku-DiPietro)

Unused substitutes: Nico Hansen, Rob Holding, Connor Ronan

Seattle Sounders: Andrew Thomas, Nouhou, Jackson Ragen, Yeimar Gomez-Andrade, Alex Roldan; Crisitan Roldan (C), Albert Rusnak (88' Arriola), Hassani Dotson (45+14' Brunell); Jordan Morris (8' Rothrock), Osaze De Rosario (69' Musovski), Jesus Ferreira (69' Minoungou)

Unused substitutes: Stefan Frei, Antino Lopez, Nikola Petkovic, Kalani Kossa-Rienzi

Officials:

Referee: Malik Badawi; Assistants: Ian McKay, Kali Smith; Fourth Official: Corbyn May; VAR: Ramy Touchan; AVAR: Jonathan Johnson

Check out the Colorado Rapids Statistics

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Major League Soccer Stories from February 23, 2026


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