Colorado
Rapids advance to Leagues Cup quarterfinals with last-minute goal from Darren Yapi
The Colorado Rapids smashed and grabbed their way to a Leagues Cup quarterfinals berth.
Darren Yapi scored in the final minute of regulation to send Colorado to a 2-1 win over Liga MX side Deportivo Toluca late Tuesday night at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park.
But this was a game the Rapids very easily could have lost.
The Diablos rattled off 21 shots (six on goal) to the Rapids’ four (two on goal). Toluca dominated the possession to the tune of 64% to 36%.
And if the Rapids scoring on their only shots on goal wasn’t improbable enough, Yapi had to tap in the winner in the 90+6th minute.
In the 45th minute, the Rapids got on the board when midfielder Cole Bassett sent a diagonal longball from midfield to the left side of the six-yard box to Sam Vines. Vines, who otherwise did not have a great first half, laid a perfect pass across goal on his first touch to set up Rafael Navarro for a tap-in.
Then in the 83rd minute, Brazilian forward Paulinho finally tied the match up with a backheel while spinning to get the ball past Zack Steffen, who otherwise had another great Leagues Cup match with five saves.
The Rapids thought they had gone ahead in the 90+1st minute when Connor Ronan put in a ball to Djordje Mihailovic, who spiked a header off the ground and up into the top corner of the goal, but a long VAR review found him offside.
The Rapids homegrown played super sub just five minutes later. A bad touch off of a Toluca defender left the ball right on the goal line for Yapi to slide tackle a winner into the net for just his second professional goal.
Yapi was subbed on for Navarro in the 86th minute, which seemed questionable at the time given the score was tied and penalties loomed. In the end, it turned out to be a genius move from Rapids coach Chris Armas.
The Rapids will play the winner of Club América and St. Louis CITY later this week for a spot in the Leagues Cup semifinals.
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Originally Published:
A sculpture that currently sits inside a now-closed Aurora recreation center may get a new lease on life if the Aurora City Council approves a move.
The Beck Recreation Center closed last summer, and part of the building is scheduled for demolition. The remaining portion will serve as a golf shop for the nearby SpringHill Golf Course. That means a huge glass and metal sculpture installed in 2014 needs to be moved.
On Monday, Aurora’s city council will vote on a proposal to move it to Tallyn’s Reach Library. The artist, Reven Marie Swanson, has art installations across the country, and even some overseas.
“Without sounding like I’m bragging, my artwork is in 26 states, 38 municipalities in Colorado and in three countries, ” said Swanson.
She’s a sculptor who combines metalwork and glasswork to create unique pieces, like the one that currently sits inside the shuttered Beck Recreation Center.
“It’s called ‘Under the Swimming Pool,’ and it’s the idea about when you walk into the vestibule. It felt like I could create something that you could actually be under the water and looking up through the surface of the water as if you’re walking on the bottom of the pool,” said Swanson.
In the summer of 2025, structural issues shut the doors at Beck for good, and since then, Swanson’s sculpture has been stuck there.
“I was a little nervous because city governments are very quick to do what they call ‘de-access’ artwork. And I was really hoping that this piece wouldn’t get de-accessed,” said Swanson.
Luckily, the City of Aurora has other plans. They want to move the piece from Beck to Tallyn’s Reach Library.
Swanson says it should be a simple move, but the sculpture, which hangs from the ceiling, will have to be attached to the library’s ceiling in a new way, using new materials. But Swanson says she likes the new location.
“It’s a really beautiful building. It’s got wonderful light, which is going to interact really nicely with the glass,” said Swanson.
And she is glad it will live on, continuing to inspire and enchant Aurorans.
“When I walked into the library, the librarian, she was like, ‘I am so excited to get this art!’ And it makes an artist feel good. Like you accomplished something,” said Swanson.
The proposal, which will be heard at Monday’s city council meeting, is estimated by the city to cost between $15,000 and $25,000, primarily because of the cost of materials needed to suspend it at the new location. The initial cost to install it at Beck Recreation Center in 2014 was nearly $35,000 dollars.
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