Season Review

Reflections on 2019 Through the Lens of MLS’s Teams of the Week

With the CONCACAF Champions League officially underway and the Rapids on the cusp of Major League Soccer’s 25th Season, it seems like a perfect opportunity to wave one last goodbye to the 2019 Rapids season which left all of us supporters wanting more.

Continue reading
Standard
Colorado Rapids

2019 Rest of Season (July-October) Preview

Now that the midpoint of the MLS season has come and gone, it’s time to look at how the rest of the season will pan out for the Colorado Rapids. I wrote my 2019 Season Preview up to 17 games into the season. Upon reflection, I was excited and hopeful that this team had what it took to be a mid-table MLS side. I’ll admit, I was so optimistic that I was convinced Anthony Hudson was the right man to lead the Rapids to a playoff berth.  Instead, Colorado went on to have two months without winning and averaged one point a month for a total of two points after 13 games.

The biggest turning point of the season came when the Rapids Front Office dismissed head coach Anthony Hudson on May 1st 2019. He had only won a total of 8 league games since being hired in November of 2017. After the firing of Hudson, Conor Casey was tasked with  the position of interim head coach to right the course of what had been a terrible start to the season. Under Anthony Hudson, the Colorado Rapids went 0-7-2 and under Conor Casey they went 5-2-2 for a combined total of 5-9-4.

The Rapids find themselves in 11th place just 6 points out of a playoff spot in the Western Conference. My season preview had dubbed 2019 as a throwaway season and to some extent it still is. It’s hard to find it in myself to believe that the Rapids could possibly turn it around and become a playoff contender. However, they probably can. This weird balance of skepticism and optimism has overall clouded any clear prediction as to whether or not the Rapids can actually make a playoff appearance this year. So, this Rest of Season preview will attempt to see both sides and make the case for the optimists and the skeptics: How the Rapids could still make the playoffs and why they ultimately won’t.

Continue reading

Standard
Rapids Journal

A Winless March

Trends in Major League Soccer are typically difficult to identify. The league’s salary cap structure, as well as the playoff format, is designed to ensure a level of parity and competitiveness to prevent the same parties from consistently hoisting MLS Cup over and over again. Take a look southwest towards Carson and you will find a Galaxy team, once the league’s darling, still struggling to rise from its stage of mediocrity – Ibrahimovic notwithstanding. Turn north and be reminded of Toronto F.C., a side which ascended from the pit of despair to host MLS Cup twice, before returning to the postseason-less wasteland a year later.

Continue reading
Standard
Game Recaps

Rapids fail to take all three points against rotated Dynamo side

DiG5uAkUYAIEmGk

Houston Dynamo and Colorado Rapids battled to a scoreless draw Saturday – a result that extends Colorado’s winless streak to three consecutive games.

Colorado Manager Anthony Hudson continued to tweak his lineup and tactics, as Johan Blomberg started his second match of the season in the right wing-back role of Hudson’s more-defensive 5-2-2-1 formation. Newly acquired attacker Giles Barnes made his debut at right forward before an ankle injury saw him substituted for Jack McBean in the fifty-second minute.

On the opposite side of the pitch, Houston’s Wilmer Cabrera started only one forward in a defensively-minded 5-4-1 that saw regular starters DaMarcus Beasley, Philippe Senderos, Mauro Manotas, and Alberth Elis begin their night on the bench.

Continue reading

Standard