Burn It All Down

Another game, another loss where the team was 3 down in the first 30 minutes.  Really, there's nothing to say at this point.  This club is broken on every level, on and off the field.  I don't think Fraser is the main problem, yet I don't see how he doesn't get fired on Monday if he doesn't win in Sandy on Saturday.  Things are that bad.  At this point I honestly believe a new expansion team starting in 2024 would have a better chance of rebuilding this offseason than the Rapids do.  The only real hope is to just take the club down to the studs.  There is no player, coach, or staff member that can't be replaced.

Moving on to some of the records we're chasing to immortalize our futility in 2023:

Colorado is on pace to match the 2013 DC United team for lowest goal total in a 34 game season with 22 (we currently have 16).  2013 DCU also holds the league record for lowest goals/game average  That's setting aside the COVID-disrupted 2020 season for both of those records.

We need 12 points in 9 to avoid the worst points/game average in club history.

The Rapids need 3 points in the last 9 games to avoid putting up one of the 10 worst point totals in league history.  Our 19 points we've avoided the top 5 at least.

If we don't beat FSL on Saturday, we'll have 1 win in the last 15 league games, matching the team's worst run in their history, from the end of the 2014 season.

Only three teams in MLS history (post-Shootout) have 1 or 2 home wins in a season.  The 2018 Earthquakes and the 2020 and 2021 Cincinnati teams.  There's a good chance the Rapids join them with only 1 home win so far and home games left against New England, Seattle, Austin, Vancouver, and FSL.  The first 4 of those all occur in a 15 day window at the end of September.

In 2018 San Jose fans in their stadium saw 66 goals scored between the home and visiting teams.  In 2021 Cinci fans saw 46 goals.  (2020 had no fans in the stadium due to COVID).  So far this season fans at the Dick have seen 17 goals scored in league games.  7 for the Burgundy Boys and 10 for their opposition.  You could easily argue that as of right now the Rapids fans have had the worst home viewing season in league history.

This team stinks on a historic level.  And that's before we get to all the off-field problems.  Burn it down and start over with whole new leadership, technical staff, and players.

Loony To Keep Watching This Team

I don't know why I keep watching this team at this point, but here we are.  We're off to Minnesota tomorrow night to play a team sitting right on the playoff line.  If I thought we had any shot at making the playoffs I'd call this a 6 pointer, but we don't so its really about can we avoid records for futility this season by picking up points and/or goals.  Also I have a sneaking suspicion that if we don't get a result here or in Utah on Saturday night a coaching change my be in the works, especially if we look as bad as we did last Wednesday against LAFC.  Kickoff tomorrow is at 6:30 on Apple TV.

Availability Report:

OUT: GK William Yarbrough (knee surgery), D Alex Gersbach (tendon surgery), Max (removed from team activities)

QUESTIONABLE: D Michael Edwards (lower body injury), F Diego Rubio (lower body injury)

I didn't expect to see Rubio back on the injury report but this is the 2023 Rapids so I can't say I'm surprised.  At least Bassett isn't listed anymore.

At this point we should really just be playing the youth for next year, but Fraser may be managing for his job and certainly the organization is still acting like they have a playoff shot (that will likely end this week).  So I'm expecting a pretty similar XI to what we saw in LA, despite the mess that it was.

Prediction: 2-0 loss.  Both teams have equal defenses but our offense is much, much worse.  I'm not expecting a goal and I expect us to give up at least one.  Our inability to be threatening will allow Minnesota to get a second.

Rapids Find New Lows In LA

I honestly thought the game in St. Louis where the team gave up two goals in the first `12 minutes, largely because the defense just quit, was rock bottom for this team but that apparently was a challenge accepted because they found a new low last night.  After 3.5 weeks off, getting reinforcements in the window, and getting one of their better players back in Diego Rubio the team lost 4-0 in a match where they were outplayed in every facet from start to finish.  The result actually favors Colorado as LAFC had the ball in the net 7 times, with 3 waved off for various fouls, and even that number favors the team.  

I could go through each goal but really, they all amounted to a player making a mistake and the rest of the team not reacting to cover.  The few times the Rapids did get into a dangerous position, mostly in the second half, the LAFC keeper didn't have to work hard to save any shots.  The biggest disappointment was the play of Tavares, our new midfielder.  He had bad turnovers that led to two goals and was pulled at halftime.  Not what we needed from one of our few improvements in the summer window.  One person on Twitter compared it to Gersbach's debut in the season opener.

At the end of the game the Apple coverage caught Fraser locked into a thousand yard stare.  Real questions are being asked about if he's going to be back next year,   After this result I can see Smith making a move, either tomorrow or if we get into next week if the double road games in Minnesota and Salt Lake go badly. After that Rocky Mountain Cup match there are two weeks before our next game, when we finally return home to play New England.  In the end though, this isn't Fraser's fault.  He's made some poor choices this year, but he's been saddled with a roster that probably doesn't have 11 MLS quality players on it right now, and the ones it does have can't stay healthy.  That's all caused by Smith's poor signings.

Rapids Try Again In LA

As expected last Sunday's game against LAFC was shifted to tomorrow night due to the hurricane.  Before we get to that though, there was some unfortunate news out of Commerce City today.  Yet another injury has felled a top player, with William Yarbrough undergoing knee surgery that will him out for 6-8 weeks.  The optimistic side of that would have him coming back for the last 2-3 games of the season, the pessimistic means he's pretty much done for the year (even at 8 weeks he could theoretically play the season finale, but I don't know that you put him back in for one game at that point).  The Rapids have ha team option on Yarbrough for 2024, but with the recent signing of Ilic the general belief is that they were already planning on moving on in the offseason.  There's a decent chance we've seen Yarbrough play his final game in burgundy.

Also, we're going to have to have a significant talk about the Rapids training methods in the offseason, because all we're getting out of them is a bad team with too many injuries.

On to tomorrow night then, and a well rested LAFC team.  They've only had 10 days off, while Colorado hasn't kicked a ball in anger in 23 days.  Kickoff in LA tomorrow is at 8:30pm.  Good news is that Marcelo Balboa will be on the call in Spanish.

Availability Report:

OUT: GK William Yarbrough (knee surgery), D Alex Gersbach (tendon surgery), MAx (removed from team activities)

QUESTIONABLE: D Michael Edwards (lower body injury), M Cole Bassett (lower body injury), M Jonathan Lewis (lower body injury)

Bassett was listed as out yesterday, so that's an improvement, but I don't know how e keep getting people injured in training.  Its ridiculous at this point.

I really don't know what to expect.  Between the injuries and the changes at the close of the window we could see any number of lineups.  I'll be very disappointed if Navarro and Tavares don't start though.  With 3 weeks since the window closed there's really no excuse for them not to be ready.

Prediction: 2-1 loss, goal by Navarro.  The date may have changed, but not my expectation.  LAFC is going to be at home and hungry to put their meltdown in the Leagues Cup behind them.  We just want to put this whole season behind us.

Quick Recap/Preview

I will be occupied with a family memorial for my uncle this weekend unfortunately so I won't have time to do a proper preview for Sunday's LAFC game.  I also likely won't be able to watch much of it either.  Before we get to that tough, a couple of news updates.

Yesterday the Rapids signed Keita to a new contract through the 2025 season, with a club option for 2026.  Keita has yet to play a minute for the first team after blowing out his ACL in preseason last year and still recovering form that and another injury this season.  Reports from people who have seen him playing for Rapids 2 have been positive though.  Obviously the coaching staff sees something in him if they're willing to give him a 2+1 deal.  They should have a pretty good idea of how he fits into the team at this point, so its really a matter of if he's good enough quality to help the first team.  That's not something any of the fans will be able to tell until he gets playing time.

Also Rapids Communications Director Omar Gonzalez said on Twitter that they've heard the feedback about the Padraig Smith press availability on Monday and they would be working to set up a second session next week.  Lets hope the digital media team takes a back seat at this one.

Now, the LAFC game.  First of all Hurricane Hilary is expected to hit Baja California early Sunday morning and work its way up the coast into the LA region by Sunday afternoon/evening and is expected to still be at Tropical Storm strength when it gets there.  So there's a very good chance that this games gets delayed or rescheduled depending on the exact timing and strength of the storm.  Even if it does get played, expect it to be very wet.

Reports from training this week is that everyone was there and participating except for Max and Jack Price, for obvious reasons.  Both Navarro and Tavares have their paperwork and are available for selection as well.  I'm assuming some players may not be 100% yet, so I don't expect a completely empty injury report, but Fraser should have the ability to put out his best possible lineup minus the season-ended players above.

That said, I don't think that will be enough.  LAFC is going to be hot after choking against Monterrey last Friday and giving up a 2 goal lead in the second half.  They're also at home and in rhythm, while the Rapids haven't played in closed to three weeks.  We've seen under Robin that this team has a hard time restarting after a long break.  We lose 2-1, but Navarro gets his first in burgundy.

Knee Jerk Response To Today's Press Availability

You may or may not have heard that on Friday the Rapids announced a press availability with Padraig Smith this afternoon.  They have since put that event online and I watched it, taking notes along the way.  ell, mostly online.  They started the recording after the first question was asked as Smith started to answer and seemed to cut it off as soon as he answered the last question without any thanks or goodbyes.

I'm going to be honest, these are my raw reactions to what Smith said and how it fits in with what I've heard at other times and what's been reported elsewhere.  Because of that they will likely be somewhat of a rant at times, they won't necessarily be well organized, and I may get some facts wrong (though I'm trying really hard not to).  It will also be pretty much a long wall of text.  Sorry!

I'm going to go through these comments in order, but I wanted to talk about the event as a whole first.  First of all footy5280.com posted a recap video from outside the Dick right after it happened.  What he said was very disappointing.  After promoting this press availability at 2:30 the media showed up and found out that Smith had a hard stop at 2:55 for another event.  You plan a press availability and its only 25 minutes?  The press spent more time getting there and back than they spent at the event.  Also in that video he reported, and it has been confirmed by others, that one of the questions asked in that 25 minutes was asked by team personnel in the form of the digital media team.  Um guys, you can grab Smith at the coffee maker when you need a question answered, the team shouldn't have wasted what little time there was by having internal media ask questions.  After the event Footy5280 asked a staffer about getting more time in the future given how short this was, and the response was "Well, we didn't even have to do this".

Really?  You've got a team that's spiraling to their worst season ever, a organization that has failed to keep up wit MLS minimums, real questions from the fans if this team is serious, and you act like just making the club President available for 25 minutes is going out of your way?  That alone makes this club a continuing joke before we even get to what was covered in the event.  Explain to me how I'm supposed to take a team with this attitude as serious about competing?

OK, on to the actual questions and answers.  Padraig started out saying he's "bitterly disappointed" and "incredibly frustrated" with the season so far, which we all are.  But he thinks at a "macro-level" the team is still moving the right direction.  He thinks the results are "not an accurate representation of the talent that's in the locker room".

This is the same type of language he uses when talking about what happened under Hudson and the decision to move on from him in 2019.  Which makes me think he's softening things up to let Fraser go after the season.

He also said that "2021 should be the standard" but that we're "still in with a shot" at the playoffs this year.  To which, seriously?  They're still trying to sell that we can make the playoffs?  Here's how far down we are.  If the rest of the league didn't play another game and stayed at their current point total, and if we played our remaining `11 games at the same level we've played all season, we STILL wouldn't make the playoffs.  The 9th place team in the West (Houston) already has more points than we're currently on pace to get, with a third of the season left.  So the only way we're making the playoffs is if we start playing much better AND the 5 teams in front of us start playing a lot worse.  Quick feeding us this line of bull.

The next question mentioned the infamous "Rapids Way", which some people have suggested we should put away now as just a marketing move.  But Smith came back and said he "loves anything that comes from the Rapids Way" and multiple times during this event used the exact same language about the goals and styles of this team as he used in that 2017 editorial.  So I guess its still the standard we should hold them to.

Padraig said he sat down and had a long talk with the senior leadership on Friday about how this season hasn't been good enough.  He referenced the game in St. Louis at the start of July as the point where it was really clear that the intensity, accountability, and drive wasn't what it should be.  That appears to have been Smith's breaking point.  My response to that was what took so long?  It was obvious before Memorial Day that this team wasn't good enough.  Smith talks a lot about being a numbers guy and the numbers made it blatantly clear by late May that we had a lost season on our hands.  Was he trying to avoid facing reality until it slapped him in the face in St. Louis?  If that really was the breaking point, why wait for over a month to sit down with the senior players about it?

Smith said that changes will be made, some of which started with what happened in this last transfer window.  It was fairly obvious he was saying some of the players that were moved out were part of those changes, and that more are coming.  He later mentioned that they had a deal for an English Championship attacker who failed his physical, which sounds like the rumor of Iranian striker Allahyar Sayyadmanesh.  He also confirmed the report that the Rapids had made a deal for U.S. youth attacking mid Caden Clark that fell apart due to not getting the paperwork back from Red Bull Leipzig in time.  He also stated that they are working on signing a couple of free agents before the roster freeze deadline next month.

His core explanation for the failures this season were that we are underperforming our expected goals and the reason for this is largely injuries, particularly to Rubio and Price.  He thinks we're doing good enough attacking except for the finishing.  Of course, it was Padraig Smith who decided the best plan for this season was to have Diego Rubio backed up by three players (Cabral, Harris, and Yapi) that had a combined 7 goals and 6 assists in almost 4500 minutes of MLS play.  Smith said "In a salary cap league, missing one of your key players is a tough blow" and it is, but it doesn't help when you've spent $1.2M in GAM and over a million dollars in cap space (plus an international slot) on three backups that aren't yet MLS-quality players.  Not to mention the million dollars, international spot, and $300K in cap space on a guy who could fill in for Price but decided fixing a game was a good idea.  Yes injuries are a problem, but the players chosen for this roster behind those who were injured were bad choices.  That's the core problem.

Speaking of Max (and jumping forward a bit) Padraig addressed the idea of using loans the way the Rapids do.  He said that its important when they're considering spending significant money, like we would if we brought in Navarro or Tavares, that we get not only players who are good on the field but players that have good character and a good mentality.  Ironic that the one guy they spent big money on signing directly (Max) is the one that clearly doesn't have good character.  It makes me think that now they're gun shy about signings after that.

Going back to the injuries, Smith finds the number of muscular injuries this season troubling, so much so that they've brought in Steve Tashjian as a consultant to examine what the team is doing.  Tashijan has worked for the Crew, Everton, and the USMNT as a high performance specialist.  Its interesting that Padraig is calling this out, earlier this season I heard that the team had installed a new fitness régime this preseason in order to improve fitness throughout the season.  I wonder if they regret that now.  He also talked about how there are a lot of minor injuries that not everyone knows about, which, maybe that's because you're so secretive about your injury reports?

There was a question about how Navarro is integrating with the team, and it sounds like its gone well, but one thing was mentioned was that he had to get into game fitness because he wasn't playing before the loan deal was finalized.  Why does it always seem like we pick up players who aren't in game shape but we see other midseason additions in this league go right into the lineup and improve the team?

Last, but hardly least, Smith talked a bit about losing top players and struggling to replace them.  Specifically he mentioned Sam Vines and Auston Trusty.  On the latter he mentioned bringing in Keita, who's been unlucky with injuries, and Vallecilla, who didn't work out.  On Vines he mentioned that Esteves was not a good match with this team (something I've heard as well) but it seems like Gutman will be able to fill that hole.  Notably he did not mention Gersbach.  My thought here is, wasn't it Smith's job to find these replacements?  I mean, it wasn't a surprise they were leaving.

That pretty much covers it.  Honestly, it didn't make me feel any better about the team in any way and I think this turned out to be a bad idea poorly planned.  They needed to do something but it needed to be more than "injuries, stats, and not good enough".  This was more insulting than educational IMO.

Shine A Light On The Mess

Last week a small kerfuffle broke out among some Rapids fans (not me, for once) on Twitter/X over how the media covers this team.  Media being both "traditional" media like Brendan Ploen at the Denver Post as well as "new" media like Matt Pollard, the Rabbi, and others who cover the team on Burgundy Wave or the Holding the High Line podcast and other such outlets.  The debate was about if those media members were pushing the leadership of the Rapids enough when they got the change to in interviews and such.

First, to make my opinion clear, reporters throwing metaphorical bombs in a press availability isn't the way to get anything accomplished.  All that results in is the loss of access for everyone as the team representatives decide to end the event early, or not do an event the next time, o not talk to certain reporters.  That doesn't mean tough questions shouldn't be asked, but the question asked has to be one where there's an answer than can be given beyond "What do you want me to say?  We suck?  Yeah, we suck.".  Nobody is going to give that answer unless they're heading out the door (see Hudson, Anthony).

I have been noodling on the idea for a bit though, and then I read this article by Jon Greenberg from the Athletic about the Chicago White Sox issues.  The details aren't important, what I keyed into was the opening lines:

As I walked onto the field at Guaranteed Rate Field late Monday afternoon, I saw the only man in the stadium who could fix the Chicago White Sox’s many, many problems.

It wasn’t the chairman Jerry Reinsdorf, who declined an opportunity to talk to reporters about the disastrous state of his organization Monday. It wasn’t executive vice-president Kenny Williams, who has a job for life as long as Reinsdorf is alive. It wasn’t Rick Hahn, whom we already talked to, along with manager Pedro Grifol.

That made me think.  When was the last time we say anyone at a level higher than Burgundy Wave write something about Colorado like that?  Because "disastrous state of his organization" is a good description of the Rapids right now, both on the field and off.  Yet we don't see a Tom Bogert or a Matt Doyle calling the Front Office out like that (and this isn't a slam on either Bogert or Doyle, who do great work.  I understand that Matt in particular, being a league employee, might be a bit handcuffed in what he can say.).

I think some of the frustration that came out on Twitter last week towards the people who cover this team, many of them for nothing more than free food in the press box, is the lack of this kind of coverage in the "bigger" MLS media.  Rapids fans have been suffering a long time and because of being a "smaller" market they don't get as much coverage as a team like the Galaxy.  They're a team going through their own freefall and everyone from the league's website to the Athletic to major MLS bloggers have covered the complete mess that organization has turned into.  Meanwhile fans here in Denver have to hope that we can get a crumb of info about what might be happening in our Front Office from a good local fan.

I'm not sure how we get a better team at this point, but I'm willing to bet shining a light on the current disfunction in this organization wouldn't hurt.  None of the comments here should be taken as me calling out the reporters I named.  Consider this a suggestion, not a criticism.  Fans, and media, talk about how some owners in this league are willing to coast while others do the hard work.  Kroenke is a perfect example of that, and I'd love to see him and/or KSE called out for it.  They more than deserve it.

One Last Move Under The Window

Colorado made one last move before the window closed last night, trading Michael Barrios to the Galaxy for their first round pick, plus up to $50K of GAM next year based on his play in the rest of 2023.

I see a lot of Rapids fans complaining about a "fan-favorite" being traded for so litter.  First of all, I never saw him as a fan-favorite.  People seem to like his hustle, but MLS is way past the point where hustle makes a good player.  Barrios is a 32 year old winger who's lost pace and endurance and who's on a max salary deal.  What kind of market do people think there is for a player like that?  The real value we got in this move is the roster spot and salary cap room.  Bringing in Gutman, Navarro, and Tavares (see below) probably meant we needed some wiggle room.  And its not like Barrios has set the world on fire the last tow years.  He's got 4 goals since the start of 2022 while starting just 26 of a possible 57 games.  That's not much production for the salary.

If this team has a future its not with the likes of Barrios or Acosta.  This is what a rebuild looks like.  Its ridiculous that we're rebuilding for a second time less than two years removed from winning the West in 2021, but it has to be done and these are the right moves to start the process.

Also today we got confirmation of the loan of Sidnei Tavares from Portugal.  So the moves in this window:

Andrew Gutman - Trade

Daniel Chacon - Signed from Rapids 2 (then loaned to a Costa Rican side)

Marko Ilic - Converted from loan to buy after renegotiating

Rafael Navarro - Loan

Sidnei Tavares - Loan

Its not enough, but hopefully its a start.

I expect that to be the last of the Rapids news until our next game on the 20th.  If something comes up I'll post though.  I'm not sure if I'm going to fill the time with something else or just take a break for two weeks.  Maybe I'll do some non-league previews or something.

Rapids Making Moves As The Window Closes

The summer transfer window closes in about 3 hours (11pm MT) and it sounds like there's one move left in progress that's not official yet.  But Colorado made two moves out yesterday, then we'll get into the couple of rumors that were out there along with the all-but official move to come.

Yesterday we sent Bryan Acosta to Portland and Anthony Markanich to St. Louis, getting GAM back in both trades.  We got $150K in GAM for Acosta, with up to $175K more GAM possible depending on how he finishes the season.  For Markanich we got 75K in GAM plus St. Louis's first round pick in the next draft, with up to $75K more in GAM depending on how he plays in 2024.

Moving Acosta was about dumping salary.  He's on $700K this year and isn't playing regularly enough or well enough to be worth that, especially for a team that's done this season and needs to look for the future.  With Gutman and Bombito there wasn't really any playing time for Markanich, so might as well get what we can for him.

During the second half of this windows there were two rumors that bubbled up very briefly but then faded away just as quickly.  The first was a 19 year old defensive midfielder from America in Brazil, Breno Lemos, about a week ago.  After one tweet from a Brazilian source nothing else ever came of it.  The second was early today when the Rapids were briefly linked to Iranian striker Allahyar Sayyadmanesh from Hull City but at the same time the rumor leaked the report that the move was off also broke, supposedly because of the light calf injury he just suffered.  Either this was CYA by a source who reported something that was never going to happen, or the Rapids got cold feet for another reason and used the injury as an excuse.  I don't believe that a light calf injury would have stopped a deal if everything else was good, especially with 2.5-3 weeks until our next match.

The one report that seems solid came out late this afternoon, and has been confirmed by both Brendan Ploen of the Post and Tom Bogert of the Athletic, who had it first.  21 year old Portuguese central midfielder Sidnei Tavares will join Colorado on loan from Porto B through June 2024.  Tavares was previously at Leicester City where he made one EPL and one UEFA Cup appearance for them.  He has yet to play for the Porto first-team, but is a regular with the B squad.  He's also Nani's cousin.

So far I'm not seeing this as a major move, coming from Porto B means he's probably MLS quality, but I wouldn't expect him to be a MLS star.  I expect he'll fill the spot Acosta (and others) have filled alongside Ronan and Bassett for the rest of this season.  

I'll admit to being a little frustrated that our two big signings this window (Tavares and Navarro) are both loans until the summer transfer window opens next season.  Its hard to get excited about new additions when you don't know if they're just rent-a-players or not.  Both loans have options to buy in them, but as we've discussed before the Rapids never pick up buy options in loans, they always try to renegotiate them.  I understand that strategy from an economic perspective, but not from a "building team cohesion and fan interest" perspective.  When you know the loan is likely to be completed and then you have to hope the teams can come to a new deal its hard to feel like the club is really committed to a long-term plan.

Again the window closes at 11, so we could still see another move.  And even if Tavares isn't announced by then as long as the paperwork is filed by the deadline the announement could come tomorrow.

The Rapids Are Knocked Out...Again

In a game the Rapids had to win by 2 goals to finally move on in a knockout competition for the first time* since 2016 they gave up 2 goals before scoring a PK in stoppage time, then giving up 2 more goals to lose 4-1.  In other words, exactly like every other Rapids game we've seen in crunch time in the last 10+ years.  Oh, and we had a 2 hour rain delay to start the game, just like we've seen other times this season.

* - Not counting USOC games against lower league competition

That PK was really the perfect encapsulation of this team right now.  Kevin Cabral gets a 1 v1 breakaway against the keeper and decides the best move is to attempt a back heel pass that goes generously 3 yards to to an onrushing Barrios that was at least 15 yards behind the play at that point instead of, you know, shooting it 1 on 1 inside the box.  Lucky for Cabral is complete paranoia at shooting was covered up by the chasing defender wiping him out just after the pass, earning the PK.  It was a ridiculous decision by our big offseason signing.

Really, that's all the time I want to spend on this game.  There was nothing surprising about it, its just the same depressingly below average team we've seen for almost two seasons.  The Rapids enter this year in 4 major and 1 minor competition.

USOC: Eliminated

Leagues Cup: Eliminated

Supporters Shield: One Cincinnati win or one Colorado draw/loss from elimination

MLS Cup: In last place in the West having to jump 5 teams and make up a 10 point deficit in 11 games

Rocky Mountain Cup: Down 3 points after the first of three games

We've known since before Memorial Day that we were down to the Leagues Cup and the RMC, and now its just the RMC.   Pathetic.

And this is hardly new for this club.  Since winning MLS Cup in 2010 the Rapids have played in 20 knockout competitions.  The Leagues Cup, MLS Is Back tournament, CONCACAF Champions League (x3), MLS Playoffs (x5), and the Open Cup (x10).  They have been eliminated in the round they entered in 12 of them.  6 of the others were Open Cup tournaments where we beat a lower league team before being eliminated.

The Rapids combined record in those 20 tournaments is 12-3-27.  Of the 12 wins, 7 of them were against USL/NASL competition in the Open Cup.  3 of them were against Central American teams in the Champions League.  So of our 12 (of a possible 42) wins, 10 of them were against competition that would generally be ranked below a MLS team.  The only two wins against an equally ranked team were the wins over Columbus (2011) and LA (2016) in the playoffs.

The Rapids have played 25 games in knockout competitions against MLS and Liga MX teams since winning MLS Cup.  They have won 2 of them.  An 8% winning percentage against competition they aren't just expected to beat.  They also have two draws,  So they lost 84% of the games they've played when advancement is on the line.  Its hard to take anything this club says seriously until that changes.

Make Rapids Fun Again