Didn't We Just Do This?

 

Much like San Jose a couple of weeks ago we're right back at it against a team we recently play.  In this case we're up in Vancouver just a couple of weeks after we had them at the Dick.  Both teams are coming off midweek road games but unlike Colorado, the Whitecaps are coming off a win.  Kickoff tomorrow is at 8:30 MT, so plenty of time if you're going to watch the Champions LEague final and/or the U.S. Women's game at the Dick.

Speaking of other games this week, there's a USLW/USL-2 doubleheader on Sunday night at Peak-to-Peak Charter School Stadium in Lafayette.  Boulder-based ALBION Colorado SC is hosting Arvada-based Flatirons FC for both the women's an men's matches.  Kickoff for the women is at 4:30 and the men follow at 7:30.  Some C38 members are coming out to the game, if you're interested in joining us one ticket gets you in for both games, use CENT38 hereuse CENT38 here to get 33% off ($8 instead of $12).

Player Availability:

OUT: D Wayne Frederick (hip), M Kimani Stewart-Baynes (groin)

Not going to make a lineup guess on this one.  With a third game in a week and a backline that's a mess I have no idea what Armas is going to do for this one.

Prediction: 2-1 loss.  Goal by Navarro.  Hard to see us doing anything but shipping more goals right  now.  Maybe they'll surprise me.

Houston, We Have A Problem

3 games, 11 goals allowed.  It really doesn't matter what our offense, which does look like its found itself, does if we have to win every game 4-3.  It might be time for a radical change on the back line, like benching both outside backs.  Bombito has had a rough patch but he's not getting any help from anyone else, and Maxso is our most consistent defender at the moment but he's having to play both CB and LB because Vines' defensive skill is completely gone.  Oh and Steffen is sliding from inconsistent to just bad.  He should have done more on the 3rd one.

Fundamentally though, this comes down to a midfield that has no teeth.  Ronan, Larraz, and Löffelsend can't stop the attacks coming through the middle.  Diack is the type of player who could, but he can't even make the gameday squad.  The 6 position was identified by a number of people, including me, as one of our needs this passed offseason and there's no sign we filled that hole with somebody Armas is comfortable playing.  So now we're going to have to figure out how to patch he defense together until the summer window opens and hope we can fix it there.

On offense, both Mihailovic and Navarro are currently on pace to have more goal involvements (goals+assists) than Rubio's team record 23 in 2022.  Though I expect Navarro to fall off because we have to think about taking him off of PK's after having his last two saved.  Maybe we keep him on but if he doesn't make his next 2-3 then he's got to be done.  Give Bassett the chance.  Of course that assumes we get 2-3 more this season, we lead the league with 7 and I don't think that's sustainable.

I realize this is less of a game review than a review of the team right now, but its hard to say much about the game we didn't see against Minnesota or FSL.  We do play better when coming from behind, so I wasn't too worried about the first goal.  But after we levelled the score it was one-way traffic the rest of the game.  Our subs, which were even putting normal starters in Bassett and Larraz back in, actually made things worse.  Our depth is non-existent in most positions.

Man of the Match: Djordje Mihailovic.  In a game like this you get the goal you get the award.

Rapids Head To Houston Looking To Get Their Stolen Point Back

If you remember Houston's trip to the Dick earlier this season the game ended 1-0 on a last minute goal by Houston.  A goal that never should have counted if the scabs weren't still officiating.  Maxso was clocked in the face in Houston's box by a Houston attacker's elbow that broke his nose and sent him to the turn bleeding from a head wound.  A bright-line "stop the game" moment for a ref.  Instead the ref allowed the game to play on and Houston eventually stole the ball and scored while we were playing down a man.  I've heard it from good sources that PRO/MLS privately owned up to the mistake in the following days, but that doesn't give us our missing point back.  So tomorrow night we need to go get it.  Kickoff in Houston is at 6:30pm.

Player Availability:

OUT: D Wayne Frederick (hip), M Kimani Stewart-Baynes (groin)

No changes from this weekend for us.  One big absence for Houston is head coach Ben Olsen, who's suspended for this game due to yellow cards.

Its nice when Armas' consistency allows me to use the same lineup graphic in back-to-back games.  Two weeks ago when we had 3 games in a week Armas showed that his strategy was to win the game in front of him and worry about the short rest after.  Because of that I expect him to roll out essentially the same lineup.  Could be Fernandez, could be Harris, but the other 10 I feel fairly confident on.

Prediction: 1-1 draw, goal by Navarro.  Houston has a much better defense but a much worse offense than we do (and that seems weird to type) and I think its more likely on the road and short rest we play to their typical low-scoring game (2 gpg combined average) than our high-scoring ones (3.53 gpg combined).  Houston was the only team to shut us out so far this season, but I think now that Navarro has heated up we can get one.

Things Were More Than A Little Loony Saturday Night

I thought a draw was likely on Saturday night, and that's what we got.  That said, I did not see a wild 3-3 game coming and we absolutely stole that point.  Many Rapids fans have pointed to our dominance of the game to suggest it was Minnesota who should feel lucky with the draw, and they probably do, but most teams don't get a point out of a game where they trail by 2 at the half, miss a PK that would have tied it, and let the opposition have a look at an empty goal for the winner.  We should take that point and run because we did not deserve it.

For this writeup I want to focus on all 6 goals.  We'll take them in order:

Goal 1 for Minnesota:  This was a nice bit of splitting the lines by the Loons.  Lod makes a sweet little backheel touch that puts him past Larraz and inside of Vines.  At this point there are 5 guys running at Steffen; Roenberry - Jeong - Bombito - Oluwaseyi - Maxso.  You can see Bombito feel like he's stuck in no-man's land and not sure if he should take Jeong or Oluwaseyi as both of them are inside the toehr defenders (and Rosemberry is beat).   Lod send a great pass throug the line to Jeong and Bombito can't catch up in time to deny the shot though he does force it to be more difficult.  Jeong puts it just past Steffen's right leg inside the far post.  A good counterattack by United.

Goal 1 for Colorado: St. Clair sends a goal kick deep that Navarro is able to head forward from the midfield stripe.  Before Navarro even wins the ball Cabral is sprinting from the center circle towards goal.  Fernandez beats his defender to the headed ball and is able to head it into Cabral's path.  At that point its a one on one break with the keeper and Cabral chips him before St. Clari takes him out.  I'm guessing penalty and maybe a red card if Cabral's shot doesn't go in but it does and Kevin Cabral (Kevin Cabral!) levels the score.

Goal 2 for Minnesota: Everyone just got lazy on this goal.  Bombito clears it up to midfeilder where Djordje doesn't really challenge for the header, then Fernandez gets beat to the next ball.  It ends up going out wide to our right where nobody is at, Rosemberry is all the way in the center.  Steffen manages to get a hand on the long shot and parry it but it falls right to an unmarked Oluwaseyi  while Vines is ball-watching.  Easy finish.

Goal 3 for Minnesota: Bombito brings the ball across the midfield stripe and forces an ill-advised pass to Mihailovic who doesn't really have room to receive it.  At this point Rosemberry is slightly ahead on the right of where Bombito makes the pass and Vines is all the way up even with the front line.  Sure enough a Minnesota defender reaches in front of Djordje and pushes the ball up to Oluwaseyi who turns and hits a through ball right past where Larraz was.  Unfortunately Larraz made a stretch to cut off the pass to Jeong but that's not the pass that was made.  Jeong was already past Rosemberry and Larraz took himself out of the play.  That left Bombito and Maxso scrambling to cover that side of the field and they couldn't get there in time.  Once again Bombito got close enough to make the shot harder, but Steffen got beat by a very well hit curler near post (watching it live from above the near post my first thought was "oh good, he missed it" only to watch it curl inside the post).

Minnesota didn't have many chances on Saturday, but they were very, very good on capitalizing on our mistakes and hitting us on the counter.  Bombito learned a bit of a lesson that his speed won't always save him.  Unfortunately I don't know that Rosenberry and Vines learned any lessons about not getting caught upfield...

Goal 2 for Colorado: Another set-piece goal from the mind of Chris Sharpe.  Mihailovic corner right to a spot Navarro ran to, he directed it far post, and it went off the post and in.  If he hadn't gotten it on target Bombito and Maxso were both in position to tap it in themselves (originally the goal was credited to Bombito as he just missed getting his foot on it as it went in).

Goal 3 for Colorado: Bombito swings the ball out wide to Bassett, who's given far too much time and space.  Cole's able to look up and swing a long cross in and Kevin Cabral (Kevin Cabral!) gets his head to it.  St. Clair easily gets in front of it but somehow his punch down doesn't make good contact and the ball had enough velocity to hit the ground and bounce past him into the net.  Even if it hadn't gone in Navarro was charging in to clean up the loose ball.

With the draw the Rapids now have more goals than last season, more points coming from a losing position than last season, and are only 5 points off of last season's total and there's still one more game in May!

Man of the Match:  Kevin Cabral.  Come on, how could it be anyone else.  Arguably Cole Bassett had the best overall game but you score twice, especially your first ever goals at the Dick, you're Man of the Match.

Commerce City Going A Little Loony Tomorrow Night

 

Minnesota isn't in Canada but close enough.  Tomorrow they're at DSG Park as the opposition for a Rapids team hoping to bounce back from that epic collapse in Sandy.  And Minnesota is without Reynoso, maybe their most talented (if not most dedicated) player, due off-field issues.  That said they're still a talented team that will push us hard.  Kickoff tomorrow is at 7:30 and the Dick has new menu items being rolled tomorrow.  Everything from Artic Cinnamon Nachos to Elote to Spicy Italian Sausage will be available starting tomorrow night.  Sounds like they listened to at least some of the complaints from last season.

Player Availability:

OUT: D Wayne Frederick (hip), M Kimani Stewart-Baynes (groin)

Not a bad injury report for the good guys.  Hopefully Djordje is fully heel-ed now (and got enough sleep as a new father).

This is what I think Armas will roll out there.  I'd like to see Vines get a week off and maybe Cabral too, but I think Armas sticks with his lineup.

Prediction: 1-1 draw, goal by Navarro.  We actually have a slightly better offense than Minnesota but, particularly after last week, a much worse defense.  I hope we see a good bounce-back performance from the Burgundy Boys because a bad outing after the games last week could really send our season into a spiral.  I think we look better but Minnesota is too good to expect us to beat them, so a draw seems likely.  Navarro continues his hot streak making the decision on him even tougher.

2024 Salaries

As I mentioned, last week the Players Union released the MLS salaries for 2024.  Rather than doing a bunch of rework I'm stealing this table from Burgundy Wave.  I hope Matt Pollard doesn't mind.

Name	Base Salary	Guaranteed Compensation
Kévin Cabral	$1,950,000	$1,950,000
Djordje Mihailovic	$1,350,000	$1,675,000
Rafael Navarro	$1,125,000	$1,452,708
Andreas Maxsø	$1,150,000	$1,342,500
Zack Steffen	$900,000	$900,000
Lamine Diack	$750,000	$864,150
Sam Vines	$850,000	$862,500
Cole Bassett	$850,000	$850,000
Sidnei Tavares*	$525,000	$750,600
Lalas Abubakar	$665,000	$702,125
Omir Fernandez	$575,000	$636,875
Connor Ronan	$470,000	$522,400
Marko Ilic*	$420,000	$442,850
Jonathan Lewis	$410,000	$435,000
Keegan Rosenberry	$400,000	$400,000
Sam Nicholson*	$350,000	$385,313
Miguel Navarro*	$300,000	$339,000
Aboubacar Keita*	$240,000	$270,313
Jasper Löffelsend	$230,000	$255,833
Sebastian Anderson	$150,000	$150,000
Michael Edwards	$130,000	$130,000
Calvin Harris	$125,000	$127,000
Moïse Bombito	$89,716	$107,928
Oliver Larraz	$100,000	$105,375
Darren Yapi	$89,716	$100,549
Daniel Chacón	$90,000	$97,750
Jackson Travis	$89,716	$92,216
Rémi Cabral*	$89,716	$89,716
Adam Beadury	$71,401	$75,568
Kimani Stewart-Baynes	$71,401	$72,401
Wayne Frederick	$71,401	$71,401
Nate Jones	$71,401	$71,401

The starred players have various exceptions to how they're being paid.  R. Cabral, Keita, M. Navarro, and Ilic are on loan and aren't counting against the cap (and likely their teams are picking up some or all of their salaries.  Tavares and Nicholson were waived by the Rapids so they're still getting paid by us, minus whatever they're making at their new teams.  In Nicholson's case we can subtract his Motherwell salary from that number.  For Tavares he's just playing for Porto B so presumably Porto is still charging us all of the agreed upon loan deal.

Lets take a look at this from bottom to top.  Everyone up to $400K base is arguably making the appropriate amount (or is underpaid in the case of guys like Bombito and Larraz).  I originally thought Harris was not living up to expectations but reviewing things for this post I realized we only paid $200K in GAM for him and he's only getting paid $150K, so I have to say he's doing a good job.  The next name on the list, Jonathan Lewis, is not.  At $410K for a winger that's played for only 101 minutes without a shot on goal is a lot, especially when we paid $650K in TAM to get him initially.  He paid 1188 minutes last season and had 1 goal with no assists.

The next major name standing out as being paid out of line with his contributions (ow or high) is Lalas Abubakar.  He's a top-10 paid player and yet is clearly a substitute as Maxso and Bombito are out playing him.  A max salary player is a lot of money to keep on the bench.

Next up is Cole Bassett, who is probably underpaid, certainly compared to the other top-10 names on this list.  He's even technically below Sam Vines.  Speaking of Sammy, he is not the player that left Colorado in the middle of 2021.  He had a disastrous night against FSL and despite the lack of an obvious replacement I think Armas really has to consider sitting him down for a couple of games to see if he can get back into his groove.  Right now he's not helping anyone at left back.

Now we get to the glaring red flag on this roster (well, one of two of them).  Diack.  On loan her through July he's played...16 minutes.  Essentially we've paid him $50K a minute so far.  Plus the loan fee, whatever it is.  This is a guy that was on loan to Nantes, the Rapids approached Nantes about acquiring him, and Nantes was convinced enough of our interest that they exercised their purchase option on Diack from his Turkish club so they could turn around and loan him to us with a purchase option.  And yet he can't even make the gameday roster for 2 of the 3 games in a 3 game week.  This is another Marko Ilic disaster and hopefully we've learned from that and don't exercise the purchase option.

Next up Zack Steffen, who's been Mr. Inconsistent this season.  He's had really bad games, like Portland and last weekend, but then he's also had some good games and made some impressive saves.  Unfortunately we need the 4th highest paid keeper in MLS to be more than inconsistent.  Using advanced stats he's currently the worst keeper in the league, but again that's largely due to the games he's been really bad in.

4th through 2nd, Maxsø, Navarro, and Mihailovic, all fall into the same category for me.  They are producing solid performances and mostly aren't hurting the team, but they aren't producing at a level to be top 5 paid players on their team.  Really the top 3 paid players because, as we'll get to in a second, the number for Cabral is misleading.  They need to step it up to earn their salaries (and transfer fees) but I don't get worried when I see them in the lineup.

Then we get to the other red flag on the roster, Kevin Cabral.  First of all the Galaxy are paying half his salary, so from the Rapids POV he's actually the 4th highest paid player, not the 1st.  Not that it changes anything, he's grossly overpaid for what he does.  Add to that we shipped $1m in GAM to LA just to get him and in the last season+ we've essentially spent just short of $3M on a player that's managed 1805 minutes, 3 goals, and 4 assists (and i think the assists have been generously helped with the use of secondary assists).  We knew it at the time and nothing in the last 48 games has changed this opinion.  
He is a horrible waste of salary, an international slot, and a DP slot and the best thing the Rapids can do is to use the new additional buyout being added midseason and move on from him.

So that's it.  Really we only have 4 players of note who are meeting or exceeding their expectations & salary (Bassett, Bombito, Harris, and Larraz), we have another group that are playing well enough but not up to expectations or just isn't getting enough time to know, and then a important group of high paid players who aren't anywhere close to earning their money.  Until we fix that we're only ever going to be a "in the hunt for a playoff spot" team.

After Disastrous RMC Game...

 ...there's only one thing to do.  The return of the long (very-long) dormant gif reaction recap!

Bassett puts the Rapids up by beating MacMath from long range just 5 minutes in

Navarro steamrolls us to a 2 goal lead inside 20 minutes

And then the Rapids immediately give a goal back

Rapids give another back before half

Djordje puts us back in the lead with 34 minutes to play

Less than 10 minutes to go and we're still leading?

FSL scores in the 85th minute

FSL scores in the 88th minute

FSL scored in the 96th minute

Rapids collapse, losing 5-3, conceding 3 goals in the last 6 minutes + stoppage, and losing their lead in the Rocky Mountain Cup

Nobody gets a Man of the Match for a game like this

Rocky Mountain Cup Available To Win

We don't need a lot of hype for this one.  With a win tomorrow night the Rapids claim the Rocky Mountain Cup.  Any other result means it will be decide in the third and final game of the season here in Colorado in July.  Right now Colorado is up 3 points (and 1 goal on goal differential), so a draw tomorrow means FSL must win in the game in July.  A loss tomorrow and Colorado is the one that must win in July.  Kickoff in Sandy is at 7:30.

Player Availability:

OUT: M Kimani Stewart-Baynes (groin)

QUESTIONABLE: M Djordje Mihailovic (heel)

We saw Mihailovic re-injure the heel that caused him to miss the NYCFC game on Wednesday night, where he called for an immediate sub.  The thought was post-game that it was light enough that he could still be available tomorrow.  Looks like its going to be a game-time decision.  FSL has 8 players listed as out or questionable, which will leave them thin in midfield.

Some guys are going to have to dig deep to go a third time this week.  Rosemberry might get the night off, due to being the elder statesman of the squad, but the rest have to be ready to go.  I think if Djordje isn't available then we go back to the 4-4-2/4-2-2-2 we used in NYC.

Prediction: 0-0 draw.  Cole, Oli, and Sam have to make sure the rest of the team, especially the newcomers, realize that this game means more.  Yes its #1 vs. #4 in the West but its also the date the fans circle every year.  Both teams have good defenses and are playing their third goal in a week.  A scoreless draw seems a little optimistic but I think we're going to see a lot of cagey play while the sides try to conserve what energy they have left, and in the end despite good looks from each side we split the points.

Rapids Do Just Enough To Get 3 Points

First of all the MLS salaries dropped today.  I'll have more about those next week, there's just not enough time in a 3-game week to get into them right now.  There's a lot to talk about though.

Back to last night's game where the team didn't play well, but they played well enough to get the 3 points.  Let's just talk about the turning point in the match, the PK and red card.  It was 100% correct and the Laws Of The Game are pretty black and white on this.

The best angle that Apple showed was from behind the goal.  From there you can clearly see the ball come off of Utvik's foot as he makes the block and head directly for the net until it glances off his arm and goes over the bar.  The goalkeeper wasn't getting there.  Clearly a hand ball, clearly stopped an obvious goal.  DOGSO-H.  

A lot of fans are hung up on both the changes to the handball rules and the changes to fouls in the box that used to be red cards (the double jeopardy changes).  Neither of those apply in this situation.  The LOTG are clear, a handball that prevents a goal is a red card anywhere on the field (unless its the goalkeeper in the box, of course).  It doesn't matter if it was intentional or not.  The only "out" is if the hand is in a natural position but a hand extended above the body as the defender makes a desperate lunge to stop a goal isn't natural.  Also DOGSO-H is explicitly excepted from the double jeopardy standard.  Its always a red.

Beyond that chance though, the team wasn't good, especially on offense (stop me if you've heard this before).  Djordje's shot that led to the PK was the only shot on target in the first half.  In the second half, despite being up a man, they only got three more.  Harris had two with a combined xG of 0.2 and Navarro had one with an xG of 0.07.  At least this game they had a number of chances that weren't quite on target but dangerous, which is a step up from some prior games.  Overall though, not being able to get a second goal and put the game away could have cost us.

Defensively there were some mistakes made that could have cost us, but Bombito and Steffen were on their games cleaning up anything that got by the rest of the back line.  Both Rosenberry and Maxso had serious mistakes that had to be dealt with and in general Rosenberry had a rough night.  Also once again missing from the gameday roster was Diack.  We're halfway through his loan period and he's had less than 20 minutes on the field.

Still good teams find ways to win when they aren't playing well and that's what Colorado did last night.  The Rapids have 3 more games this month, if they can get 7 points out of them they'll surpass their 2023 point total by the end of May.  They now have one more win than they did all of last year, and are only 5 goals away from matching their 2023 total.  This is undoubtedly an improved side, the question is still "how improved?".  We'll find out on Saturday as we head to Sandy with a chance to win the Rocky Mountain Cup.

Man of the Match: Zack Steffen.  He made two big saves just before the PK that kept the game scoreless, then parried a wicked long shot in the second half to keep the shutout going.

Wet Matchup On A Likely Wet Night

The only two MLS teams named after water features (of course there are only 9, or 12 depending on how you count United, MLS teams with official nicknames in their name) are matching up tomorrow night in Commerce City with PM thunderstorms forecast.  So it could be a damp night for those of you heading out to the game.  When I renewed my tickets this year I decided I was no longer interested fighting traffic for weeknight games.  Kickoff tomorrow for the middle game in this 3-game week is 7:30pm.

Player Availability:

OUT: M Kimani Stewart-Baynes (groin)

That's a nice injury report, not great that KSB is out of course but its good we're almost at full strength for this busy week.  Its really hard to predict a lineup for this one but:

We really don't know what Armas' strategy is with this kind of condensed schedule, especially with the Rocky Mountain Cup on Saturday.  I went with as much of a rotation as I could see happening, but Armas may just focus on the game in front of him and worry about Saturday after that.

Prediction: 1-1 draw, goal by Bassett.  If you subtract the disastrous first half on Portland then Vancouver and Colorado are very similar.  Just about an equal number of goals scored and allowed per game, though Vancouver has the same number of  points as the Rapids with a game in hand.  With the busy week I think a draw here is likely.

Rapids Beat By The Offside Rule

The Rapids came out on fire Saturday night, put 5 in the net, but only 2 that counted, then after the first 40 minutes fell on their faces en route to a 3-2 loss.  It was the most disappointing result since the season opener in Portland.  Certainly one step back after the steps forward of the last few games.

To get to the obvious point of discussion first, all three goals called back for offside were the right call.  On the first and third Navarro is obviously offside on the cross in.  On the second its a little more debatable but still the right call.  On the initial cross-field pass to start the attack Cabral is offside.  The ball wasn't played to him, so normally that wouldn't be a problem.  However he interfered with a defender who was moving to make a play on the ball.  If you watch the replay the defender has his back to Cabral and tracking the ball going over his head.  He then turns towards where the ball is going and immediately runs into Cabral.  The defender absolutely flops to sell the call but Cabral is standing right in his path to get involved in the play and by the offside rule. that's interference.

After the game Rosenberry suggested they never really recovered from the third goal being called off.  That's a concerning response to 40 minutes where they absolutely bossed San Jose up and down the pitch.  It feels like one of the first real failures by Armas, both not being able to stop the team losing their focus and not being able to adjust to what San Jose did at halftime.

Getting into specifics, the defense did a lot of ball watching on this one.  On the first goal there are 10 Rapids in or on the edge of the box, yet San Jose has two men unmarked with plenty of room at the penalty spot.  There was a deflection and a lucky bounce from Steffen's initial save but it was far too easy for SJ.

The second came from a nice touch by the Earthquakes, sending a corner back across the box to the left side of our defense, but the attacker came in the box again unmarked (or at least he completely beat the trailing Cabral).  And all the other Rapids were ball watching.

The winner came from another case of our defense marking space, not players.  For some reason, despite only two players over on the right side, our whole defense was overloaded to the right side with Sam Vines at LB being essentially at the penalty spot.  So it was a nice pass to cut the line but made easier with a whole half of the box being emptied.

You'll notice that "Sam Vines" and "left side" came up a lot in those descriptions.  As I mentioned last week the left back position is not one of our strengths right now, and its something we need to figure out ASAP.  I don't know if its the instructions Armas is giving Sam or if he's just struggling on his return but we're at the point that maybe sitting him down for a game or two to clear his head might not be a bad idea.  Certainly in a three game week maybe giving him Wednesday night off wouldn't be a bad thing.

Colorado is entering a tough stretch of games with four of the next five against Western teams in the top 4 right now (and the 5th is against 7th placed Houston).  Lets hope we don't come to regret these dropped 3 points.

Man of the Match: Rafael Navarro.  Yes he has to work on his offsides (though the third goal was really close) but he's finally putting back-to-back performances together.  He's got about two months to get on real tear to force us to make a decision.

One More Time

We just beat these guys 3-0 in their place a month ago, but the Earthquakes are in town for our second, and last, meeting of the season.  They've gotten better since then, signing Hernan Lopez as their #10 and a DP.  They pulled off an upset of LAFC last week with him coming off the bench at half.  I think we can expect him to start this week, but not play the full 90.  Kickoff is at the normal 7:30 at the Dick, and it could be a bit wet.

Player Availability:

OUT: M Kimani Stewart-Baynes (knee)

QUESTIONABLE: M Jonathan Lewis (knee), M Djordje Mihailovic (non-injury)

"Non-injury" almost certainly refers to the fact that his wife is due with their first child any day (it may possibly have happened and they haven't announced it yet).  What's notable is who's not on this list.  Connor Ronan.  I don't think he'll be starting tomorrow, even if Djordje isn't available, but it will be nice to see him on the bench as an option.

The team will wear the New Day kit for their home games during Mental Health Awareness month

This assumes Mihailovic won't be available.  In that scenario I think Armas stays largely with the lineup he used in NYC last week, though he gives Harris a rotational start.  This is the first time we'll get to see how Armas approaches a 3-games-in-a-week scenario, especially with a big rivalry game to finish the week out.  That could lead to some surprises.

If Mihailovic can go we probably go back to our 4-5-1 we've been using, with Yapi moving back to the bench.

Prediction: 2-1 win, goals by Bassett and Harris.  This is a hard one to pick without knowing how much Armas might rotate the squad.  If we get a full-strength squad (or as close as we can get to one) I think we can get the 3 points at home.  The expected rain will make for a sloppy game but Bassett finally gets a home goal as the winner.

Full Roster Info!

This actually happened last week but I was too busy to get to it.  The league, for the first time ever, released full roster info for all of the teams now that the primary transfer window has closed.  For the Rapids the information is below and also here:

Its a little small, so click to see it larger

What does this tell us that we didn't already have confirmed?  Not a ton.  It confirms that we currently have 6 international slots, all filled.  Navarro could be bought down to a TAM player on his current loan contract, though if we buy him for anything close to the reported price of $4.5M we'll lose that ability.  Michael Edwards is now the only Homegrown on the roster who didn't actually come through the Rapids Academy.  Diack, Steffen, and Vines are on TAM deals, while Bassett is on a U22 deal.

The real interesting thing (beyond just having this information all gathered in one spot for the first time) is the contract details.  We now know, for sure, when contracts run out for every player.  Well except for Bandre who was signed just as they were putting this together, but he's under a one year deal with options for the next two years as announced.  This coming offseason Jonathan Lewis is the only current Rapid that will be completely out of contract (loanees Diack/Navarro excepted).  I assume we aren't going to in a hurry to re-sign him.

We'll have a number of options to decide on.  Lalas Abubakar, Remi Cabral, Calvin Harris, Miguel Navarro, Keegan Rosenberry, Seb Anderson, Ethan Bandre, Moise Bombito, Michael Edwards, Nate Jones, and Oli Larraz are all going into option years   From where we are right now I could see us declining the options on Abubakar, Navarro, and Edwards, and possibly Jones and Rosenberry (with the hope to renegotiate with the captain).  I think Cabral gets picked up if he keeps his hot start in Phoenix going, Larraz will likely be picked up, and Bombito is a no-brainer.  Not sure about Anderson and Bandre.

Cole and Sam, and Mihailovic and Beaudry are under contract before we even get to options through 2027.  I think that people will largely be happy to have them here than long, but the hope for all four of them is probably to get back to Europe (or just to Europe in Beaudry's case).  Its interesting that after Lewis' contract ends at the end of the year, Sam and Cole are the only players without option years.  That shows a bit on what the team had to give up in negotiations to get them to re-sign here.

New York? More Like New Amsterdam

Cole Bassett took that experience he got in the Netherlands and brought it to New Amsterdam yesterday where he bossed the NYCFC defense for a goal and an assist en route to a 2-0 win.  He wasn't the Man of the Match (more on that later) but he was in the MLS Team of the Week.  Overall it was rather a chaotic game where the defense had to come up huge and the offense took advantage of their chances.

It really was a game of two halves.  In the first half the Burgundy Boys came out on the front foot, stayed aggressive, out shot NYCFC (7 shots and 2 shots on goal in the first half), and took a 1-0 lead and good vibes to the locker room.  The second half was a reversion to what we've seen a lot of the year, with a less aggressive team that didn't shoot (4 shots total) and who couldn't keep possession for long spells.  It wasn't until Bassett got the second in the 86th minute that it felt like we were likely to win, up to then it felt like we could fumble two points back to the Pigeons.

I don't know if it was the rain, the smaller field, the second road game in a row, or a combination of all of that but the ball possession and passing was very sloppy in this game.  There were long stretches of NYCFC attacking, the Rapids getting some sort of possession or controlled clearance, and then they would give the ball right back to the home side.  There was a particularly bad sequence where Fernandez gave it away, Cabral got it back, gave it away, then Vines let NYCFC play around him thinking (I assume) he had help that wasn't there.  Luckily New York couldn't hit anything on target so that series of mistakes didn't cost us.

Speaking of Vines, he's not the player he was when he went to Antwerp.  Over and over this game we saw wide open spaces on the left side, and this isn't the first game this season we've seen that.  His decision making is also slower than it was.  It does appear Armas wants him to pinch in more, not play the "Vines back" position on the line that he played under Hudson/Fraser, but that doesn't explain all of his struggles.  Hopefully he bounces back to his old self.

Navarro flashed the type of goal we've all been hoping to see with a great curled shot from about 14 yards out and on the side of the box.  Bassett did well to pick him out with a cross on the far post.  Cole then played an unintentional give-and-go with Harris (unintentional because I think Bassett wanted to lead Harris more to set him up for a shot but didn't pull it off, so Harris turned it into a give-and-go) to set himself up for the clinching goal.  That's now 9 goals between Navarro and Basset this season, all on the road.  Its also the third(?) time they've both scored in the same game.

A big hat-tip to the defense.  The commentator called them the Burgundy Forest during the match and I think that nickname is going to stick for a bit.  NYCFC kept sending cross after cross in and Bombito and Maxsø we're waiting to clear them back out.  The couple of times that the home side got a good look at goal they either sent it wide or Steffen was up for the save.

With the win the Rapids have equalized their win total from 2023 (5), only 11 games in.

Man of the Match: Moise Bombito.  Bassett was great, but it was Bombito who was everywhere breaking up NYCFC attacks and keeping the game scoreless and the Rapids on top.  Bassett sealed the game with the final goal but without Bombito he would have been retaking the lead, or tying the game.

Rapids Playing Somewhere In NYC On Sunday

The nickname given to NYCFC has been the Pigeons, some fans love it, some hate it.  They should really be the Wanderers though as they seem to play at whatever field will host them.  This week they're hosting the Rapids at the other baseball stadium, Citi Field, on Sunday afternoon.  Kickoff is an odd 2pm.  For whatever reason the Rapids haven't released an injury report this week, all we have to go on is Burgundy Wave's reporting from the open practice on Friday:

- Connor Ronan is back in full side team drills. Probably still 1-2 weeks out. But progress. Jasper Löffelsend back too. 

- Lewis and Chacon working together, not with full team. 

No comments about Abubakar and Vines, both of whom were Questionable last week, so I assume they're good to go (Vines started last week).  Beaudry is also back from his training stint in North London. 

I'm not expecting any changes from Armas this week.  Maybe he mixes up the wingers but that's it.

Prediction: 1-1 draw, goal by Bassett.  NYCFC has a worse offense and a better defense than us.  So I'm thinking these two teams are fairly balanced.  The wild card is the weird field in NYC.  I think that the teams largely bounce off each other and end up level.

Belated Review Of Rapids Being Shown Their Spot In the League

Sorry for the delay on this recap, rough couple of days here but moving in the right direction.  Much the same can be said about the Rapids this week, a rough game in Cincinnati (and a rough trip home) but overall the team is moving in the right direction.  In my preview I predicted a 1 goal loss (admittedly I said 1-0 and not 2-1) and that FCC would clearly be the better team but the Rapids wouldn't be played off the field, and that's essentially what happened.

On both of Cinci's goals they pulled an our defense apart and made passes that the Rapids are unable to accomplish with any regularity.  On the first Bassett failed to notice that the home side overloaded our right side and there were four attackers being covered by Bombito, Rosenberry, and Larraz.  The imbalance led to Bombito being forced to decide to step up to pressure the ball or stick with his man.  He chose to step up and the attacker released the ball behind him to the now unmarked attacker.

On the second goal Bombito needed to have a bit more trust in his teammates.  Larraz was beat but was close enough to still hassle the man with the ball but Bombito stepped up to help and again the attacker beat him with a pass.  Now a lot of MLS teams wouldn't be able to pull off those passes, but when you have a top 10 (top 5?) player like Acosta pulling the strings you're going to get burned.

I know I called Bombito out a lot there, but he wasn't as bad as he sounded.  On the first goal he was left stranded with no good decision.  On the second he did make a mistake but he owned up to it post-game, and again he got very little help.  He also made up for it by scoring a nice header to get back into the match.

In the end though, what really bit us is that we had 2, just 2, shots on goal.  Once again our inability to turn possession, even good attacking possession, into actual shots is our Achilles heel.