Consistently Inconsistent

For 55-60 minutes last night the Rapids were on the front foot and were in great shape.  Then the last 30-35 minutes turned into a house of horrors.  Mihailovic pulls up with a hamstring issue (Armas said post-game it was a cramp), Bassett hits the bar from inside the 6 yard box, Antony kills us again, Frederick loses his head and picks up a straight red, and Hansen fumbles a save.  End result, a 2-1 loss from a game that was an inch from being 2-0 Rapids in the second half.

We could go through the gory details of the meltdown but I want to focus on something different.  Namely the number of players that can't be counted on on this roster right now.  Djordje is clearly the team MVP and has a shout both for the National Team and the All-Star Game and a Best XI spot.  Outside of that though, how many people on this roster can be counted on to give a solid above-average (or even average) MLS starter performance game in and game out right now?  Especially if you take injury history into account.

If we focus on just our highest priced players, say above $500K, here's that list (in order from most to least paid):

• Cabral - Can't even be counted on to be a "super" sub
• Mihailovic - As mentioned, no concerns about him
• Navarro - Good work when he's on the field, but has missed 25% of starts
• Maxso - Not consistent enough in his play
• Awaziem - Maybe?  He's new so I'm not fully bought in, but close
• Steffen - This year, yes, last year, not so much, and he's missed 5 of 16 games
• Vines - LOL, very much no
• C. Bassett - He's had a rough first half, good, but not good enough
• Cannon - Very inconsistent IMO
• Ronan - A sub off the bench and not a consistent one

That's 10 players making over $500K, 3 of whom aren't starters and at least 2 others who I feel like we can't count on, arguably more when you add in Navarro's and Steffen's absences.  Mihailovic, Awaziem, and maybe Bassett are the only ones close to a sure thing.

That's a real problem when at least 5 of your top 10 and 2 of your top 5 paid players can't be counted on.  And we saw that last night.  Cabral was useless off the bench.  Mihailovic did it himself on the Rapids goal with a swerving run from midfield.  Navarro, Awaziem, Steffen and Bassett missed the game (or most of it) for injury or recovery from injury.  Maxso was caught out on both goals running back towards goal and marking space in both cases.  Vines was not involved despite being healthy.  Cannon was also caught out on both Portland goals running back towards the goal and marking really nobody.  Ronan was a late sub that did very little.

The Rapids have gone all in on draft picks, homegrowns, and playing kids.  The problem is when your best option for an injured Mihailovic is a raw Wayne Fredrick and your best option to replace Cole Bassett is his rookie younger brother you lose games like this.  The money going to Cabral and Ronan, for example, should be going to better backups for Cole and Djordje.  Until the roster construction is fixed, especially in midfield, the Rapids are going to consistently see-saw back and forth.

Colorado now has 10 days off until our home game against Austin, since the LAFC game on Saturday was move to July.  I'll be unavailable to do a preview for the Austin game so barring any news I'll likely be fairly quiet until after that game.  I home to do a recap though, should my time allow. and if not normal programming will resume with the Orlando match.

Man of the Match: Djordje Mihailovic, obviously.  The game turned on his cramp.

Midtable Battle For Midweek

Mount Rainier National Park, which can be seen from Portland

A quick turn around as we head to the Pacific Northwest (though not the best part) for tomorrow night's game against Portland.  As annoying as a midweek road trip is I think I'd take the home game on Saturday and trip to Portland over the Timbers playing in Orlando on Saturday and then flying home to host.  Even with our rain delay the burgundy boys were nicely home and in bed (or whatever) before the Timber's plane even flew over Colorado.  The Rapids are one point behind the Timbers in the standings and depending on other results a winner tomorrow could pass Seattle and LAFC.  Kickoff is at 8:30pm.

Availability Report:

OUT: GK Zack Steffen (oblique), D Keegan Rosenberry (non-injury, new parent), M Cole Bassett (ankle), M Ali Fadal (knee)

QUESTIONABLE: F Rafael Navarro (ankle)

That's not much better.  At this point we won't see Steffen in a Rapids kit until after the Gold Cup in July.  Hopefully the bye weekend will allow Navarro and Bassett to get healthy in time for the Austin game.

I think for the most part Armas sticks with the lineup from Saturday night.  He won't risk Navarro on turf with the long break coming up, at least as a starter.  He might be a sub if needed.  The only real change is Awaziem going in for Murphy.

Prediction: 1-1 draw, goal by Mihailovic.  The Timbers rolled us 3-0 for our first league loss back in March but I think we've figured a few things out since then.  In an midweek clash I think we can force a draw.  Both teams have the weekend off so there's no reason to save legs which should make this a little more intense than the average Wednesday game.

A Tradition Unlike Any Other

The now annual late spring/early summer Rapids tradition of a lightning delay returned on Saturday.  6+ minutes into the game the sky flashed and we all sat and waited for 100 minutes before everyone came out to play the other 83 minutes.  You never know how a team will react to a delay like that, we've seen some Rapids teams come out flat after a long delay.  On Saturday the team seemed unaffected by the long layoff and came out and played their game.

That was helped by a St. Louis team that seemed to be playing for a 0-0 draw or winning with a stolen counter-attack goal from the opening whistle.  They had two tightly spaced lines with a single striker roaming up front and for the most part they seemed happy to let the home side have possession.  That said, the first real big chance came in the 36th minute where a horrible misplay by Murphy left Toikirk off and running with only Hansen to beat.  Hansen, however, was up to the challenge and stoned the At. Louis attacker.  Steffen couldn't have done any better.  The slick field helped prevent an easy rebound goal.

5 minutes later Yapi made the visitors pay for not taking their chance.  A cross in from Ku-DiPietro found the homegrown striker.  After a little bit of pinball Yapi settled the ball, turned, and shot.  It took a deflection and beat Burki for the 1-0 lead.  Yeah it wasn't pretty but its the type of shots we've been missing this season.  Too often we're looking for the extra pass or the perfect shot and sometimes you just need to put the ball on net and see what happens.

In the second half Hansen had to make a big save right after the break to keep the score level.  Other than that St. Louis had one other good look when Maxso had his ankles broken and left a wide open opportunity, but it was put over the bar.  Meanwhile bot Yapi and KDP forced good saves out of Burki.  In the end a 1-0 finish was an accurate representation of the game.

The starting lineup had a couple of new faces.  Sam Bassett subbed in for his missing brother and KDP took Cabral's spot in the XI.  IT worked fairly well.  Clearly Cole is better than Sam but Sam handled himself well and Ted should be a regular starter.  It makes you wonder if Cabral's time as a starter is finally done when a rookie homegrown gets the nod over him.  Mihailovic wasn't his normal self in the game, though he was still great, after the game Armas said that he was battling illness.  There's a suggestion that might be what kept Awaziem out too.

Quick turn around for a trip to Portland on Wednesday, but then due to the Club World Cup playoff between LAFC and Club America we get 10 days off until Austin comes to town.  Both green teams are in the muddled middle of the West with Colorado, so its a good chance to make a move over these two games.

Man of the Match: Darren Yapi.  Not just for the goal but also because he was creating dangerous chances all night.  For the first time it feel like he's settling in as a solid backup/second striker.

Next Man Up?

Rocky Mountain National Park

St. Louis is in town for the second half of our season home-and-home matchup tomorrow night.  We might be facing our first weather delay of the season as wind, rain, and hail are potentially in the forecast for the Denver metro area on Saturday.  Yep, its that time of year.  The bigger issue is our list of absences is going to require some bench players to step up big tomorrow, especially with a second game in Portland on Wednesday.  Kickoff tomorrow is, hopefully, at 7:30pm.

Availability Report:

OUT: GK Zack Steffen (oblique), Chidozie Awaziem (non-injury), M Cole Bassett (ankle), M Ali Fadal (knee), F Rafael Navarro (ankle)

That's...very not good.  Arguably 4 of our best 5 players are missing.  No word as to what the non-injury issue is with Awaziem, hopefully everything is ok.  The silver lining is that he's one yellow from suspension so we know he won't be suspended for Wednesday's game if he's back.  Otherwise a lot of long-lasting injuries in Steffen, Fadal, and Navarro.  You have to wonder if the team needs more investment in their training and fitness staff and facilities.

As much as possible I think Armas will stick with what worked against FSL.  I think/hope he'll start Ted KDP.  The offense was noticeably better against FSL when he subbed in and he should start tomorrow.  The outside backs are a bit of a guess, it may come down to fitness and what kind of rotation the manager wants to use against Portland.

Prediction: 2-1 win, goals by Mihailovic and Cannon.  St. Louis is not a good team and their manager's seat is blistering hot.  I think even with the missing players the Rapids have enough to take the 3 points at home and quite possibly force a coaching change for City.  It would be disappointing to get anything less than a draw, even with our availability issues.

Chess Vs. Checkers

The Centennial 38 tifo on Saturday was Armas beating Pablo in a chess match played on the chessboard that is FSL's kit.  We didn't know that it would be a fairly accurate portrayal of the match.  We saw the 4-2-3-1 return with Mihailovic in the middle flanked by Cole and Cabral, and as expected Yapi up front.  While the first half was largely uneventful the Rapids best chance of the game (by xG) happened in the first 10 minutes as Larraz had a great shot saved.

In the second half things picked up, largely due to Armas' subs working better than Pablo's.  In the 58th minute Pablo swapped three players including pulling Diego Luna, the only player on FSL who's scored more than one goal this season.  At that point I started feeling better about our chance to get at least a point out of the game as it seemed unlikely FSL would score.  Three minutes later Armas sent Ted KDP on for Kevin Cabral and our offense got significantly better.

In the 70th minute Cannon, KDP, and Mihailovic overloaded FSL's left side to force pressure into the box.  This allowed Bassett to streak in and pick the pocked of a FSL defender on the edge of a goal area.  He was able to play a shot pass to Djordje who switched it to his right foot and put it far post for the lead.  Notably 5 minutes after the goal Pablo subbed in two strikers after seeing that his park the bus gambit did not work at all.

Both sides had one good look in stoppage time.  Right at the start of extra time Barea got Salt Lake's best look of the night (and by xG the best look of the game by either side) but put the shot wide.  Then 3 minutes alter Sam Bassett and Calvin Harris had a great break into the box but the defense got just enough in the way that Harris had to slow up his run before he ran offside just as Sam played the ball through for what would have been a one on one with the keeper from inside the 18.  If Harris had continued his run knowing Sam could get the pass off through the defense he would have still be onside.  Other than that last minute shot every other shot by FSL had less than a 0.1 xG, while every shot by Colorado had move than a 0.1 xG.  FSL had twice the shots but the Rapids had better shots.

This was a much needed "get right" game, and with another suffering team in St. Louis coming to down we've got a chance to get back up off the mat after that 5 game winless streak.  Especially now that due to LAFC's playoff with Club America on the 31st our 3 game week next week is now just a 2 game week so rotation won't be as necessary.  The LAFC game has been moved to early July (turning that into a 3 game week).  And to win a rivalry game, one where they've taken advantage of us far too often, without two of our three best players (Steffen, Navarro) is a good morale booster for the locker room.

Speaking of the rivalry, the Rapids take 3 points into the second Rocky Mountain Cup game of the season, which will be our last road game of the year.  In order to win the Cup FSL now has to win that match by at least 2, since a 1-0 win would go to the tiebreaker of "whoever has the Cup keeps it", and that's us for once.  Plus by that point in the season who knows what they might be playing for (or what me might be playing for).  The last time Salt Lake went into the final game of the RMC behind the 8-ball needing a result was 2016 where they had to win, a draw or a loss would have given the Cup to Colorado (of course they did).  The last time they came into a game needing a multigoal win was the prior year where they needed a two goal win (thank you Juan Ramirez) and didn't get it.

Man of the Match: Nico Hansen.  Get the call as the third string keeper that you're starting in a rivalry match and put up a shutout without ever really putting a foot wrong?  That's MOTM material.  Interesting that he's apparently moved past Beaudry on the depth chart.  Now that Beaudry is back from injury it will be interesting to see who gets the nod to be Steffen's backup on the bench.

Get. It. Done.

 

Great Sand Dunes National Park

Tomorrow is simple.  Get the three points, take the lead in the Rocky Mountain Cup, stabilize the season.  Anything less and we're looking up from the bottom of a deep hole.  We're going to have to do it without one of our top guys, but FSL is suffering too.  No excuses.  Kickoff tomorrow is at 7:30 and the first team game will be followed by the Unified Team taking on their counterparts from Salt Lake as well, with their Rocky Mountain Cup on the line.  The Unifed Team are two-time winners of the RMC and they go for the hat-trick (they only face each other once a season).

Availability Report:

OUT: M Ali Fadal (knee); F Rafael Navarro (ankle)

QUESTIONABLE: GK Zack Steffen

Do not like.  Apparently Steffen is likely to be available but I still don't like the question mark.  And not having Navarro could be crippling.  On the plus side FSL has 3 players out and 4 questionable, though only two of them have had significant minutes this season.

Yeah, I don't like this one much either.  I have to hope Armas realizes things aren't working and goes back to what did work, the 4-2-3-1 with Djordje in the middle and Bassett sitting in the hole behind him.  I picked Larraz over Atencio as I find them fairly equal right now so play the homegrown that understands the rivalry over the new guy.  The wingers are a pick-em.  I'm not sure we have good choices but this seems like the best options.

The key to this one is getting a midfield back and keeping Luna under control.  Awaziem and Maxso have to know where he is at all times, and the midfield cant' let FSL tee off on our goal.  Whatever we get out of Yapi up top is a bonus.

Prediction: 2-1 loss, goal by Mihailovic.  FSL breaks our hearts with a late goal to win, again.  Given our run of form and Navarro being out I just don't see where we get points in this one.  Hopefully they can prove me wrong but I'm not getting my hopes up.

Rapids In A Tailspin

Colorado currently looks like a team without a plan, especially in midfield.  This was very evident in last night's game as, outside of individual efforts from Djordje Mihailovic, the Rapids had nothing to combat San Diego and their press.  When the new guys scored to take the lead in the first half it was on their 14th shot.  Colorado had 1 at that point.  It didn't get much better from there.  By the second half subs it felt like Armas was just throwing things a the wall to see if something stuck.

We go into the Rocky Mountain Cup on a 5 game winless streak and 1 win in the last 7.  We've been outscored 13-7 in that time and notably Seattle is the only team we've held to a single goal.  ITs hard not to think that Saturday's game is a turning point in our season.  A win and we stabilize things, get turned around, and can move forward.  A loss and FSL passes us in the standings and we're looking at a long climb to get back into things or another lost season.  A draw isn't much better than that except it keeps FSL behind us.

Really Armas needs to figure out a set midfield that puts our best players in the best position to succeed.  I think that's Mihailovic in the middle and Bassett behind him.  If that means Atencio or Larraz goes to the bench, fine.  Then figure out our best wingers (we spent a bunch on KDP, start him) and hope they can help.  This  assumes Navarro is back, if we have to start Yapi or Cabral up front I don't feel like there's much hope.

Man of the Match: Djordje Mihailovic.  We had 5 shots on goal, Djordje had 4 of them.  Yeah he had a meh PK that was saved but he was the only one creating anything out there.  Only Larraz, Cabral, and Bassett even registered an xG total outside of Mihailovic, and they were all 0.2 or less.

Our First Trip To San Diego

Joshua Tree National Park

Colorado will play its sixth game against a California side tomorrow night as they finish their season series against San Diego with their first trip to the coastal city.  Interestingly we've played our two games against the San's before playing either of our games against the LA teams (not counting the CCC matchup).  The Rapids need to get out of their funk with no wins in the last 4 before the Rocky Mountain Cup match this weekend.  Luckily nobody is on yellow card warning so barring a red card discipline should not be a problem going into the rivalry match.  Kickoff from sunny SoCal is at 8:30pm tomorrow.

Availability Report:

OUT: M Ali Fadal (knee); F Rafael Navarro (ankle)

Uhoh.  I guess that ankle knock Rafa got on Saturday was worse than we hoped.  If the trade off of not having him travel tomorrow is that he can start on Saturday I'm ok with that sacrifice.  But if he's out multiple games that's not good.

I think we're going to see some rotation due to the three game week and a reverting to the 4-2-3-1 due to Navarro's injury.  Plus it might be time to shake things up and see if we can get a different result.  Our lack of forward depth is showing with Rafa out.  I assume Yapi gets the start but it could be one of the Harris' or Cabral up front.

Prediction: 2-0 loss.  Maybe Mihailovic gets one on a set piece but otherwise the way we've played recently and without Navarro I don't have much hope.  San Diego's possession game wilted under our pressure in the home match but a lot of that came from Rafa's work rate.  I think SD is much more successful this time around.

Second Verse, Same As The First - 2025 Edition

If you watched either the game in DC a week ago or the San Jose game Saturday night you watched both games.  The Rapids have a strong first half, don't convert their advantage into a good enough lead, go behind in the last 5 minutes of the first half, then come out flat and never really threated in the second half and lose the game.  If anything Colorado showed less fight in the second half this week than they did last week, though at least on Saturday they got a couple shots on target in the second half.  Once Awaziem made the critical error that led to the second San Jose goal though it was obvious to everyone in the stadium that the home team wasn't coming back.

4 games winless and 1 win in our last 6.  Now we face a tough trip to the flying high expansion San Diego and a Rocky Mountain Cup derby in the next 5 days.  Right now you have to favor that winless streak extending to 6 games.

Really, to right this ship we need to get 4 points in those two games and the win needs to be Saturday over FSL.  We can probably get aw ay with 3.  Anything less and its going to start looking like a lost year without a massive change.  And we're going to have to seriously ask if Chris Armas is who we thought he was when he was hired.  As Juanners pointed out on BlueSky, Armas is in a contract year and there's been no hint of him signing an extension.  That raises an eyebrow.

Coincidentally, Gary Smith was in attendance at the Dick this weekend.

Man of the Match: Rafael Navarro.  He had great passing all night.  His outburst when he was subbed off could be taken one of two ways.  Either he was upset about the ankle injury he picked up right before the sub or he was upset about being subbed off.  Neither is a great sign but I think the former is better long-term than the latter.

One More Time

 

Black Canyon of the Gunnison

Outside of our CCC matches against LAFC tomorrow's matchup with the Earthquakes is our first repeat of the season.  Two months ago it was a late Calvin Harris goal that got us the 3 points in California.  Once again though we had fallen asleep at the end of the first half to give SJ their one tally.  We need to play a full 45 minutes twice tomorrow and get this dip in form turned around.  This is also the first week where we have 3 league games with a trip to San Diego on Wednesday before the home leg of the Rocky Mountain Cup next weekend.  Kickoff tomorrow is at the normal 7:30pm.

Player Availability:

OUT: GK Adam Beaudry (ankle), M Ali Fadal (knee)

A great availability report.  Even if healthy neither Beaudry or Fadal would expect to get time in this game.  Fadal likely wouldn't make the gameday squad.  Also the Michael Edwards loan to Charlston was made official in midweek.

With everyone available I expect Armas to go with a pretty standard lineup for the new 4-2-2-2.  I think to "fix" the defense we see Vines and Rosenberry back in on the wings but I don't know that those areas were really the problem.  Perhaps Keegan's experience can help.

Prediction: 2-2 draw, goals by Mihailovic and Navarro.  I think we're a better team than San Jose and we should be winning this one.  But until I can see us get through a game without failing at the end of the half I can't trust us against an offense as good as the Earthquakes.  I think this is going to be 2 points we fumble away.  We need to figure this out before FSL in a week.

Rapids Appear To Be Stuck In Dallas Too

As could have been easily predicted something went wrong with Armas' plans to get to DC (his plane had mechanical difficulties) and he was stuck in Dallas.  The rest of team acted like they were there with him.  The exact same problems we've been seeing this season continued, namely an inability to get shots on target and an inability to finish halves.

In this case Yapi scored off an assist by Navarro in the 43rd minute (our first score in the last 5 minutes of a half this season) only for DC to score twice before halftime.  That's now 11 of 18 goals given up in the last 5 minutes of the half across all competitions.  Then we spent the second half not getting a single shot on target despite being behind.  I could go over the game in more detail, but really it boils down to that.  We need to finish halves and actually shoot, otherwise we're going to be consistently inconsistent all season.

So lets move on to more interesting news.  Tom Bogert had two interesting roster notes yesterday.  One, Michael Edwards is being loaned to the Charleston Battery for the season.  With Nate Jones already loaned to Vegas that means there's no extra depth in defense.  The group we've seen (Rosenberry/Cannon/Awaziem/Maxso/Murphy/Vines/Travis) is what we have to work with.

That depth will apparently get better next season though, as Bogert also reported that the rumors about the Rapids being interested in Australian youth-international defender Lucas Herrington are about to become something real with the final details being worked out on a deal.  He would join from Australian club Brisbane Roar in January.  Herrington is a 17-year old central defender who was reportedly highly sought after by European but apparently has seen the Rapids success in moving defenders to Europe (vines, Trusty, Bombito) and feels this is the next step.

Man of the Match: Rafael Navarro.  Just for the cheeky chip he used to set up Yapi's headed goal.  That was class.

From Seattle to Washington

 

Thomas Jefferson Memorial, my favorite of the many NPS sites in DC

The Rapids are in our nation's capital tomorrow night to face DC United.  Hopefully by game time their coach will be there too.  Chris Armas is currently in Dallas where he's getting the well-deserved honor of being inducted in the National Soccer Hall of Fame tomorrow.  The HoF has arranged the ceremony so that he will be the first of the 5 inductees to go tomorrow afternoon which, if everything goes right, will let him leave and fly to DC in time to get to the game by kickoff.  One might suggest that a little more coordination between U.S. Soccer and MLS could have prevented a scenario where one of the inductees was scheduled to coach a match over 1000 miles away from the HoF on inductee weekend.  Kickoff tomorrow is at 5:30 MT.  C38 is running a bus up to Lariat Lounge Brewing in Evergreen for the watch party.

Player Availability:

OUT: GK Adam Beaudry (ankle), M Cole Bassett (calf), M Ali Fadal (knee)

Well Bassett being out isn't ideal I did suggest in my writeup of the Seattle game that he was pressing and maybe needed a break so maybe there's a silver lining to it.  This is the beginning of a busy month with two midweek-matches, including one leading into the Rocky Mountain Cup match in two weeks, so extra rest shouldn't hurt.

There are a few options on who could replace Bassett.  I think the obvious one is Ronan, but we could see Cabral out wide or even Yapi dropping back.  But I think Ted Ku-DiPietro will be extra motivated to go against his old team and Armas will look to use that.

Prediction: 2-1 win, goals by Mihailovic and Navarro.  DC is struggling this season, especially on defense.  Colorado should be able to take advantage and pick up 3 points, even if Armas can't be there as part of the pregame.