Leagues Cup 2025

 

Tomorrow night the defending 3rd place Rapids kick off their Leagues Cup 2025 campaign with a home match against our old friends Santos Laguna.  The competition has undergone some radical changes this season.  Out are the 3 team groups, in is a cross-league Phase 1 of the competition.

In Phase 1 the 18 playoff teams from last season (one exception, due to their CCC and Canadian Championship play Vancouver has been replaced by San Diego) face the 18 Liga MX teams.  The 36 teams have been broken down into six 6-team pods.  Each team in the pod plays the three teams in their pod from the other league, in the Rapids' case that's Santos Laguna, Club Tijuana, and Cruz Azul.  The top 4 teams from each league across the six pods will move on to the quarterfinals where each matchup will be Liga-MX - MLS.

So we are no longer trying to win our group, we are trying to be one of the 4 best MLS teams in the competition.  And, as the lowest MLS team in the group we play one game on the road while the other two teams in our group get three home games.

Looking back at the last Clausura Santos Laguna finished deal last and Tijuana finished 13th.  Cruz Azul finished 3rd.  The prior Apertura Santos Laguna once again finished last, Tijuana was 7th, and Cruz Azul won the whole thing.

So tomorrow night's game is absolutely winnable and Sunday against Tijuana is a game we can win.  Next Thursday in LA against Cruz Azul?  We will not be the favorites in any way.

So because of all of that, we shouldn't prioritize this competition this year.  I know our run last year was the high point of the season, but the situation was different.  One, we were solidly in a playoff spot needing only a few more points to clinch one when the Leagues Cup started.  Two, the league took a break for a month to play Leagues Cup so we didn't have to balance the playoff fight with the Cup.  The Rapids play a league match in Minnesota a week from Sunday.  We can't run out the starters tomorrow night, Sunday, Thursday, and Sunday again without ending the season like we did in 2024, with no energy and racking up loss after loss.

Plus this season with the format change, just getting one home win doesn't get us to the knockouts.  We need more than 6 points probably to have a shot.  So throw out the starters tomorrow night, play the kids against Tijuana, and then see where you stand going against Cruz Azul.  Unless the odds are very good that 1 point will get us through against the Liga MX giants we should throw the reserves to the wolves and rest the starters for league play.

No prediction for this one as its impossible to know what Armas is thinking right now.  A quick recap of the game plus a preview of Tijuana on Fri/Sat.

Rapids Get Flattened In Philly

It was an ugly game in Philly Saturday night.  I won't go through the blow by blow since this recap got delayed but more general thoughts.

• A pretty goal by the Rapids even with Bassett hitting the bar.  Nice to see the Bassett-Mihailovic-Navarro combo working well
• That was the only combo that worked on Saturday night.  Its like the team forgot the concept of midfield possession.
• The wingers, especially Harris, had an awful night.  Just when you thought we had settled on a couple of starters they lay an egg like that.
• Harris was also responsible for losing his man on Philly's first goal.  Though I have to question the tactics of covering a corner in a way that leads to the dangerous number 9 being marked by a right winger.  That should be Maxso or Murphy.
• Murphy...is not the solution to fill the CB hole.  Rob Holding or somebody else needs to show up soon.
• Colorado had one shot on target (the goal) and 4 total shots.  Philly had 30 shots, 11 on goal.  You can't win a game with that level of discrepancy.
• The Rapids have given up 2+ goals in the their last 9 road games.  The last time they didn't was the 2-1 win in San Jose on March 15th.  That was also their last road win.
• We gave up two goals late, again, but in reality being the last 5 minutes didn't really factor into it this time.  Philly was going to get a winner, with their level of pressure and they did.  Then the Rapids pushed up to find an equalizer and gave up a third.
• Only using 3 subs, and Sam Bassett being the 3rd, was an interesting choice that did not work for Armas.  MLS Analytics had Sam Bassett with the lowest G+ on the Rapids (and lowest in the game).  The bottom 5 were Cannon, KDP, Maxso, Harris, and S. Bassett.
• If the playoffs started today the Rapids would be the 9 seed and play the wild card game on the road...in Sandy.

Man of the Match: Zack Steffen.  Without him this is a 5 or 6 goals against game.  At least.

Rapids Make 249th Birthday Pilgrimage to Philly

 

Independence Hall National Historic Park

Since they're in Philly this year the Rapids likely won't be able to visit for the country's 250th birthday next season.  Barring some kind of Cup matchup that is.  Tomorrow night they take on a Union team that's just a point off the Supporters Shield and tied for second in the East.  A tough task for the visitors, but coming off of games against LAFC, Vancouver, and Seattle they should be used to it by now.  Kickoff for this one is at 5:30pm and there's a gathering at the Celtic to watch the game after the NWSL Denver Summit kickoff event downtown.

Availability Report:

OUT: Connor Ronan (ankle)

Not ideal for Ronan to be out but with the hole in the backline after Awaziem was sold I think Larraz or Atencio were more likely to start anyway.  Nice not to see anyone else on the list.

Tomorrow night is the debut of the new green third kit and I'm looking forward to that.  The real question is how Armas chooses to fill the Awaziem hole.  I think he'll minimize the changes and leave Cannon on the right and Keegan in the middle, but I could see those reversed.  A possibility Murphy starts as well.  Cobb might be on the bench but I'd be surprised if he saw time.

Prediction: 2-1 loss, goal by Mihailovic.  Based on their recent play I wouldn't be totally shocked by a draw here, but I think this is a steep hill to climb while rebuilding the back line.  Philly bosses the game and gets the win but Djordje gets one off a set piece (or at worst assists one off a set piece).

Rapids Loan Cobb, Agree With Holding?

Two quick player updates in this post with my Philly game preview immediately following.  Colorado has taken Atlanta United centerback Noah Cobb on loan for the rest of the season with an option to buy him.  Atlanta will get $100K GAM   Cobb is 20 years old and came up through Altanta's academy.  He's also played for the U.S. U-20 team.  He's made 3 starts and 13 appearances for the Five Stripes this season after 13 starts and 19 appearances last season.

Cobb has some really good passing instincts and is good in the air.  I wouldn't expect to see him starting regularly this season but it gives us some depth with Awaztiem gone.  He's not a direct replacement though. for that we're still looking at Rob Holding.

Speaking of, EFL Analysis is reporting that the Rapids and Holding have come to terms and he'll be flying in for his physical this weekend.  That has yet to be confirmed by anyone else yet, but they also report it would be a free transfer.  I also found out today that Holding's girlfriend is not an American, as I had earlier heard, but Icelandic striker Sveindís Jane Jónsdóttir, who recently signed with Angel City FC of the NWSL.  So that's one draw for him to the States.  Denver is a lot closer to LA than London.

Au Revoir Awaziem

The expected transfer of Chidozie Awazeim to FC Nantes in Ligue 1 was made official this morning.  Terms of the deal were not announced but Burgundy Wave is saying the transfer fee is around $1.5M, with an expectation of 10-20% of that going back to Cincinnati.  Colorado paid Cinci $1M of GAM to get Awaziem and Murphy.  So we're going to come out a little ahead on this by getting Murphy and some money we can use other ways while getting our $1M of GAM back.

One target of that money appears to be English center-back Rob Holding, who Bogert is reporting (and confirmed by Burgundy Wave and the Post) is in discussions with the Rapids.  Holding is a 29 year old who made 98 appearances over 7 seasons with Arsenal (KSE connection).  Since 2023 he's been with Crystal Palace where he almost immediately had a falling out with the manager and was relegated to the reserves and U-21 team though he made 11 appearances for Sheffield United on loan in the Championship earlier this year.

According to Tom Holding also has an offer from an English team, so we have to hope MLS and the Rapids aren't being used as the stalking horse for him to drive up his contract to stay in England.  That said I did see today that his long-term girlfriend is American so he might have a reason that he wants to come to MLS.  Somebody who had a training blow-up with his manager has some concerns (see Aigner, Stefan) but you would hope the Rapids have access to Arsenal's information and know what they're getting.  He would be an unusual signing for Smith and Taylor, being on the backside of his career, but we need immediate help at CB, not "potential" so that's not a bad thing.

What Is it? It Is...Its Green

 

Its been a busy week so I'm just now getting around to talking about the new third kit.  My first impression was "that's it?".  After some time I've refined my take.

This is a good, possibly great, third kit.  This is not a good 30th anniversary throwback kit.

During the lead up to the reveal the Rapids used the wave theme you see on the old logo in the center of the kit a lot.  The 90's were also known for bold kits with memorable designs (not to mention baggy fits).  This is...not that.  Take a look at the 1996 home kit (below) and the 1999 away kit (in the upper left corner of the image above):

They have bold colors and interesting design elements.  The throwback kit is a green polo with the old logos put on it.  Compared to the rest of the throwback kits revealed on Wednesday it looks the least "90's" (in fact its on the bottom of a number of rankings of the kits).  It feels like the Rapids dropped the ball on the design of this one based on its intended purpose.

Like I said though, as a general third kit its pretty good.  I like the Balboa bike on the jock tag and the use of both old logos.  The shade of green is perfect.  And I really like that part of the proceeds go to a charity of Balboa's choice and its the Boulder Humane Society.  There's also a nice touch that the UC Health sponsorship has been moved to the back below the numbers, right where the old Pepsi logo used to be.  I would love it if this became part of our regular rotation in future years and wasn't just a one-year and done kit.

Of course the elephant in the room is the price, which the Rapids have nothing to do with.  These kits are $110 for the replicas and $150 for the authentics.  That is disgusting by Adidas.  Looking at English teams Aston Villa's Adidas kit is similarly priced but Nottingham Forest's is $86 (plus shipping from the UK).  Leeds United, in the Championship, is $94.  My Blackburn Rovers are outfitted by Macron and are selling their new kits for $80.  MLS needs to step in here and tell Adidas to cut prices by like 30%.

The Rapids will wear these kits four times this season.  Their next game, against Philly, will be the fist time and the only time on the road.  They'll wear them in their next home league match on August 16th when Balboa's number gets retired.  They'll also wear them on September 27th against Minnesota and on the final day of the season against LAFC.  I kind of want them to wear them in the Rocky Mountain Cup match in Sandy the week before that too, but they won't be (at least as of now).

Two Out For Sure, Third Probable, One In Possibly?

I was going to spend today focusing on the new kit but that's going to have to wait for the weekend because the Rapids had a busy day of roster moves today.

The big one was that Kevin Cabral has been waived.  This immediately frees up a DP slot that can be converted to a U-22 slot if we want.  There's now sugar-coating this, Cabral was a disastrous signing that not only hamstrung us for 2.5 seasons but also helped the Galaxy, who went on to win a  MLS Cup in that time.  On December 2nd 2022 the Galaxy were fined $1M, had $1M of GAM taken away, and were put on a transfer ban in 2023 for international players due to not reporting Pavon's salary correctly and cheating the cap.  This put LA in a bind as they had no open DP slot and little flexibility to bring in helpful signings from around the league (inter-league moves were outside the ban).

Enter Padraig Smith 6 days later, who gave LA $1M in GAM for Cabral, instantly making them hole on GAM after the fine and opening their DP slot for the flexibility they needed while under the ban.  All this for a player who looked out of place in MLS while playing for LA.  It was a bad move on it face and Cabral's play proved it.  He started less than half the games while he was here, played 3772 minutes across 2.7 seasons across all competitions (34 game regular season is 3060 minutes, plus playoffs, CCC, and Leagues Cup) and had 7 goals and 5 assists.  Those are MLS bench warmer numbers and for this he was getting paid $2.2M a year, half of which was paid by the Galaxy.

Its not hard to make the argument that he is the second worst DP signing in team history behind Juan Ramirez, and unlike Ramirez we knew how he would react to MLS since he had been in LA for two seasons (1689 minutes) and scored 6 goals with 0 assists.  The decision to trade for him alone is enough to explain why Padraig Smith should not have any say in player moves, before we get to any other mistakes.

The good news is that cutting him free instead of letting him finish his contract and be released in the offseason is a sign that the Rapids are willing to do something this window.  We'll get to that in a second after we go over the other move today and an update on Awaziem.

After announcing Cabral's departure the Rapids also announced that goalkeeper Adam Beaudry has been loaned to the Switchbacks for the rest of the season.  This is a logical move to get him playing time above MLS Next PRO now that Hansen has surpassed him for the number 2 spot.

Braidon Nourse at the Denver Post, among others, is reporting that the Rapids are finalizing the deal to send Awaziem to Nantes.  Its now a matter of not if, but when. he leaves it seems.  I would expect it to happen before the Philly game next week but it would be very helpful if they could work it out for him to be here for that one.  The transfer window for incoming players doesn't open until Thursday and with the Rapids not linked with any CB's right now the odds of us filling his spot before the Philly game 48 hours after the window opens is essentially nil.  That means some combination of Cannon, Rosemberry, Murphy, and Atencio would need to play CB in Philly.  That's not a great set of options.  Still, I expect the deal to get done early next week.

Lastly there is a rumor about what the Cabral move is setting up.  Before today the Rapids had 3 DP's (Navarro, Mihailovic, Cabral) and 3 U-22 players (Bassett, Atencio, Ku-DiPietro) which meant we were limited to TAM deals to bring in anyone new.  The league allows teams to move from the 3+3 model to a 2 DP + 4 U-22 model if they want.

Enter Alexis Manyoma.  Multiple sources are reporting the Rapids interest in the Colombian winger who currently plays for Argentinian side Estudiantes.  Tom Bogert, however, is suggesting they are considering him as a U-22 signing, something that wasn't possible until Cabral was waived today.  Right now the reports point to a loan with an option to buy.  Transfermarkt shows his value at $1.7M.  He turned 22 this year and was an off and on starter in this year's Apertura, with no goals or assists in 369 minutes of play.

Look I'm going to be blunt.  We've all seen this story before.  Smith goes out and finds a young player to bring in at midseason on a loan to buy, and then (Navarro excepted) either the player doesn't work out out or the agreed on price in the buy option is higher than we want to pay and we let him go.  I don't see why Manyoma will be any different.  He's clearly another prospect with "potential", not somebody who's going to have an immediate impact on results.  I'll get excited about this move when he shows up and is able to contribute regularly at MLS level.  AKA, when he's better than Cabral.

A Tale Of Two Halves

Back to back surprising results from this team, but last night they made us work for it.  Colorado started out like many trips to Seattle, falling apart early and digging themselves a hole they couldn't get out of...until they did.

The Rapids were under heavy pressure early and it was obvious they were going to break.  The eventual goal was a weak one, a rolling shot from Vargas that Steffen moved to cover only to see it deflect off Maxso and leave the keeper sprawling.  Unfortunate but deserv3ed based on the play.  Colorado fought back and was dangers in the middle of the half, forcing Seattle's backup keeper, Thomas,  to make a couple of huge saves but as always our lack of finishing came back to bite us.  A poor backpass from Awaziem left Steffen to scramble out of the penalty area deep in the far corner.  Steffen cleared it poorly and Mihailovic was beaten on the resulting header.  That left a wide open goal for Rusnak to finish in as Steffen was slow to scramble back to cover.  Another goal conceded in the last 5 minutes of a half and the visitors looked pretty cooked entering the locker rooms.

It got worse right after the break as Seattle stormed out and found a third goal.  Rusnak was left unmarked at the top of the box and didn't miss.  3-0 and that's all she wrote.

And then Seattle fell apart.  2 minutes after going up 3-0 a bad touch in the box led to Navarro pouncing on a loose ball only to be kicked in the back of the leg ad the ref pointed to the spot.  Mihailovic stepped us and made sure we weren't going to be shut out.  And then 3 minutes later a through ball into the box was gotten to by Navarro just before Thomas and Thomas hauled Navarro down.  The ref pointed to the spot again and Bassett stepped up this time to make it 3-2.  8 minutes into the second half and Seattle went from a 2-0 lead to a 3-0 lead to a 3-2 lead.  Colorado had all the momentum at this point.

Just 2 minutes later Thomas came up with another big save to deny Cannon an equalizer.  Suddenly it was the Sounders on their heels and mentally they broke.  Roldan and Ferreira picked up yellow cards in the 72nd minute as Roldan kicked a ball away and Ferreira complained about Roldan's card.  Right after that Yapi found himself in the box 5 minutes after he came on, beat a couple of defenders, and slotted the ball home on the far post to level the score.  Seattle was sill spiraling with Kee-Hee getting a card for hacking down Mihailovic and Ragen immediately getting a card for complaining about it (to be fair, Mihailovic sold the foul and worked the ref on it).  At this point both teams were out of gas, they combined for 1 shot (by Seattle) after Colorado equalized.

• 19 days ago the Rapids gave up a 3 goal lead for the first time ever in New England, allowing the Revs to come back from a 3 goal deficit for their first time ever.  Last night the Sounders gave up a 3 goal lead for the first time ever and the Rapids came back from a 3 goal deficit for the first time in their history.
• It turned out to be a big point as the other teams in the playoff race picked up points as well.  On PPG the Rapids are on the outside looking in by 0.01 PPG behind.  FSL.  Their undefeated in 5 with 4 wins.  Meanwhile Houston has dropped off a cliff.  Its now FSL, Austin, and San Jose fighting Colorado for the last three playoff spots.  The 4 teams are separated by 0.11 PPG.  Colorado is closer on PPG to Austin in 7th than Houston right behind them in 11th.
• Lots of complaints from the Sounders about the officiating, but the penalties were obvious and the yellow card for kicking the ball away was obvious.  That said there were a couple of advantageous calls.  The decision to stop the game while the Sounders had possession and Mihailovic was still down was beneficial.  And late in the second half Steffen restarted play with a short pass to Awaziem that Chido wasn't ready for and Seattle pounced on it.  For some reason the ref stopped the play and told Steffen to redo the restart.  That was a gift.
• Awaziem did not have a good game.  That pass he wasn't ready for, the poor backpass on the second goal not great.  Unfortunately it might be his last game in burgundy as it sounds like a deal with Nantes is all but done (more on this tomorrow).
• I was all set to light into Steffen for his weak play on that second goal.  From clearing the ball to appearing back on screen it was 607 seconds and he still wasn't back between the pipes.  After the game though Armas said he was playing with illness, which certainly could have left him pretty tired by the end of the half.
• On the PKs Armas also said that Mihailovic has the call.  He took the first and he made the call on the second to have Basset take it.  It worked.  Stick with that plan going forward.
• This team needs to learn to clear the damn ball.  Multiple times, especially late in the game, they got far too cute trying to play it out of the back.  Sometimes just blasting it out of danger is ok.  Sam Vines in particular tried two short chips that did not work and immediately had Seattle coming right back at goal.  A poor night overall for him.
• Cannon  struggled in the first half, as did Harris.  The whoile right side was not in sync.  Harris never found the game and eventually came off for Yapi but Cannon settled in and had a strong second half.
• I really hate Rusnak.  You'd think some of the old-timers (Bassett, Vines) would have warned the team about how many times he burned us at FSL, instead he was left wide op on his second goal.
• Mihailovic had a goal and an assist, Navarro earned the two PKs, and Bassett had his best game in a while.  Getting those three clicking is key to the rest of the season.
• The team has 10 days off now before a game in Philly after the All-Star Game.  Nobody was selected for the ASG roster so they should all be able to get some rest.

I'll have updates on Awazime, a new loanee, and a take on the 3rd kit tomorrow.  After that, barring news, we'll also take a break for a week before the Philly game.

Man of the Match: Darren Yapi.  His equalizer might be the best goal, technically, he's scored for the club.  He's certainly making it harder for me to argue we need a quality striker backup still.

Heading Home (Mine At Least) For An Away Game

Olympic National Park

Our favorite place to play, Seattle, is on tap for tomorrow night.  Before LAFC showed up in the league this is where Rapids dreams went to die.  ITs not much easier tomorrow with the short rest but the good news is that Seattle is more beat up than us.  The bad news is that the Sounders, like normal, are a better team than us.  Kickoff tomorrow is at an odd 8pm MT.  The Rapids are also launching their new throwback kits tomorrow and will have gear for sale at the watch party at DNVR.

Player Availability:

OUT: GK Nico Hansen (groin); M Wayne Frederick (hip), M Alex Harris (ankle)

Nico being out is a lot less concerning now that Steffen is back.  Beaudry on the bench for this one.

I think Armas largely runs out the same lineup as Saturday, though he holds Vines back since he's just returned from injury and Seattle plays on turf.  Otherwise he askes the guys to dig deep and find one more game before a 10 day break.

Prediction: 1-0 loss.  We looked better on Saturday, but not so good that I'm going to predict getting points in Seattle.  The Sounders are undefeated in 3 and have won 5 of their last 10 (drawing 2 others).  We are still coming off a bad patch and don't play well in the Emerald City.

Awaziem to France? USMNT To Commerce City?

Two pieces of news before the Seattle preview later tonight.  The big news is that French sports newspaper L'Equipe is reporting that there's a deal on the table for Chido Awaziem to return to Nantes, where he played the 2018-19 season on loan.  L'Equipe is as good as it gets in sports reporting in France and really all of Europe (they are the paper that, under their prior name, started the Tour De France in 1903) so if they're reporting it its solid, but in case you were worried Burgundy Wave has also confirmed it.  I had to pick up a copy of L'Equipe while I was in Paris even though I don't know French just because it felt like something I should do while I was there.

the deal isn't done yet but if its to the point that its being reported in mainstream press I'm going to assume they're just haggling over money and it will get done.  We all assumed that the Rapids pursuit of a CB for this summer window was because of the reported off-season interest in Maxso from the Middle East, but it may be because they knew this was coming from Chido.  There's no assured link but Awaziem did miss a game a month or so ago due to "personal reasons" which much be related to this.

Losing Maxso was going to be tricky, losing Awaziem would be worse.  He's the better of the two of them.  It is possible that we lose both of them and with Maxso on an option year next year I think its a safe bet they'll both be gone before the start of 2026.  So the Rapids need to be looking for two starting MLS CB's in the next 6-7 months.  As far as selling Awaziem we spent $1M in GAM to get him and Murphy from Cinci this offseason, with another $200K in GAM being possible based on performance.  Cincinnati also retained some percentage of any sale.  Awaziem is making $1.4M this season.  So to break even on this I'm guessing the bare minimum of a transfer fee the Rapids would need would be $1.5M, probably $2M to be safe.  We would then want to turn around and reinvest that into our defense.

On a happier(?) note the rumored USA - Australia game on October 14th was finally announced yesterday.  The surprise is that it won't be at Empower Field as originally reported, it will be at the Dick.  This is the first time the USMNT has been at the Dick since the T&T qualifier in 2017.  Tickets go on sale to the general public on Friday, with Rapids Season Ticket holders getting their shot at 10am tomorrow.  Given the recent track record I expect it to be pricy, which will impact if I go or not.

Rapids Play Best Game Of Season

Well, that was fun.  And completely unexpected.  The Rapids ran Vancouver off the field in the first half and outplayed them in the second, allowing them to cruise to a 3-0 win and reset the playoff race a bit.  Chris Armas finally had his full starters to choose from for the first time in two months and might have settled on a starting XI, or close to it.

Colorado could have had 4 in the first half, with a ball being cleared off the line (and without a better view it might have been in) shortly before KDP found Mihailovic who played the simple ball to Harris for an easy goal and an early lead.  The team would double it at the half hour mark with Harris and Mihailovic setting up Navarro for one of the prettier goals you'll see this season.  Navarro should have put it away in stoppage time after Ted KDP won another penalty, but his attempt was saved.

Coming out of the locker room Colorado kept the pressure on and got that goal off a Mihailovic corner that Maxso headed away.  The key moment of the match came shortly after that though, when Brian White was able to dribble into the goal area and have a point blank shot that Steffen managed to block.  Vancouver getting one back there would have been shades of the New England debacle and may have had the home side questioning themselves.  instead they kept the shutout and finished strong.

• Big game from the $5.5M defense.  The starters all got the start and they kept Vancouver off the board.  Steffen being back is huge.
• Harris and KDP need to start every game on the wings if available.  not sure why it took so long to unlock Harris but he's clearly better than Cabral, Alex Harris, KSB, etc.
• I think Navarro needs to be done with PKs.  Too unreliable.  I know Mihailovic missed his last one but he put a solid kick off the post, it wasn't saved.
• Bassett and Ronan worked well in the double-pivot but they were probably the weakest of our areas on the field.  I'm not convinced either is a starter, but I'm not convinced Larraz or Atencio is either (maybe Larraz).
• Surprised to see Vines get the start coming back from a groin injury.  He was fine but he needs to put a few fine performances in a row together.
• With the win the Rapids re back in a playoff position.  Their three rivals (Houston, Austin, and San Jose) all lost which created a big swing.  Colorado is the only team in the league to have played 23 games so on PPG they're in 9th place, but San Jose is .01 ahead and Austin is only .03 ahead so its essentially a 3-way tie.  Houston is almost 0.1 behind.  Because of that the pressure to get a result out of the Seattle and Philly road trips has reduced.
• In 2009-10 C+C Goal Factory combined for 51 goals and 20 assists.  The R&D Group is at 42 goals and 26 assists since the start of last season with 11 games left this season.  If they can find 5-9 more goals this season you'd probably have to consider them the best attacking du in team history.

Man of the Match: Djordje Mihailovic.  3 assists make it easy, Plus with them he passsed Mark Chung with 39 goal contributions over the last two seasons, a new two-year team record after setting the single-season record in 2024.

Last Chance At Home Points For Over A Month

 

Bryce Canyon National Park

Tomorrow night is the last home league match for 5 weeks as the front-loaded schedule and the Leagues Cup cause a long break.  (The Rapids will be home on 7/31 and 8/3 for the Leagues Cup).  The home side is in desperate need of points and face the best team in the West and 3rd best in the Shield standings (by PPG).  We were in Vancouver two months ago suffering a 2-0 loss.  The good news is that Vancouver has a lot of games on their legs since then with their best players just getting back from the Gold Cup.  Kickoff for this one is the normal 7:30.

Two quick roster notes.  First the Rapids appealed Travis' red card from Wednesday night, the appeal was apparently denied as he's still listed as out.  IMO that was always a long shot.  Secondly Connor Ronan got his green card this week which frees up an international slot going into the summer transfer window.

Player Availability:

OUT: D Jackson Travis (red card); M Wayne Frederick (hip), M Alex Harris (ankle)

That's the best availability report we've seen in a while.  Both Steffen and Vines are apparently available.  Cabral is one yellow from suspension but otherwise everyone else is in the clear.

This predicted lineup feels a bit more "what I would do" and less "what I expect Armas to do" than normal.  I don't think you need to rush Vines back from a groin injury for this one and risk him being out longer, especially since we've got 7 games in 29 days starting tomorrow.  And yes, I intentionally didn't put Bassett into the starting XI, I don't think he should be starting right now.

Prediction: 1-0 loss.  Steffen being back improves our defense but our offense still sputters against the second best defense in the league.  If we couldn't score except by PK against a bottom 5 defense last time we were at home I can't predict we score against this defense.

Embarrassing Product From League Covers Up Rapids Loss

Listen, based on their play last night the Rapids weren't going to win, or probably even draw, this game.  That doesn't excuse the league for the atrocious product they put out there for this one though.  It started before kickoff when the national broadcaster took time out to run a LAFC video glorifying their new owner, Giorgio Chiellini.  This is the type of thing you would see run in the local pregame or before the local broadcast in the pre-Apple TV days.  It was a ridiculous thing for Apple TV to show to a national audience.

Then the game was over almost before it was started with Jackson Travis getting nailed for a very harsh red card in the 6th minute.  Now this has been talked about a lot in the last 24 hours.  It was a dumb play by Jackson Travis.  He's racing at a ball he's not going to get to and goes up with his arm out.  That said, its not really a red card.  There's no real swing and there's no obvious malice.  Plus the arm gets the chest before the face.  Yes, my rule it could be a red, but that's not how that play is called 95% of time. In the earlier game yesterday a Miami player put his hand into his opponents face very intentionally (but with less force) and only got a yellow.  There's no way that should have been a reed for essentially the first foul of the game.

But that was great for the broadcast as former LAFC pbp/now AppleTV pbp guy Max Bretos was allowed plenty of time to interview Giorgio Chiellini in the booth and talk at length about LAFC.  This, again, on a national broadcast not a locally produced one.  Once that wrapped up Bretos even cmae back and acknowledged they weren't covering the game so they could hype LAFC with "While we were gone LAFC were peppering the goal”.  Its always been clear than the Apple TV coverage is slanted towards the top teams with only the best broadcasters bothering to treat the smaller teams as being worth their time (during the New England game the pbp guy mentioned that "Steffen stepped aside for the National Team" even while Steffen was clearly listed as OUT on the injury report all media gets due to his injury"). but this was as blatant as I've seen with the ignoring of the fact that there was a second team on the field.

In all my years of watching the Rapids this was the first time I could remember that I seriously considered turning off the game in the first half.  The coverage was that bad combined with a game the Rapids were clearly going to lose.  Sure enough before half they gave up a goal.  Somehow on an attack that both Cannon and Maxso were covering they both managed to trip Bouanga simultaneously in the box.  That's over $2M of salary we used to give up that penalty.  Maxso even intentionally stuck his leg backwards as part of the trip which, even if there was some embellishment there you can't do that and expect to get away with it.

LAFC came out right after half and got a second and it was all over.  Other than the atrocious defending there's not much worth analyzing this game.  Any offensive game plan had to be thrown out once the red card hit (they had 2 shots on goal in the game) and you can only expect the defense to keep up for so long after a 6th minute red card to one of their starters.  Move on to Vancouver.

Man of the Match: Nobody, just nothing to judge.

Where Rapids Games Go To Die

Channel Islands National Park

Tomorrow night the Rapids are out in LA to face LAFC, again.  We've seen them twice this season in CCC play where they eliminated us on away goals.  This is the match rescheduled from May 31st when LAFC had the playoff against Club America for a spot in the Club World Cup (LAFC won, and then bombed out of the CWC).  LAFC has been off since the end of the CWC because their game this weekend in Austin was rescheduled due to the horrible flooding in central Texas.  BMO Park is a house of horrors for the burgundy and blue, Colorado has lost every game they've ever played there.  Sadly I don't see that changing in this one.  Kickoff is at 8:30pm MT.

Availability Report:

OUT GK Zack Steffen (knee); D Sam Vines (groin), M Alex Harris (ankle)

Just about what we expected.  We'll have to see what Armas does with rotation given that we have Vancouver at home on Saturday.

Always tricky to predict what Armas will do in the middle of a 3-game week (even if there was an extra day of rest before this one).  Cannon being back and Bassett and Larraz not starting on Friday makes me think they'll move into the starting lineup as the rotation while everyone else goes again.

Prediction: 2-1 loss, goal by Mihailovic.  LAFC has played 4 less games than us but has the same number of points and have scored 6 more goals than we have.  Our goals against average is almost identical.  I just don't see this Rapids team being much of a threat to a rested LAFC side playing at home.

Rapids Add Sleeve Sponsor

On Friday before the 4th of July match the Rapids announced that they had added mega-construction company Kiewit as their sleeve sponsor, with it first appearing in the Independence Day game that night.

I waited to post about this because I found the announcement timing odd and wanted to see if there would be any follow-up today.  Dropping a notable announcement like that on a holiday kind of buries it in the news cycle.  Obviously Kiewit wanted to be added before the highest-attended game of the year but I'm surprised it wasn't announced earlier in the week in that case.

The immediate response from fans was "does this mean we're finally getting a renovation of the Dick"?  Given the lack of coverage around this I'm going to guess not.  Or at least nothing major in the near future.  IF that were going to happen you think it would have been part of this announcement since they are now the "Official Construction and Engineering Partner" of the Rapids.  Kiewit is also the helmet sponsor of the Avalanche so this is likely just sharing sponsors across KSE for the moment (related, Western Union was set to become our original jersey sponsor way back when until the Nuggets came in and improved the deal and Western Union switched to being their practice jersey sponsor).

Still, good to see business getting done and new revenue being generated.

Rapids Were Toasted On The Fourth

In my midpoint check-in 3.5 weeks ago I said we needed 8 points from the upcoming 4 games, putting us at 30 points after the 4th of July, if we wanted to stay in the playoff race.  After a 2-1 loss to KC on Friday we got 4 and we're at 26.  We're actually below the playoff line (losing out on the last spot on GD to Houston) right now and, to quote Matt Doyle:

into the woodchipper they now go: at LAFC, home vs. Vancouver, at Seattle, at Philly, at Minnesota. I don’t think anyone in the league has a tougher five-game stretch this year.

 A number of players showed their deficiencies in Friday's game.

• The difference between Hansen's play in net and Pulskamp's play for KC in net is why the latter earned the starter role going into this season and the former is rightfully still a backup.  Hansen wilted under the early pressure from KC and played a pass Maxso had no chance of reaching.  A starting keeper just plays that out of danger.  Instead we were immediately down 1-0.
• Credit to the team for fighting back, but Mihailovic had an off night.  Everything was just a bit off, including his PK attempt.  To be fair to Djordje if it had been on target Pulskamp guessed right and looked like he might have had it covered.
• The Rapids had one of the best chance creation nights in years, but could not finish.  Even removing the two PKs they had 2.5 xG in this game with 25 shots and 9 on target.  Yet Mihailovic only had 0.25 xG when you remove his penalty.  Navarro was 0.9.  When we needed our attack leaders to come through...they didn't.  Awaziem had the second highest non-PK xG on the team.
• Defensively we were bad on the second goal.  Thommy beat the full back line on his own, starting with muscling Rosenberry off the ball.  Keegan took the blame for the goal in the post game but it wasn't all on him.  Maxso overran the play and just turned and watched it finish, for not the first time this season.  Maxso makes $1M more than Keegan, I expect more effort than he showed.
• Cole Bassett started on the bench, as I expected, but when he came on he didn't do much.  It felt like he was where the attack went to die, with 3-4 chances that he could not get on net or turn into a dangerous attack.
• On the positive side, both Ku-DiPietro and Harris had good games.  They are the clear starters (and Bassett is not) right now.

This is a team that is successful when everyone is on but if anyone is off then we struggle to connect.  We either don't create chances but finish the couple we make, or create chances but don't finish them.

Friday the team behind us in the standings came into our house with our biggest crowd and walked away with 3 points, largely due to our own mistakes.  If we can't win a game like that, then how can we expect to get back into a playoff spot?  The good news is that the Rapids apparently have the 5th easiest schedule left in the West, but we have to get to the final 8 games still in touching distance to see it.

Man of the Match: Ted Ku-DiPietro.  Great game from him setting up chances and drawing a penalty.  Hopefully this means he's rounding into form and finding his spot in this team.

Rapids Look To Bounce Back On The Fourth

Zion Canyon NP, the parks being the one highlight in Utah

After their meltdown in New England the home side is hoping to get refocused against a KC side that is struggling this season.  They are averaging just one point a game and are giving up nearly 2 goals a game on defense.  Their attack has been more successful than ours though.  With this being the annual Independence Day game expect a large crowd.  To celebrate Centennial 38 is getting an early start to the tailgate at 3:30pm.  Kickoff is at 7:30.

Availability Report:

OUT: GK Zack Steffen (knee), D Reggie Cannon (yellow card accumulation), D Sam Vines (groin)

Awaziem and Cabral are both one yellow from suspension.  Vines picking up a groin injury was unexpected but otherwise that's about as good as we could hope for.

No, I didn't forget Bassett.  Coming off an injury and with the success of Ted KDP and Harris in recent weeks I suspect Armas is going to bring him off the bench for this one.  He'll move back to the 4-2-3-1 to put Mihailovic in but otherwise he won't want to change much.  With the rescheduled LAFC on Wednesday it also gives Bassett some rest now and the ability to start in that game.

Prediction: 2-1 win, goals by Mihailovic and Navarro.  This is the last easy game, and really the last game they'll be favored to win, this month.  I expect they take advantage of that and pull off the three points against a struggling SKC.

As always I will not be present to see it as for the 28th straight year I have a better offer, celebrating my 27th wedding anniversary.  I'll watch the game Saturday morning instead.

Business Affairs

Around the two games last week there were to notable business items for the Rapids.  In reverse order on Thursday the Front Office and KSE announced that Haley Durmer would be the club's new Chief Business Officer, filling the position vacated by Wayne Brant in the offseason.  Durmer has a history in Major League Baseball, first with the Evil Empire (Yankees) and then most recently with the Seattle Mariners.  She was named to multiple up-and-coming sports executive lists and has had a focus on ticketing, marketing, and partnerships.

As a Mariners fan I can't say I recognize her name but I'm note nearly as tied in with front office names there as I am with the Rapids.  I will say that as a team that underwhelms on the field and struggles for relevance in this market I can't fault the Rapids for recruiting from a team that underwhelms on the field but remains very relevant in their market.  Obviously baseball has a higher profile than soccer but despite only making the playoffs once in the last twenty-three years the M's are regularly a part of the Seattle's sports consciousness in a way that the Rockies aren't in Denver.  If she can bring some of that off-field success from the Mariners to the Rapids it can only be a good thing.

The other, more notable for fans like us, bit of news last week was that on Wednesday the Players Union released the 2025 Salary Guide.

That's fairly small but hopefully you can blow it up.  My options were small or too big to fit.  Thanks Google.  Anyway the key numbers here are for some of our new players.  Atencio $350K, Awaziem $1.4M, Sam Bassett $80K (about a tenth of his brother), Cannon $841K, Hansen $80K, Alex Harris $80K, Ted KDP $456K, Murphy $448K.

There are some steals on that list (Hansen) and some solid numbers.  There are also some players getting paid way more than they should for their performance, mainly in defense.  Awaziem is good, but the highest paid non-DP on the roster?  Cannon has not been a "above max salary" player this year.  Even Murphy seems a bit high.  Add to that the $1.4M we're paying Maxso (rounded, a few thousand less than Awaziem) and $912K for Vines and that's about $5M we're spending on 5 backline players for a backline that's 18th in the league in Goals Allowed.

Outside of the backline the numbers are fairly good, with one notable exception.  Kevin Cabral is getting $2.1M to be a bench warmer.  Now half of that is being paid by the Galaxy but that still means that he's getting more from this team than anyone other than Mihailovic, Navarro, Maxso, and Awaziem.  Brutal.

The good news is that we can get out of Cabral's and Maxso's contract at the end of the year (and Awaziem's too if we wanted to).  Tom Bogert is reporting that we're still on the hunt for a center back even after the Lamkin contract fell through which suggests Maxso will be going by the end of the year of not sooner.  I can't imagine we'll pick up Cabral's option at this point so that will immediately free up about $2.5M.  I assume we will keep Awaziem and hope his level raises with a better partner in central defense.

The other question is hoe to get $1.45M of value out of Navarro.  He's clearly got the talent to be deserving of that but we need tp build a roster and strategy that results in more games like we saw in New England where he's dangerous in creating and scoring goals, not just doing good things that result in no shots.