Time To Get The Party Started

The best day of any season is here, the home opener.  And somehow, despite it being February, its going to be a gorgeous day for soccer at the Dick.  The only downside is that the Timbers and an old friend are in town.  Cole Bassett makes his first appearance in Commerce City in something other than burgundy and blue which is going to be a hard thing to see.  Regardless, kickoff is ar 2:30 tomorrow afternoon and the tailgate starts at 11.

Player Availability:

OUT - M Ali Fadal (abdomen)

Everyone is still healthy from last week, which, given our recent early season injury problems, is great to see.

Based on Wells' post-game comments on Sunday I'm expecting to see some changes, especially for those who didn't play very well.  Mainly Cobb, Atencio, and Sealy.  But a lot of this is still guess work right now, if Travis and Cannon were to start on the outside again it wouldn't shock me.

Prediction: 2-1 loss, goal by Navarro.  Bassett gets at least an assist against us.  It is really hard to get any hopes up based on last week.  We are at home and Wells has had first contact with the enemy in MLS and will adjust, but until we see improvement I can't predict anything but a loss.

Roster Details And New Food At The Dick

Game preview coming tonight or tomorrow morning, depending on how long this curling draw lasts.  (Yes I watch curling, curling is great).  Before we get to that though I was planning on giving the Rapids a shout out this week but I've been too busy to get to it until today.  Namely they're making some food changes for the better at the Dick.

The biggest one, in my opinion, is that GB's has been brought back inside of Dale's.  Losing them by raising the rent a few seasons ago was a massive unforced error and I'm glad the Rapids and KSE have figured out how to get them back.  Along with GB's Marie Empanada will be in the stadium too, which is a huge win.  Also Jake's Baby D Mini-Donuts are back, a personal favorite, and they've also got new BBQ and taco options.  Their debuting a new $5 menu tomorrow as well.  These are all great and very necessary food upgrades.

Of course no matter what they do there's no topping the Centennial 38 tailgate which remains undefeated and is back for its 20th season at the Dick (if you include its genesis as the Class VI tailgate).  We get the season started at 11am tomorrow morning!  No Fan Alone!

Also dropping today was the official MLS club profiles which updates all the roster classifications and contract lengths.  Obviously a lot of this doesn't change year over year, but there are some notable things to call out for the Rapids.

• Rafa Navarro apparently got his green card as he's not listed as an international
• Our 6 internationals for 6 slots are Fadal, Herrington, Holding, Manyoma, Ojediran, and Phillip
• We have two DP's - Navarro and Aaronson
• We have two U-22's - Ted KDP and Manyoma
• That means we have the flexibility to add 2 U-22s before the window closes or in the summer, or we could switch to the 3+3 model in the summer and add a DP and a U-22 (Smith has been pretty clear he prefers the 2+4 model)
• Beaudry, Fadal, and Phillip are listed as unavailable - on loan.  We know Beaudry is on loan, Fadal is still on the injury report but may be on loan to R2.  Phillip I assume is on loan to R2
• Manyoma is listed as on loan but Miguel Navarro is not.  This could just be an oversight though as I'd be surprised if we already exercised his buy clause
• Two players are out of contract with no options at the end of the season (not counting our two loanees), Yapi and Holding.  I wouldn't be surprised to see Holding allowed to walk, but we have to get Yapi a new contract ASAP.
• Nine other players are on option years in 2027, most notably Steffen, Ronan, and Sealy.  Lots of room to change this roster for Wells after one season should he want to.

My biggest take away though is how thin this roster is.  We only have the minimum 16 senior roster players and only 27 players total.  We only have 3 central midfielders and 3 wingers on the senior roster.  With two U-22 slots open I really hope some work is going to be resolved before the window closes in late March.

Brutal

The first half last night was probably the worst season opening half of soccer I've ever watched.  A lot of that was due to the Rapids lousy play but it was also due to the ref having a howler and a truly awful broadcast from MLS/Apple.  The second half perked up a bit but really after the first 30 minutes the damage was done across the board.  A 2-0 loss doesn't look horrible, but if the standard of play doesn't rise significantly from this game it will be a VERY long season.

Random Thoughts:

• I was surprised to see Herrington and Cobb start with Holding on the bench.  And I think the defensive mess showed what a mistake that was.
• I really thought Ronan was going to feature this year, but being the third(?) choice in central midfield after Atencio and Fredrick suggests otherwise, unless there was something about the Sounders Wells saw.
• That was the worst 30 minutes the Rapids have played in a very long time.  It was literally 25 minutes before we had possession in the attacking third.  About 5 minutes in I asked if we were going to have a touch in the Sounders half before we were trailing and the answer was no.
• Neutral refs say the VAR to pull back Seattle's second goal was correct, if not called often.  Still felt like a gift to the Rapids to me.
• Now the VAR to remove the red card was clearly right.  At that point the ref had completely lost the plot.
• While we're on the red card, Apple's coverage was horrible.  They didn't have the ref on screen when he pulled the red but the crowd reaction suggested it was red.  Apple immediately switched to the ref putting something in his pocket and Cannon gesturing in a "WTF" sort of way.  The Apple announcer told us Cannon had seen yellow.  It wasn't until Cobb was walking off the field that they realized there had been a red, and it was to Cobb.  Chris Kamara was funny when he did it, this wasn't.
• Staying on this subject the Cannon/Rosenberry swap at half was botched too.  First he announced Atencio had come off.  The he said it was Ojediran, then 4 minutes later he got around to figuring out it was Cannon.  If Apple hadn't announced they were putting everyone back on site this year I would have assumed he was calling it remotely.
• Going back to the lay, Cannon and Cobb were horrible on the first goal.  Cannon just let Rothrock run free to track down the loose ball, crash into the boards, come back on the field, and make a cross with no pressure.  Then the cross went right past Cobb in no-man's land, leaving Herrington to cover two men, unsuccessfully.
• On the second goal it was more of the same.  Aaronson lost the ball, Herrington stepped up and made a defensive play but a bad deflection and Cobb being in no-man's land, and Rosenberry being caught up field, meant Rothrock had a clean shot.  Plus Steffen made a horrible play on it.
• Guess who had the assist on that?  Yeah, our old friend Albert Rusnak.  I hate that guy.
• You'll notice I've said nothing about offense, because we had none.  The whole plan was to play it out of the back by going to Steffen to start anything, and he's not good at it!  How he didn't give the ball away for at least two goals I have no idea.  Playing it out of the back only works if your defenders can pass, and they couldn't.
• When guys like Manyoma and Harris came in late the game evened out its tilt and there were some good moves, but never with the good final pass.
• Partially because of the offensive game plan but also dye to their own play, Aaronson and Navarro were invisible in this game.  That can not happen again.
• Of the starting XI Herrington probably had the best game, but that bar is so low its underground.
• After the game Wells was very candid in his post-game comments about how bad that was, which I appreciate.  He essentially said he picked the wrong starters and that there would be changes for Saturday's game.  That should include Cobb and Travis not starting, probably not Atencio or Sealy either.
• His comments also suggest that the starting jobs are up for grabs every week and he rewards those who train well.  I appreciate the idea of having competition at every spot, but there are some players who are clearly better than others on this roster.  Play them.
• He also said this will take "a lot longer than longer than 4 weeks".  Somebody needs to remind him all those game count towards the expectation of "being in the MLS Cup conversation" that Demoff set for this team.  This can not be a rebuilding year.

The tl;dr of all that is we looked unprepared and untalented compared to the Sounders.  If this is our level then heads should roll, starting with Smith but possibly extending to Wells.  No, I'm not calling for Wells' head after one week, but if this doesn't get significantly better quickly the decisions made this offseason are such that nobody in charge should be back in 2027.

Man of the Match: Alex Harris.  Until late in the match I wasn't going to award a MOTM, but Harris came off the bench and started showing what this team is trying to do.

Opening Night!

The last major event at Lumen.  Go Hawks!!!

Its taken us a while to get here, and we're in Seattle without a couple of faces we would have expected to be there, but its time to get the last summer season underway.  OF course we have to stat in one of our cursed places, Seattle's Lumen Field.  But perhaps the stunning 3 goal comeback last season has broken that curse.  Regardless kickoff tomorrow is at 7:15pm on both Apple TV and FS1.  The official Rapids watch party is at DNVR, C38 is having their kickoff event at the Celtic as is tradition.

Also a reminder that MLS Season Pass on Apple is no longer a thing.  MLS is now folded into Apple TV so a subscription gets you the Rapids, F1, Ted Lasso, and my personal favorite, Slow Horses.

Availability Report:

OUT: Ali Fadal (abdomen)

I'm sure its just coincidence that our only injury is an international player when we have seven internationals and six international spots...

Going out on a bit of a limb here as with a new season and a new coach its always tough to predict what a lineup will look like.  The three biggest guesses are who the third midfielder will be alongside Ojediran and Aaronson and who else will be on the back line with Cannon and Holding.

For center back I went with Cobb due to his experience but if its murphy or Herrington I won't be too shocked.  I would have had Vines as the starter at  left back giving Navarro a bit more time to integrate but tonight's news blew that out of the water so I'm going to go with the newest signing assuming we have his paperwork.  Otherwise it will be Travis.  Last but not least the Atencio/Ronan question in midfield.  Wells mentioned about pulling out some surprises and I think this is the place it happens, with Ronan playing the forward midfield/10 spot with Aaronson behind him.

Prediction: 3-2 loss, goals by Navarro and Yapi.  A high scoring game like this seems like a stretch but Wells' style appears to be up-tempo, high pressing, and attacking the goal.  Meanwhile the Sounders have a number of center back injuries and I don't yet trust our back line.  Those are all ingredients for a high-scoring game.  In the end though Seattle has more talent than us and are at home, so they get the win.

Sam Vines Waved And Bought Out

The Rapids announced tonight at the roster compliance deadline that they have waived Sam Vines and bought out his contract.  This means he has no impact on the salary cap for the Rapids this season or next (his contract was trough the 2027 season and/or the end of 2027, however this sprint season is going to work).  His roster spot is also freed up, though that wasn't going to be a problem either way.

This decision isn't surprising, but the timing is.  With Miguel Navarro being brought in the writing was on the all but I thought they would take this season to see how things went.  In the end I wasn't expecting Vines to be on the roster for the sprint season unless he had a huge turnaround this year.

Matt Wells said there would be some tough changes, and certainly moving the two most successful homegrowns in club history in Bassett and Vines would qualify.  I think cutting Vines free is the right move though.  He needs to get a fresh start somewhere and hopefully find his game again.

Vines is now free to sign anywhere he wants, including within MLS.  The Rapids now have freed up a bit over $900K in salary, so essentially a max salary player and some GAM, assuming they didn't have to cut him to get under the cap.

This news interrupted my game preview, which will be up tonight!