Rapids Kit Rankings - Homes 18-11

The best way to move on from last night is to look back at some Rapids history, so lets rank some kits!  Seriously, I do plan to get through all of them before the Rapids return on the 22nd, but I might end up cutting it close. 🤣

#18 - 2003-2004

2003 was the start of the questionable decision to make our identity black and blue, and it sucked.  The 2003-04 away was the bottom of that list and the home joins it here.  I mean, what about that says Colorado Rapids other than literal words across the chest?

#17 - 2006

Generally the Adidas kits were better than the Athletica ones, which is why this isn't in last, but its not great.  The black shoulders and the black arc around the chest just gives it a weird cloak-like look that doesn't work.

#16 - 2005

The last of the black and blue kits, this one at least tried to do something with the fuzzy lines and the collar looks better than the 2006 version.  There's a reason you don't see this trio around at games very often, this is an era that should be forgotten, at least kit-wise.

#15 - 2007-2008

The first of the burgundy kits were certainly an improvement over the prior color scheme (putting aside the whole rebranding debacle) but as the burgundy shirts go this is my least favorite.  The 'Rapids' across the front just looked minor league and the collar never impressed me.

#14 - 2026-2028(?)

Probably the first controversial take in this list.  Yeah, current home kit sucks.  We're the burgundy boys, we play in burgundy.  Not black with burgundy highlights.  And how do you call a black kit 'Colorful Colorado'?  This gets the end over the first burgundy because it is a good looking kit, just not as a home kit for a burgundy team.

There's no clear announcement for when we'll swap this one out, with the schedule change.  What I've heard is that the normal winter new kit will arrive as planned before the sprint season, for us that would be a new away kit.  Then we'd keep this home kit through the sprint season and the first fall-spring season, before swapping it out in the summer of 2028.

#13 - 2020-2021

We're now at the point where the kits go from "yeah, that's fine" to top-tier.  None of these are bad, they're just various levels of good enough to great.  In this case the 2020 one was good enough.  The only thing that puts me off a bit is the gradient in the kit from the left shoulder to the right side contrasting with the Adidas strips going over the right shoulder.  Something about the clash in direction doesn't sit right.

#12 - 2011-12

This is about as close as you can get to a base burgundy shirt.  There's nothing wrong with it but there's nothing that stands out.  It got a one spot boost over #13 because its the first one to have a star on the kit.

#11 - 2014-15

This was a better way of incorporating the flag than the away kits I rated in the last article.  I liked that big C across the front back when a jersey sponsor was a long shot for us.  The white sleeves set off nicely from it as well.

Next up, the top 10 away kits!

Rapids Kit Rankings - Aways 17-11

Ok, it took me a bit to get back to this, but let's start with the bottom of the away kit rankings.

#17 - 2003-2004

You're going to see a lot of the black & blue era at the bottom of these lists and the worst of our road kits are from that period.  You're also going to see a lot of mainly plain white kits tonight.  This was the first year we went to black and blue and the alternate kit was a white shirt with some blue highlights.  There's nothing that stands out about this one.

#16 - 2015-2016

I expect this next group is going to be controversial for many, but I do not like the flag kits.  I appreciate taking the big swing with them but IMO it didn't work.  I also have a general aversion to messing with the badge like they did on these, the blue/red coloring didn't work.

#15 - 2017-2018

The blue sleeves and collar and the sponsor (honestly) make this look better than the prior version of the flag kit, but all the prior issues apply here too.

#14 - 2011-2012

Originally I had ranked this behind the flag kits but when I pulled the pic from CFS I was reminded that this was our kit with our Scudetto and then eventually our first star.  For that it got a boost above the yellow kits, but otherwise this was another white shirt with the "Arsenal" sleeves.  Meh.

#13 - 2013-2014

The first attempt at a flag kit, and the best one.  The blue is better than the yellow as the base color and the C design in the center leans more into the flag.  The badge is still not great though and this one looked far too much like FSL colors, something exacerbated by the decision to wear them at home in a Rocky Mountain Cup match (which we lost).

#12 - 2019-2020

Ah, the almost all-white 'Black Diamond' kit.  I mean, what are we doing here?  Otherwise this is a white t-shirt with some burgundy iron-ons.  There's nothing to get excited about but also there's nothing wrong with it.  It just is.

#11 - 2005

(This was actually a hard one to find an image of)

White shirt with blue highlights. This would be the last away kit with the blue and I liked the general design.  The following year they would use the same design with a different color scheme and that one is going to be pretty high on the list.

Next up, 18-11 of the home kits.

Rapids News During The Break

Two pieces of Rapids news dropped yesterday, but Comcast had an outage in Arvada all-night so I couldn't post them.

First, as expected, Connor Ronan has been transferred to Aberdeen FC.  Reports are it was a free transfer, which hurts a little bit.  At the same time it was clear he wasn't a top choice for Wells and he was likely going to have his 2027 option declined at the end of the season.  Its not worth holding out for $250K or less if the player wants to go.  Presumably Ronan would prefer to be in Aberdeen camp as soon as the World Cup ends to fight for a starting spot over sitting on the bench in Colorado most of the time this fall and joining them in the winter.

Second the Rapids announced a friendly against FC Juarez on July 9th at the Duck.  Tickets are on sale.  They well also play a closed-door scrimmage with Minnesota on July 15th.  Obviously as the teams return from the long break they need some warm-up games to get ready for the restart of the season.  Now that we're going to be on the same schedule with Liga MX these might become more frequent.

Back with more kit rankings this weekend (probably).

Rapids Kit Rankings - Thirds and One-Offs

Ok, while we're all enjoying this smorgasbord of soccer for the next month plus I'm going to take this time to do something I've wanted to do for a while.  An all-time rank of Rapids kits.

Now, some ground rules.  We're only ranking kits intended for competitive use.  Not pre-game tops, training tops, pre-season gear, any of that.  Also no goalkeeper kits because for many (most?) years MLS has just used a standard template in a variety of colors for all goalkeepers in the league.  We're also ignoring the Earth Day parlay kits or any of the other league-wide special ones.  Lastly I'm going to rank them in their own group.  Third kits and one-offs tonight, away/alternate kits in their ranking, home kits in their own ranking.  In the end I might make a top 5-10 list combining all three.  Given the number of home (18) and away (17) shirts those will probably be split into 2-3 posts each.

A lot of these images come from Classic Football Shirts.  The rest from wherever I could find them.

Speaking of kits, Centennial 38 is raising money to help the Marshall Islands Soccer Federation build its program in their quest to join FIFA.  Right now for every $10 you donate to the MISF through C38 here you get one entry to win a primary or alternate Marshall Islands National Team kit.  Drawing will be held the weekend of the World Cup Final.

So tonight its the five kits that have been thirds and one-offs.  Starting with:

#5 - 2001 - 4th Of July

In 2000 (see blow) and 2001 the Rapids and Kappa did one-off versions of the Rapids kit for their big summer game.  This one is certainly memorable, but not in a good way.  If you ever want to wanter over DIA to help planes land after a home match, this is your shirt of choice.  Otherwise, hard pass.

#4 - 2007-2008

These were only ever used in the friendlies in 2007 and 2008 against Tigres and Everton, they were never used in a competitive match.  Trying to play on the Arsenal red connection they never really worked.  I do have the goalkeeper version of this kit in my collection, its the same design on a green base instead of white.  I bought "game-worn" from the team store.  Its a Bouna Coundoul kit and he didn't play in either friendly, so the "game wear" is from sitting on the bench. :D

#3 - 2000 4th of July

The second of the two one-off kits, this one at least fit the Rapids scheme better.  I liked the blue much more than the red the next season.

#2 - 2006

Honestly until I started this project I didn't remember this one.  A little digging around though and they did use this a couple of times in the last pre-burgundy season.  As you're going to see as we go through these I'm a big fan of the green color scheme.  The blue piping doesn't really work for me, but compared to the other options its not a high bar to cross.

#1 - 2025

When this debuted last season I called it

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

and I stand by that.  In fact, after seeing it in person I'd call it a great third kit.   This is the essence of classic Rapids in a shirt and the clear best third/one-off we've ever done.  In fact, the Rapids should have told MLS and Adidas that if they were going to force the club to couch the Messi farce inside a "30th Anniversary celebration" then they were going to bring these kits back for one game in 2026 and play in them at Empower.  That would have put a true 30th vibe on that game.

Midseason Review Part 2

In Part 1 we covered the players and their salaries.  AS a follow-on to that the Rapids announced today that Zack Steffen has had shoulder surgery and will be out 5-6 months while he recovers.  That means best case scenario he could be back for the playoffs but most likely he's done for the season.  Given his contract and that he's in a team option year for the sprint season there's a good chance he's played his last game in burgundy.  We ride with Nico Hansen the rest of the season.  Now in Part 2 we're going to cover Matt Wells and the season as a whole so far.

Wells came in with a very specific idea of how he wanted to play and he's sticking to it, sometimes to a fault.  The players clearly have bought into the style.  That includes playing it out of the back, pressing on defense, and not being afraid to get physical.  There have been times where Wells has felt a little too stubborn about his style, but then there are times (like the Minnesota game) where he shows himself able to adjust his tactics and surprise the other team.

We covered the issues with the lack of discipline in the write-up of the Dallas game.  I have no problem with a team being physical, I remember the #RapidsThugLife days.  But being aggressive and being out of control are tow different things and the Rapids under Wells are teetering on that line.  I've also notice that Wells seems to have a higher opinion of the talent on the Rapids compared to the rest of the league than seems justified.  I like that he has a system and he's teaching the team to work in that system.  There have been coaches in the past who either had no system or their system was 'park the bus and hop'.  But the system has to work with the talent you have, and I'm not sure this one does.

To that end, lets look at the numbers.  So far the Wells' Rapids are playing at 1.07 PPG through the first 15 games.  Over a whole season that would be 25th (out of 31) in Rapids history.  Of course he's a new coach taking over a team that was struggling and trying to change their style of play.  How does his first 15 games compare to other coaches taking over the Rapids after 15 games?

1. Robin Fraser - 2019/2020 - 1.67 PPG*
2. Chris Armas - 2024 - 1.47 PPG
3. Pablo Mastroeni - 2014 - 1.47 PPG
4. Gary Smith - 2009 - 1.4 PPG
5. Matt Wells - 2026 - 1.07 PPG
6. Oscar Pareja - 2012 - 1.07 PPG
7. Fernando Claivjo - 2005 - 0.94 PPG
8. Anthony Hudson - 2019 - 0.6 PPG

* - Fraser is the only one to take over midseason, and then had to deal with the COVID cancellations and the MLS Is Back tournament, so I don't know how helpful this number is

Those are all the permanent coaches hired for the Rapids by KSE, and if you set Fraser aside Wells comes down right in the middle.  But its the middle of a pretty average-to-poor group.

Now there's one more factor in this, and that's the Rapids schedule.  Colorado has played a brutal schedule so far, both in the number of games and the quality of opponents.  They averaged one game every 5 days over the first half(ish) of the season.  Not only that but 9 of the 15 were on the road and one of the 6 home games was a home game in name only.  Add in 3 Open Cup games and that's a lot.

On top of that the quality of opponents has been significant.  11 of the 15 games we've played have been against teams currently in a playoff spot.  We've played 6 of the 9 current Western Conference playoff teams on the road.  We've also made 2 of our 3 Eastern Conference road trips already.  Really we only have 3 tough road trips left.  We have to go to San Jose, Dallas, and the Galaxy.  We do have a trip to the East left, Columbus, but that's no further than Portland.  Every other "tough" game is at home (unless we make the USOC Final, which would be a tough road game).  Colorado has the third easiest schedule left in the league and that's before taking into account the home/away splits.

So, where does that leave us on Wells?  I think its a mixed bag that needs more data.  Namely, how does the 9 games coming out of the break go?  5 of the 9 are at home with the 4 road games all against teams not in a playoff position.  Of the home games only 2 are against teams in a playoff position.  One is LAFC, a tough game no matter what, and the other is the second leg of the Rocky Mountain Cup, which is a must win no matter the quality of FSL.  The other games are against 3 of the 4 worst teams in the West and a home-and-home against San Diego, just in front of us in the standings.

After those 9 games we are one week out from the USOC semifinal and some decisions will have to be made.  If we doubled our point total, getting 16 points in the 9 games then we'll be back on a playoff pace (barely) and we will have to choose how to balance the two competitions.  Anything less than that and its time to write off the season and go all in on the USOC.  If we come out of the break like bats out of hell and pick up 20 points or more we can probably write-off a league match or two to focus on the semifinal.

Success this season hinges on either taking advantage of the easy schedule remaining, or winning the Open Cup.  Ideally we do both.  If we miss the playoffs and we don't make the USOC final its another lost season.  Even making the final and losing while missing the playoffs seems like a disappointment.    The Rapids have done well enough to put themselves in position to have a good season, but can they execute to get there?