The Final Push

Ok, that was the final break before the end of the regular season.  The Rapids have 3 games this coming week, get 7 days off, have 3 games that following week, have 7 days off, and finish ion Dallas.  7 games, 28 days, and we need probably 9 points in those games.  The good news is that 4 of the 7 are home.  The bad news is that 5 of the 7 are against the top 8 teams in the league.  It starts tomorrow with one of two games against the Earthquakes, this one at home in Commerce City.  With 3 games this wee we need a minimum of 4 points if we think we have any shot at a playoff spot.

Player Availability:

OUT: GK Zack Steffen (shoulder), M Ali Fadal (torso), M Youssef Maziz (leg)

QUESTIONABLE: M Ted Ku-DiPietro (shoulder)

Maziz was apparently close to being back and then reinjured the leg so they're being cautious now.  At least it doesn't sound season-ending.  Also Josh Atencio is on yellow card watch, again.  Ibrahim Sadiq has his visa and is available for selection as well.

I was tempted to throw Sadiq into the starting lineup but I can't see Wells picking him over Phillip was has been playing very well.  We could see Atencio instead of Ojediran but that would be a mistake IMO.

Prediction: 1-1 draw, goal by Phillip.  This even feels a bit optimistic given our recent play and how good San Jose is, but I think the home field advantage is enough to get us a point.  I can't see a win though.  In the playoff hunt though the critical games are Wednesday night against Montreal and next weekend in Portland.  This is a nice to have.

Embarrassing

For the second week in a row the Rapids had a 2 goal lead in the second half.  And for the second week in a row they failed to win (what is known as a 'blown tire' in BigSoccer lingo).  This week was worse, they managed a point out of Seattle but they rolled over and played dead to the Galaxy allowing them to take all 3 points.  This started with an own goal by Cannon (though in his defense he wasn't making a horrible play, and I still don't know how it wasn't offside in the prior ball) and then an all-time howler from Hansen gave LA the equalizer.  After that you felt it was just a matter of time and sure enough the Galaxy caught Colorado apparently unprepared on a corner kick for the winner.

Once again we saw this team unable to overcome any adversity.  As soon as things started going wrong they went really wrong.  Its the same cascading failure mentality we've see all season.  The fact that Wells hasn't been able to fix it yet is a real question mark about his coaching abilities.  You have to figure he's not going to solve it in the remaining 7 games this season.

Colorado is 8th on PPG with a surging Galaxy right behind them.  We've got San Jose at home in two weeks, then the rest of that week is Minnesota at home and Portland on the road.  7 points in that week is an absolute must.  That puts us at 43, just a couple points off the Bodmer Line of 44-45.  The last four games of the season are a home game against the best team in the West, on the road to the third best team, home to the fifth best team in the East, and on the road to the second best in the West.  There's a very good chance there are 0 wins in that group.  The rest of the West sucks so much that we can hold on to 9th with our fingernails, but if we lose in Portland we're probably missing the playoffs.

Man of the Match: Donovan Phillip.  Got the game going on the right foot with a 5th minute goal off a perfectly timed run.  His second straight game where he's scored and he's starting to look comfortable in the league.  Not bad for a third round pick.  Also today the Rapids confirmed what we thought about his St. Lucia callup as they announced he'll be joining the team for the rest of the window.

Depleted Rapids Head To The Coast

Colorado is out in LA tonight to face the Galaxy, but a number of their first teamers are scattered across the world on international duty.  Farkhi is with Israel, Frederick is with Trinidad & Tobago, Minoungou is with Burkina Faso, and at least one report has Phillip with St. Lucia though the Rapids have not confirmed that.  Combined with the injuries its going to take some work from Wells to get a result in this one.  Kickoff from Carson is 8:30pm tonight.

Player Availability:

OUT: GK Zach Steffen (shoulder), M Wayne Frederick (Trinidad & Tobago), M Ted Ku-DiPietro (shoulder), M Youssef Maziz (leg), M Georgi Minoungou (Burkina Faso), F Mamadou Billo Diop (knee), F Sayed Abu Farkhi (Israel)

QUESTIONABLE: Donovan Phillip (St. Lucia)

Earlier this week The Voice St. Lucia had an article about the national team and the Nations League games where they listed Donovan Phillip as part of the team this window.  But Phillip was not in the gameday lineup for their 2-0 loss to Barbados last night.  That leads me to think that the Rapids worked out an arrangement with St. Lucia to keep Phillip for tonight's game and then release him, but we'll see when the Rapids gameday roster drops.

That's an ugly front 6.  The only other option really is Alex Harris but I don't think that's going to be an improvement.  I do not expect a shootout tonight.

Prediction: 0-0 draw.  The Galaxy are a worse team than us in all aspects except player availability.  But we have our full defense so I don't see either team scoring in this one.  It might be pretty ugly in the attacking half for the Rapids though.

Player Odds And Ends

Catching up on a few player movements in the last week.

• Colorado signed Akol Akon from Sydney FC

Akon is a 17 year old Aussie who made his professional debut for Sydney last season.  He can't join the Rapids until he's 18 so he was signed and loaned back to Sydney for the 2026-27 season and will join the burgundy boys in July.  Reports are that the FO sees him on a similar pathway as Herrington and Sydney was smart enough to get a sell-on clause.  Akon has been capped by the Australia U-17 team 13 times over the last two years.

• Zack Campagnolo loaned to St. Louis for the rest of 2026 with option to buy

Campagnolo has been a rotating starter in goal for Rapids 2 who's contract will elevate him to the first team next season.  In exchange the Rapids get an international slot through 2027.  Campagnolo is fourth choice for the first team at best and would get time if there were a raft of injuries.  The international slot also allows the Rapids to roster Sadiq when his visa comes through.

• Farkhi scores and gets red carded in Israel's Nations League match with Austria today

Farkhi got his second cap by starting for Israel today.  In the 52nd minute he was yellow carded before a corner kick.  In the 55th minute he scored Israel's only goal of the match to level it at 1.  In the 56th minute he received a second yellow card for excessive celebration.  The celebration was pulling out the corner flag and miming using it as a pool cue or rifle, depending on your point of view.  Neymar's celebration.  Needless to say in today's environment the latter interpretation is going viral.  Regardless of his intention he needs to be smarter about what it will appear to be, and he's a complete idiot for doing it while on a yellow card.  Pulling the flag is almost always inviting the ref to give you a yellow regardless of your celebration.

• Donovan Phillip, Georgi Minoungou, and Wayne Frederick are also on international duty

Phillip is with St. Lucia and Frederick is with Trinidad & Tobago for Nations League games while Minoungou is wilt Burkina Faso for Cup of Nations qualifiers.  All four will miss Saturday's Rapids game against LA.  In case your wondering Israel has multiple games still to play in this window so Farkhi being suspended doesn't mean he can be released early to return to the club.

The Badge, The Players, The Fans Deserve Better - Three Years Later

 

Last Wednesday our focus was rightly on the USOC semifinal, as disastrous as that was, so the anniversary of the C38 protest that night 3 years earlier kind of passed us by.  I had planned to circle back to that tonight to cover where things had gone in those 1103 days between that night and now, but Matt Pollard over at Burgundy Wave beat me to it today.

Go read his column, it covered just about every point I had planned to cover and he's a better writer than me so you'll get more out of it.  The only thing I'll add is that in my prior columns on this I've asked the question "The Badge, The Players, The Fans Deserve Better, have they go it?" and the answer is no.

The Rapids FO has done a good to great job of finding money to invest in the roster by selling off pieces for big money (Bombito, Mihailovic, Herrington, Navarro) but the problem is that has largely come at the expense of results on the field.  In those three years we've managed two semifinal appearances (Leagues Cup 2024, USOC 2026) and been blown out of both games.  In the league play we finished 7th in the West/13th overall and 11th/21st and our one playoff series ended in blowout losses too.  Off the field there's been a few additions to the stadium/fan experience but for the most part its the same run-down stadium that's way behind the times as it was 3 years ago.

Its very clear that the Front Office is still handcuffed by the same budget restrictions they were three years ago, and for all of KSE's talk then, and Kevin Demoff's talk this offseason, about investing in this club and making it a winner we're still a afterthought in the KSE stable.  And the badge, the players, the fans still deserve better.