Not A Game Preview

Normally this spot is where I put up a game preview for today's game.  After yesterday's article in FourFourTwo magazine though, I'm not bothering to.  Instead I want to talk about the article.  First let's start with the article title:

This might already be a lost season for the Rapids...and that's part of the plan

Um, what?  Well, this could just be a click-bait title, lets read on.  Pablo's first quote in reference to the Burch/Cronin trade:

 “Obviously, if we want to continue on the same path [as last year], we keep two experienced guys who have more than 20 years of MLS experience on board. But the direction we want to move in as a club, we felt like if we couldn't do this now, we'd be kind of in a precarious situation moving forward.”

I don't know about you, but a year where we down to the final day with a chance at the Supporters Shield and qualified for the CCL by finishing 2nd overall in the league seems like a path we'd want to stay on.

And now for the kicker:

Mastroeni acknowledges that a lot of what they're doing won't reach fruition this year. “We're definitely looking at 2018; there's a lot of great opportunities in 2018,” he says,  and that much will depend on whom the Rapids acquire in the summer transfer window. They are targeting someone who can bring a “bit of culture in the attacking third.” That could be a playmaker, a steady goal-scorer or something in between.

That sound you just heard was Pablo punting the season away.  This is a ridiculous statement to be making in APRIL after only SIX games.  You're telling us, your fanbase, that this year isn't important.  To be clear, here are some other quotes from the article to reinforce it:

“I think it's not so much about playing sexy football,” Mastroeni said. “It's about evolving and expanding the way we think about the game and the way we want to play the game, and all that takes time.”

“You have to start sowing the seeds of 2018 today, so that way you can reap the fruit of all the planning, all the foresight in 2018,” Mastroeni said. “So 2018 is critical for us. We're going to continue doing what we do, but everything is done with the mindset of putting ourselves into position to really be able to utilize all the cap space, all the different transactions we're making today, in the future.”

This article is mind-boggling for two reasons.  First, the most obvious, how can you be looking towards 2018 after less than 20% of 2017 is complete?  They clearly are based on these quotes.  Secondly, if that's actually your plan, how can you publicly admit it at this point of the season?  What kind of Media Relations process are they running over in Commerce City?  You want to kill interest, ticket sales, merchandising, etc. for the rest of this season?  Well, you just did it.

Almost as bad is that these quotes don't make me think they have a plan yet.  They're targeting somebody who could bring "a bit of culture in the attacking third".  Um, one attacker isn't going to change this team's problems.  At minimum we need a central mid who can get the ball to t he attackers and an attacker who can put the ball in the net reliably (we also need at least one outside back as well).  So they appear to be throwing away this season without understanding what they need to do to make 2018 successful.

There's also the question of what they spent this whole offseason doing?  If they needed "a bit of culture int he attacking third" why was our only attacking signing in the offseason Alan Gordon?  If we wanted to move away from our tough defense-first mentality why did you spend the offseason signing defensive players, then wait until 3 games into the season to trade away two core components of the defense you built around in the offseason?

Right now I'm thinking I want my money back for my season tickets.  If we're not going to care about 2017 then why should I be paying for 2017?  It certainly sounds (and appears from our play) that we're going to be using 2017 as a year-long training camp for 2018, but I don't need to pay regular season prices for what we're treating as preseason games.  I expect the Rapids to have some sort of response to this early next week.  I also want to see Centennial 38 (who I get my tickets through) have some sort of formalized response to this as well, and I've been told one is in the works.

I said after the KC game at the beginning of the month that it felt like for the 3rd time in 4 years the organization was playing the fans for suckers (and I fell for it).  This article confirms it.

Oh, today's game?  Orlando is going to run us out of the stadium.  2-0 loss at least.