Hudson Fails Basic Leadership

The story of this game didn't happen until in the locker room after it.  Just to quickly recap the actual game though, Hudson rolled out a 2016 Pablo-era lineup of 6+ defenders, tried to play 11 men behind the ball to get out with a 0-0 draw or nick a goal on the counter for a 1-0 win, and gave up 1 goal to one of the worst teams in MLS this year to lose 1-0, now a 6 game losing streak.

Now on to the real story.  In his post-game press conference Hudson uttered these quotes:

“Then, we come to a place where a team full of superstars and big money players and massive, massive gap in class, and we’ve set up a different way.  I’ve just said to the players in there I think that they’re incredibly unlucky. I think the effort they put in today was big considering the position we’re in to come here and to really limit them. I think us and them really had three shots on target each, and we kept a quite a few of their big players quiet for a majority of the game. We had chances ourselves.”

and

“I think this is another game where I hear a lot of people around the place and media and these types of things talk about where we’re at. It’s almost like people see us at the same level as Atlanta or as on the same level as Orlando or DC, but the reality is, I think, every game we’ve played in, it’s been the DPs, big money players up front that are making the difference. Every game that we’ve played in, people think we have those players and we don’t. Today was just another example of the real gulf in class. I think every single game we’re playing against teams and their DPs are making a difference.”

and

“We’re certainly a team that’s down on the bottom and we’re fighting to compete every single week and I think today was an example of that. You can say what’s going wrong and what’s missing, but we’ve just come to Atlanta, and probably most games, really — other than one or two — Orlando and these other types of games where we’ve been in games and been competing and it’s just every single — like today — teams with a little bit more quality than us, well I would say a lot more quality than us, and that’s what we’re competing against. But no one talks about it.”

Up to this point things are almost defensible.  I think most Rapids fans agree with some or all of what he's said so far.  Maybe not he best way to go about making a point but he's in the general area of valid concerns.  Then this happened:

“I just think it’s going to take time. We are fighting at the bottom with a bottom group of players and we have to find a way to pick up results whilst also being a team that tries to play a certain way. And we just have to find that balance.” 

Yeah, that's called throwing the whole team under the bus.  A team that's spending significant money on players hand picked by Hudson who he starts every game (Tommy Smith, I'm looking at you) despite clearly being outclassed in this league.

Even as badly managed as the Rapids have historically been I am a bit shocked that Padraig Smith didn't call Hudson into his office today and fire him after that.  There's only three reasons a coach says that about his own team.

1. He knows he's about to get fired and is setting up excuses to use while finding his next job
2. He's been told there's no chance he's getting fired any time soon and feels he can get away with it
3. He's incompetent at his job

The fact that he wasn't fired today tells me its not 1.  Or if it was 1, Hudson read the signs wrong and now looks like he belongs in number 3.  The problem with it not being 1 is that not Hudson has to go into the locker room and figure out hot to get this "bottom group of players" ready to play for him on Friday night against Vancouver.  You think anyone is going to be real excited to take any coaching from Anthony?  How would you feel about your boss if he said that about you?

I've been calling for Hudson's job since the Houston debacle a month ago but this is beyond just being a bad coach.  This is being a bad leader, somebody who says something like this has no business leading a little league team, much less a professional sports team.  Clearly with a game on Friday if they didn't make a change today they're not going to make one this week.  Barring a quality win (not just eking out a 1-0 victory) over Vancouver on Friday Hudson shouldn't make it past 9am next Monday.  If somehow he does and he doesn't lay an absolute beat-down on FSL the following week then he has to be gone.  If not, Smith needs to be fired for not dealing with the problem.  Two weeks from now if both Smith and Hudson both have their jobs (barring a 2 game win streak), well, that's probably going to be the reality sadly.  But it would be a new low point in the history of a franchise with far too many low points.