All Over But The Shouting

Told you I'd be posting less, but I didn't expect to go completely quiet like that.  Family stuff, you know.  Anyway, after a week where we beat the teams we should beat but didn't beat the team we needed to be (and in fact, got curb stomped by them) our playoff chances are really all but mathematically done.  The only way to the postseason for Colorado is to beat Dallas at home and Austin on the road (ha!), have the Galaxy and FSL draw, have FSL not win its other game have the Galaxy lose both of its other games, have Vancouver not win one of their two games, and have Seattle not win two of there three games.  Easy, right?

What this run-in has shown us is that the Rapids aren't a playoff team, but they aren't the bottom of the league either.  They're good enough to pop up and cause issues for any team, but they're not good enough to sustain it, especially on the road.  Its a long cry from last year at this time, when we were about to go on and win the West.  A lot of people, and a lot of statistical analysis, suggested we overperformed last year.  A lot of that same analysis is suggesting we're underperforming this year.  So some have suggested the reality of this team is that we're probably a playoff team that got good breaks last year and bad ones this year.

I disagree though.  I think that undersells what we built in 2021, and what we let collapse in 2022.  Sam Vines, Cole Bassett, Auston Trusty, Kellyn Acosta, and Mark-Anthony Kaye are National Team quality players that have left this team for various reasons and not been replaced.  The quality of the 2022 Rapids is not the same as the quality of the 2021 team.  Sadly, what we built last year is now gone, and we are looking at a significant rebuild.  That's the real failure of this season.

On a different, sad, note, former Rapids head coach Tim Hankinson passed away from cancer last night.  He was 67 years old.  Hankinson had a long coaching career stretching 40 years, including both the Tampa Bay Mutiny and Rapids in MLS and Fort Lewis College in Durango, among 15 teams in 4 countries on 3 continents.  He was at the helm here in Colorado from 2001-2004, taking the Rapids to the playoffs in all but his first year.  He also recruited/drafted notable Rapids like Pablo Mastroeni, John Spencer, and Joe Cannon.  Rest in peace Tim.