Top Kits Of The World Cup

One last kit post before we get back to our regularly scheduled Rapids coverage.  Going to break this down into top kits by confederation plus a couple of additional categories before doing a top X overall.

Top Kit - Oceania - New Zealand Away

With only one team, the choices were limited.  I almost went with the goalkeeper kit but that felt like cheating a bit.  The white looked better than the dark,

Top Kit - AFC - Australia Away

Yeah, I forgot Australia is Asian in FIFA terms sometimes too.  I really like the two tones of this one. A woman I work with is Australian and wore one of these to the office on game day and it looks even better in person.

Top Kit - AFC - Sportswashing Division - Saudi Arabia Home

If it weren't for what it represents this would be one of the top kits of the tournament for me.  I love the green and purple color combo with the tiled motif.  But I will not be supporting Saudi Arabia in any format.

Top Kit - UEFA - Norway Home

This is the kit I've been trying to track down with no luck, waiting too long to try to get it.  A simple design of the flag that comes off very bold.  Even with my Swedish heritage I'd be happy to have this one in the collection.

Top Kit(s) - CAF - Ivory Coast Away

I couldn't choose between my top two CAF kits so you get them both.  First the Ivory Coast away kit with this great pattern of local flora and fauna.  For a long time west Africa has had some of the great tournament kits, I have two different Cameroon ones from the 2010's.  This continues that run.

AND

DR Congo Home

The colors of this kit really work together (even the yellow badge) and the zebra pattern gives a unique spin on the kit.  One of the kits we wouldn't have seen without the expansion to 48.  Also what the team ahs been doing to try to bring visibility to the issues in their country is important.

Top Kit -  CONMEBOL - Paraguay Away

This one surprised me as I didn't pick it out as a highlight during the kit releases.  Seeing it on the field, first against the U.S. but also later in the tournament and I was taken with how good it looked.  I like the way the white badge pops against the blues and blacks, one of the times changing the logo works.

Top Kit - CONCACAF - Haiti Home

This is the original kit before FIFA forced them to remove their freedom fighters from the kit.  Its an important nod to Haiti's history and given everything else FIFA has allowed not allowing this is another example of their double standards.  IT was a tough call between this and the third kit, which is the same design on red, but the collar works better here.

Top Kit - CONCACAF - Rivalry Division - Mexico Home

I mean, come on, that's a top-tier kit.  But its Mexico so this is the only time I'll ever admit that.

So after that, my top five overall:

Norway Home

DR Congo Home

Paraguay Away

Haiti Home

Ivory Coast Away

At different times during the tournament I've looked at buying all of those, but haven't yet pulled the trigger on any of them yet.

Rapids Kit Rankings Home Top 10

Time to finish this series up with the top 10 home kits!  I pre-ranked all the kits before starting this series but as I was writing them up I found myself making slight changes.  No part of the list changed more than this 10 though, I made changes all the way up to #3 while writing this.  The top 2 were always locked in though.

#10 - 2016-2017

The first kit with a legitimate jersey sponsor (ciao Ciao!) and a good team to go with it.  Nice and clean but doing nothing with the burgundy means that it can't go much higher than this.  I do like that Transamerica didn't demand a bright red logo on the front to match their company colors.

#9 - 2018 - 2019

Minimal changes form the prior jut but making the sleeves burgundy and all the trim light blue instead of the light blue/white mix makes this one the better of the two

#8 - 2024-2025

The checkered flag design, I like finally giving the burgundy some kind of design but this trends closely to one of those optical illusion images.  The light blue really pops on this one though.  Hard to believe we went to the 'Colorful Colorado' kits from this unfortunately.

#7 - 2001-2002

The true 'Aquaman' kits.  Super tight and green.  Our last green home kit ever, we wouldn't really get Rapids green back until last year's 3rd kit.  Also the final Kappa kit.  Given their skin-tight nature I had to take a pass on these for my personal collection.  This was the point where the Rapids switched from white at home and green on the road to the reverse, something they've kept through all their color combinations since (until, arguably, this season where they're black at home and green on the road).

#6 - 1996

The original.  Its hard to not put this in the top 5 but overall I thought the road kit was better.  The stripes on the shoulders just don't work for me as well as they should.  Still its a classic 90's style kit and that can't be ignored.

#5 2009-2010

I gave this a one spot boost because we won MLS Cup in this kit.  We'll always have the great memories of Casey scoring while seated and Kandji sacrificing his ACL for the MLS Cup winning goal in this shirt.  To say nothing of Drew Moor's last second clearance.  I don't love the collar on it but that's not enough to downgrade it from its importance in team history.  

#4 - 1997-1998

The kits just kept getting better in the early years.  This gave us the first use of the round badge but avoided duplication by moving the wave badge to the center of the chest.  The later 2006 road kit would be inspired by this one but this was the better version of it.  It removed the old gold color from the sleeves that stood out in a bad way to me on the first kit.

#3 - 2022-2023

Almost my top burgundy kit, I really like this one.  The sublimated mountains on this kit are great and the Colorado 'C' as the jock tag is a nice touch.  This is my current burgundy kit for game days and its going to take a lot for the 2028-2029 kit to replace it.

#2 - 2013

This, of course, had to be the top burgundy kit.  Its also the reason we have had 18 home kits but only 17 road kits.  for one season the Rapids wore this kit with the dark bands, when looking closer at the bands you'll see they're made up of a list of names.  Those were the season-ticket holders of the Rapids (the band across the chest just says 'Colorado Rapids' repeated, in case they had managed to sing a jersey sponsor, that way nobody's name would have been covered.  They didn't sign one).  My name is in the lower band across the belly.  The Rapids were at least one of the first, if not the first, clubs in the world to place their ticket holder names on the kit and it was well received.  Hard to downgrade a kit that has your name on it!

#1 - 1999-2000

There was never a doubt this one (and its away partner) were going to end up on the top of my lists.  This was the kit the team used for the first full season I followed them, it was the first kit I bought ( a signed one from a trip to Dallas that still hangs in my office) and its the one I think of when I think of "classic Rapids" like 'Celo, JDV, Agogo, Limpar, and Hahnemann, among others.  More of a throwback to this is what last year's 3rd kit should have been.

So, there it is, all 40 kits ranked.  If I had to choose a combined top 5:

1999-2000 Away

1999-2000 Home

2013 Home

2025 Third

2022-2023 Home

Back this weekend with some review of World Cup kits before we transition back into the season next week.

We Interrupt This Kit Blog With An Update On Rapids News

As we get close to MLS games starting again its time to get caught up on a couple of pieces of Rapids news before we finish out the kit part of the summer.

The most significant news, which still isn't high, is that Ian Murphy was traded to San Diego FC for Charlotte's second round pick next year that San Diego had acquired in a previous trade.  There's also $100K of GAM if performance metrics are meant and we keep part of his budget charge.

This is really shifting the deck chairs.  Murphy clearly wasn't in Wells' plans and a second round pick and a little GAM won't amount to much in the end.  But it frees up a roster spot.  Its also probably an indicator that Herrington isn't going anywhere this window as that would leave us awfully thin at CB.  This ends the 2024-2025 move of sending $1M plus $200K of performance incentive GAM to  Cinci for Awaziem and Murphy.  In the end that got us a few starts from Awaziem, a $1.7M transfer fee (a small portion of which went back to Cinci) and a 2nd round pick.  We didn't lose anything but I'm not sure how much we got out of that trade either.

Speaking of Herrington, the rumored list of teams interested in him has expanded to almost every major name in Europe.  Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Milan, etc.  Oddly not Arsenal though, given the shared owner.  Reports are that the Rapids have put a $25 million price tag on him and are asking for a 12-month loan back (through the sprint season) as part of the deal.  At this point he might be sold in this window, but I'd be a little surprised to see him leave in this window.  Safe bet that by this time next year he will no longer be in Commerce City though.

Two other roster moves, Manyoma has officially returned from loan with his purchase option declined, as previously reported.  Loic Williams joined the team in training a couple of weeks ago and played in the friendly Thursday night against FC Juarez.  He could be officially registered as a Rapids player yesterday and presumably was, so he should be eligible for next Wednesday's game.

Finally the FC Juarex game was a 1-1 draw after the first 90 minutes, then the teams agreed to play another 30 mintues that ended scoreless.  Both teams got very chippy during that extra time though, so much so that Rafa Navarro was sent off and the ref called the game before being convinced to restart it about 10 minutes later.  In case anyone is worried, red cards in friendlies are not carried over anywhere, though safe to say this matchup may not be repeated next summer.

Back to finish off the Rapids kits later this week before posting some of my favorite World Cup kits. 

Rapids Kit Rankings Away Top 10

Here we go with the best of the alternates!

#10 - 2007-2008

Our first light blue kit, and it really worked with the burgundy trim.  The big drawback on this one is the badge that says 'Colorado Rapids' and then right below it the big 'Colorado' across the front of the kit.  It would have been better as a clean blue kit.  I could take or leave the collar as well.

#9 - 2009-2010

See, better without the 'Colorado' on the front.  This collar works a bit better too IMO.  Otherwise only minor changes from the prior kit.

#8 - 2021-2022

The Class V mountain kit.  Love the goal to raise awareness of protection of our 14ers, love the idea of using the topographic map, loved the return to green, execution left a lot to be desired.  From any sort of distance this looked like a white kit with mint trim.  Also, once again, changing the badge which is an automatic deduction unless it knocks it out of the park, which this doesn't.  I like the clean style however.

#7 - 2001-2002

Nicknamed the Aquaman kits these were the first to shift from the baggy 90's style to the more skin-tight, hard to grab, modern style.  Great for top shape soccer players, not so great for out of shape fans like yours truly.  Otherwise it was a white kit with green trim and double Rapids logos.  Its the last Kappa road kit.

#6 - 2025-2026(?)

The current road kit.  Much like the mountains kit I love the goal of river protection, concept, and color, but execution was a stumble.  This one from a distance looks like moss or mold on the kit.  I actually like the completely different badge, I just wish it was an already established design and not something new for this kit.  We will be getting a new road kit either right before or right after the sprint season.  I think it will be before, but it a bit unclear.

#5 - 1997-1998

I like this color of green for the kit and the black trim works.  Still, it is just a green kit.  But that makes it almost top 5 on its own.

#4 - 2023-2024

The 'New Day' kit, to promote awareness of mental health.  An important topic and all the more so coming out of the pandemic.  A great design going back to our light blue secondary color and designed by local artist Pat Milbery.  This was the only one of this new run of away kits to support local movements that I think worked on all levels so far.  Still not sold by changing the badge colors, but at least its a secondary club color.

#3 - 1996

The original, and IMO still one of the best.  No big Rapids across the front, a bold green/white design for the 90's (understated for the time if anything), and the gold numbers play off the gold in the badge well.  Almost impossible to find now and impossible to find at a good price.  LAst year's anniversary kits should have taken more from this design to be a true throwback.

#2 - 2006

After four years of the awful black and blue we got some green back in our kit.  This is almost the same as the 2005 kits but the green works so much better than the blue.  Adding the green around the collar and down the inside of the sleeves was a big improvement.  I might be biased too as this was the first or the kits I went out to buy for my collection.

#1 - 1999-2000

This is easily the best road kit we've had.  A good 90's style with the white trim, the true Rapids green, and its the reverse of the home kit for consistency.  Still stuck with the double Rapids but at least this one is the circular logo as the badge and then a form of the original badge on the front of the kit.  I've got one of these in my collection but I only bring it out for important matches as its a little tight on me, and I don't want it to wear out.

So that's it.  Combined with the first post that's all 17 Rapids road kits ranked.  Where will the 2027 kit fall?

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?  

Player Salaries & Midseason Review Part 1

A few weeks back the Players Union had their annual salary drop but we were going through so many games I didn't have a chance to review it.  Now's a great time to do that, and we're going to combine it with a mid-season review.  We'll go (roughly) position, based on how they're listed on the Rapids website, and go over each player's salary and how they're doing compared to that.  Each player has two values, the first is his base salary, the second is his guaranteed compensation in 2026.  some of the contract and option years are guesses as the contract were signed before the season change was announced, so I'm not sure if a contract thru 2028 is through the 27-28 or the 28-29 season.

Goalkeepers:

Zach Steffen: $1.1M/$1.1M - Contract Thru: 2026 Option Years: 2027

I don't think its any surprise to say that Steffen isn't living up to his price this season.  By some measures he's a bottom 10 keeper in MLS this season, and he's been injured.  Nico Hansen hasn't been lights out but he's been better for cheaper.  The Rapids should expect to decline his option this offseason.

Nico Hansen: $160K/$160K Contract Thru: 2027-28 Option Years: 28-29, 29-30

As mentioned Hansen hasn't been great but he's been fine, and at almost a tenth of the price of Steffen.  I'd understand if the Rapids didn't want to name him the #1 going into 2027 (at least not yet) but he should have a shot to compete for the role along with whomever they bring in to replace Steffen.

Adam Beaudry: $113K/$115K Contract Thru: 2027 Option Years: 27-28, 28-29

Beaudry is a work in progress.  Loaned out for this season he's still getting U-20 callups.  As a homegrown its worth continuing to see how he grows.

Central Defenders:

Rob Holding: $1.2M/$1.2M Contract Thru: 2026

Holding has been better than I expected this year, so much so that his salary seems reasonable.  He gives veteran presence to what has been a young backline this season.  He'll be 31 at the end of the season and out of contract.  I'm not sure I want to bring him back for 7-figured, but if he'd take a high 6-figure salary I'd consider giving him a 2 season deal, maybe with a 3rd (28-29) as an option.

Lucas Herrington: $200K/$235K Contract Thru: 28-29, Option Years: 29-30

Obviously the find of the season and one of the best deals in the league.  I did not expect anything this good from an 18-year old moving over from the A-League.  His contract length is pretty much meaningless as it would be absolutely stunning to see him here by the time the 27-28 season starts.  If he plays in the World Cup and plays well we might have a hard time seeing him again in a Rapids kit, but the FO needs to do whatever they can to keep him at least through this season for the USOC run.

Noah Cobb: $130K/$130K Contract Thru: 2026 Option Years: 2027

Cobb has been a good backup that has had to play more often than I'd like due to fixture congestion.  He'll be 21 next month so he's got plenty of room to grow and I think he has a good skillset.  I'd like to see him extended by a couple of seasons.

Ian Murphy: $400K/$448K Contract Thru: 2026 Option Years: 2027

Who?  6 minutes of action this year.  If that's all Wells sees in him we should decline the option and release him at the end of the season.

Outside Backs:

Reggie Cannon: $750K/$842K Contract Thru: 2027 Option Years: 27-28

Cannon does a lot of things fine and nothing well.  He's essentially an acceptable MLS outside back being paid a TAM salary.  That doesn't work.  At the same time nobody has claimed the right back spot so there's a chance for him to have a real impact in the second half of the season.  If he doesn't it ight be worth thinking about a buyout in the offseason.  At the very least I think he's done in Colorado after next year's sprint season.

Kosi Thompson: $140K/$145K Contract Thru: 2026

He's a backup being paid like a backup.  I would hate to think he's the best we could do for a starter, but I'm not saying we give up on him either.

Keegan Rosenberry: $300K/$300K Contract Thru: 2027

Keegan is taking the Drew Moor "veteran presence on the bench" role and that's fine.  He's earned that and he can help us out being a late game sub and a very occasional spot starter.  I'm not sure how well he fits into Wells' system but that's not really what you're looking for out of him at this point.  His role is to just protect a lead late.  I'm even fine if they give him another contract at 32 if he wants one.

Miguel Navarro: $498K/$549K Contract Thru: 2027 Option Years: 27-28

Navarro hasn't shown yet he's been worth the "Acquire from Fire, loan to Talleres, sell to Talleres, buy from Talleres" cycle he went through but as a MLS player he's good enough to justify what we're paying him and to compete for the left-back spot.  He's in the prime of his career at 27 so I don't know that we'll see much more than this from him, but that's still better than a lot of left backs we've tried since we sold Sam Vines (the first time).

Jackson Travis: $125K/$128K Contract Thru: 2026 Option Years: 2027

Travis is lucky he's a homegrown because otherwise I'm not sure he'd have a shot of sticking on the roster after this season.  For every good thing he does he does something bad.  Both he and Navarro seem to have a discipline problem too.  Again, left-back has been a tough spot for us but I think we can do better.

Central Midfielders:

Paxten Aaronson: $2M/$2.23M Contract Thru: 29-30

Aaronson's play has been a recurring topic on the blog this season.  When he's on he's earning his money and looks like the DP we signed.  He's just not on enough.  5 goals and 4 assists since he got here and he went 5 games in a row without any goal contributions in April.  He sees himself as more of a 6 than an 8, which means goal contributions aren't everything, but he's too invisible for long stretches for the highest paid player on the team and the highest cost to acquire in team history.

Hamzat Ojediran: $800K/$882K Contract Thru: 28-29 Option Years: 29-30, 30-31

The best thing you can say about a defensive midfielder is that you don't notice him when things are going well and you don't notice him when things are going badly, for different reasons.  That fits Hamzat the Destroyer this year.  He's had a couple of good offensive contributions and when our defense has broken down I've never seen him being the reason.  I'm a little concerned about how he dropped out of the starting XI the last couple of games, I'm hoping that was just due to the number of minutes we played.

Josh Atencio: $463K/$463K Contract Thru: 2027 Option Years: 27-28

For the first 2/3rds of the season so far I was pretty frustrated with Atencio.  He was not good more often than not and I was wondering what Wells was seeing in him.  The last week or two before the break he really stepped up though and had multiple good games.  Maybe it was just a matter of time for him to find his right spot.  He still takes the occasional stupid card but if he can keep his level like he was showing as the first half wrapped up he should be pushing for starting minutes.

Connor Ronan: $510K/$562K Contract Thru: N/A

The N/A above is because there are multiple reports that the Rapids and Aberdeen have agreed to terms for Ronan to move back to Scotland when the window opens in a week and a half.  Aberdeen is still working out the final details of the contract with Connor but there's no expectation that the deal will fall through.  So Ronan has played his last game in burgundy.  He stood out as somebody who could actually play on the awful 2023 team but he could never reach that level of impact again, possibly because the roster got better around him.

Wayne Frederick: $113K/$113K Contract Thru: 2026 Option Years: 2027, 27-28

When Wells and Smith made the decision to go with Frederick as the creator and sell Bassett a lot of eyebrows were raised but so far they've been right.  Both Cole and Wayne have 2 goals but Frederick has 5 assists to the former homegrown's 2.  And Frederick is about an eighth of Bassett's salary.  Wayne is going to turn 22 later this month and he still has more to learn, but I'm somewhat confident when he starts now compared to last year when I thought it was a waste.  Like a lot of this team he needs to be smarter, see the red card he took from the bench against Dallas.

Wingers:

Ted Ku-DiPietro: $500K/$556K Contract Thru: 2027 Option Years: 27-28

Starting with two of the U-22 players.  Unfortunately KDP is made of glass.  At this point I think he's missed more games than he's been available for since we acquired him, coming off an injury, last offseason.  If he can stay healthy for any length of time he seems to have some real talent, but as the saying goes the best ability is availability.

Alexis Manyoma: $654K/$712K Contract Thru: July '26 (loan)

Another U-22 player.  Manyoma was brought in on a loan fee with a big purchase clause last summer.  2 starts, 15 appearances, 1 goal. Rumor leaked today that the Rapids won't exercise the purchase clause and he'll return to Estudiantes during the World Cup break.  The right move.   Another Padraig Smith summer-loan special.

Dante Sealy: $150K/$168K Contract Thru: 2026 Option Years: 2027

Sealy is a 23 year old making sub-$200K that came in with the expectation (due to his acquisition cost) of being a starter and contributor.  He hasn't met that expectation but I'm not sure how much you can blame him for that.  Clearly a purchase for the future, it was just by a team who needs to be winning now.

Georgi Minoungou: $113K/$113K Contract Thru: 27-28 Option Years: 28-29

See Sealy, Dante.  Another high priced acquisition who's not yet ready to be a starter/contributor, though he's a bit closer than Sealy.  He's got the same problem as Jonathan Lewis has, in that he's not afraid to take anyone on, even at time where he should really be passing out of trouble.

Ali Fadal: $113K/$113K Contract Thru: 2026 Option Years: 27-28, 28-29

Been on loan

Forwards:

Rafa Navarro: $1.39M/$1.45M Contract Thru: 2027 Option Years: 27-28

The first half MVP.  8 goals, 4 assists.  Tailed off a little bit at the end but he was asked to play so much.  1575 out of a possible 1650 minutes.  He was subbed out of the Toronto game with 6 minutes left, and he came into the Union Omaha USOC game in the 69th minute, and otherwise he played every minute of every game, league and cup.  Its not a surprise he only had 2 goals in the last 7 games, but both were in wins.  Another one who could be pursued in this upcoming window but the Rapids have to keep him.

Darren Yapi: $795K/$820K Contract Thru: 28-29 Option Years: 29-30

Yapi got a new contract, one he earned.  Its a little high for what he contributes but as a U-22 player it doesn't hit as hard as it appears.  3 goals and 2 assists so far, on pace for double-digit goal contributions.  I'd like to see him step it up a notch after the break and really give us somebody to rely on without Navarro.

Alex Harris: $88K/$90K Contract Thru: 2027 Option Years: 27-28, 28-29

Had one start and 3 late game sub appearances.  Hasn't done much but you can't expect much at this point.  Good that the coach has enough confidence in him to get him on the field.

Kimani Stewart-Baynes: $115K/$116K Contract Thru: 2026 Option Years: 2027, 27-28

One appearance for 9 minutes.  He looked to be a rising star and got looks from the Canadian Nats, but he hasn't been in their picture at all leading up to the World Cup   I think he's released at the end of the season.  

Sydney Wathuta: $88K/$88K Contract Thru: 2027 Option Years: 27-28, 28-29

One bench appearance this season

Mamadou Billo Diop: $88K/$88K Contract Thru: 27-28 Option Years: 28-29, 29-30

2 appearances, 17 minutes.  Too soon to tell anything.

Bryce Jamison: $113K/$126K Contract Thru: 2027 Option Years: 27-28, 28-29

Been on loan

Donavan Phillip

Been on loan

What I draw from all of this is that we have enough 'replacement level' MLS players, but not enough game changers, and some of the players we're paying to be game changers (Aaronson, Steffen, Cannon) aren't getting the job done.  That matches our results where we can (generally) handle the bad-to-average teams but the good teams are running us over (for the most part).  Our talent isn't high enough to hang with the big dogs. 

This got really long already so I'm going to end it here and come back sometime in the next couple of days to do a part 2 about the coaching staff and where the team sits.

Book Review: Around The World In 80 Clubs

Last week Paul Watson's new book, Around The World In 80 Clubs, was released.  Watson is the co-host of The Sweeper Podcast, a great look at football across the planet, from the islands of Oceania to the lower leagues of Poland and everything in-between.  He also has served as a manager of multiple clubs, those being the Pohnpei State team and the national team in the Federated States of Micronesia, he helped get Bayangol FC in Mongolia started, and he consults for Thimphu City in Bhutan. Watson wrote about his experiences in Micronesia in Up Pohnpei.  Needless to say this is a very different view of football than what you normally see.

In Around The World In 80 Clubs Watson pulls together interesting football stories from across the globe.  If you're a regular listener to The Sweeper many of these will be familiar to you but this format allows him to provide more detail.  For those of us who didn't jump on the podocast right away there were plenty of new stories as well.  He separates the stories into six sections

• A Tough Place To Go - Clubs that are just hard to get to, like Saaremaaa and Hiiumaa, two island clubs in Estonia who once played their match on a ferry between the islands
• One Game At A Time - Teams with long losing (or winning) histories, such as the American Samoa team made famous in 'Next Goal Wins'
• Club Versus Country - Sides that got embroiled in situations due to their nationality, like Antigua Barracuda who played in the USL but got stuck playing all their home games in the States
• The Twelfth Man - Clubs with noticeable fan antics of experiences, including the miracle run of Bodo/Glimt last season
• Lost the Dressing Room - Sides with notable administrative gaffes, for example the Finnish women's team who recently called up the wrong Ruuskanen
• Good Team On Paper - Teams that are more than just football, like Forest Green Rovers, the world's greenest club (and the favorite club of the author, as well as our own Matt Pollard of Burgundy Wave)

Over 163 pages Watson tells 80-ish stories of professional clubs, amateur sides, and national teams and none of them are the type you're going to see on SportsCenter or Soccer Saturday.  The book is an easy read, I whipped through it in 4-5 days of reading it at lunch and before bed.  If you're like me and love the game because of how its a common language across the planet its a treasure trove of laughs and smiles and not a few head shakes.  If you're more interested in who wins the Champions League each year or where Bernardo Silva is going to end up this is probably not what you're looking for.

I got a copy a couple of days early because as a Patreon of the Sweeper Podcast Paul offered us signed copies.  Unfortunately the shipping to the U.S. (Watson is in the UK) was prohibitive but when I pointed that out he offered to send me one of his author copies.  That's exactly who he is though, he was the person responsible for organizing the Federated States of Micronesia kit sales in 2023 which kind of kickstarted the recent fad of Oceania nations getting into the kit game (of which I have taken far too much advantage of).  He and cohost Lee Wingate clearly enjoy the work they do for the podcast and bring in other people working to tell these lesser-seen stories, like Getting CONCACAFed's Jon Arnold.  I highly recommend the podcast if you're interested in this side of the game.  And just recently they did their own kit which I had to get in on.