Time To Get The Party Started

The best day of any season is here, the home opener.  And somehow, despite it being February, its going to be a gorgeous day for soccer at the Dick.  The only downside is that the Timbers and an old friend are in town.  Cole Bassett makes his first appearance in Commerce City in something other than burgundy and blue which is going to be a hard thing to see.  Regardless, kickoff is ar 2:30 tomorrow afternoon and the tailgate starts at 11.

Player Availability:

OUT - M Ali Fadal (abdomen)

Everyone is still healthy from last week, which, given our recent early season injury problems, is great to see.

Based on Wells' post-game comments on Sunday I'm expecting to see some changes, especially for those who didn't play very well.  Mainly Cobb, Atencio, and Sealy.  But a lot of this is still guess work right now, if Travis and Cannon were to start on the outside again it wouldn't shock me.

Prediction: 2-1 loss, goal by Navarro.  Bassett gets at least an assist against us.  It is really hard to get any hopes up based on last week.  We are at home and Wells has had first contact with the enemy in MLS and will adjust, but until we see improvement I can't predict anything but a loss.

Roster Details And New Food At The Dick

Game preview coming tonight or tomorrow morning, depending on how long this curling draw lasts.  (Yes I watch curling, curling is great).  Before we get to that though I was planning on giving the Rapids a shout out this week but I've been too busy to get to it until today.  Namely they're making some food changes for the better at the Dick.

The biggest one, in my opinion, is that GB's has been brought back inside of Dale's.  Losing them by raising the rent a few seasons ago was a massive unforced error and I'm glad the Rapids and KSE have figured out how to get them back.  Along with GB's Marie Empanada will be in the stadium too, which is a huge win.  Also Jake's Baby D Mini-Donuts are back, a personal favorite, and they've also got new BBQ and taco options.  Their debuting a new $5 menu tomorrow as well.  These are all great and very necessary food upgrades.

Of course no matter what they do there's no topping the Centennial 38 tailgate which remains undefeated and is back for its 20th season at the Dick (if you include its genesis as the Class VI tailgate).  We get the season started at 11am tomorrow morning!  No Fan Alone!

Also dropping today was the official MLS club profiles which updates all the roster classifications and contract lengths.  Obviously a lot of this doesn't change year over year, but there are some notable things to call out for the Rapids.

• Rafa Navarro apparently got his green card as he's not listed as an international
• Our 6 internationals for 6 slots are Fadal, Herrington, Holding, Manyoma, Ojediran, and Phillip
• We have two DP's - Navarro and Aaronson
• We have two U-22's - Ted KDP and Manyoma
• That means we have the flexibility to add 2 U-22s before the window closes or in the summer, or we could switch to the 3+3 model in the summer and add a DP and a U-22 (Smith has been pretty clear he prefers the 2+4 model)
• Beaudry, Fadal, and Phillip are listed as unavailable - on loan.  We know Beaudry is on loan, Fadal is still on the injury report but may be on loan to R2.  Phillip I assume is on loan to R2
• Manyoma is listed as on loan but Miguel Navarro is not.  This could just be an oversight though as I'd be surprised if we already exercised his buy clause
• Two players are out of contract with no options at the end of the season (not counting our two loanees), Yapi and Holding.  I wouldn't be surprised to see Holding allowed to walk, but we have to get Yapi a new contract ASAP.
• Nine other players are on option years in 2027, most notably Steffen, Ronan, and Sealy.  Lots of room to change this roster for Wells after one season should he want to.

My biggest take away though is how thin this roster is.  We only have the minimum 16 senior roster players and only 27 players total.  We only have 3 central midfielders and 3 wingers on the senior roster.  With two U-22 slots open I really hope some work is going to be resolved before the window closes in late March.

Brutal

The first half last night was probably the worst season opening half of soccer I've ever watched.  A lot of that was due to the Rapids lousy play but it was also due to the ref having a howler and a truly awful broadcast from MLS/Apple.  The second half perked up a bit but really after the first 30 minutes the damage was done across the board.  A 2-0 loss doesn't look horrible, but if the standard of play doesn't rise significantly from this game it will be a VERY long season.

Random Thoughts:

• I was surprised to see Herrington and Cobb start with Holding on the bench.  And I think the defensive mess showed what a mistake that was.
• I really thought Ronan was going to feature this year, but being the third(?) choice in central midfield after Atencio and Fredrick suggests otherwise, unless there was something about the Sounders Wells saw.
• That was the worst 30 minutes the Rapids have played in a very long time.  It was literally 25 minutes before we had possession in the attacking third.  About 5 minutes in I asked if we were going to have a touch in the Sounders half before we were trailing and the answer was no.
• Neutral refs say the VAR to pull back Seattle's second goal was correct, if not called often.  Still felt like a gift to the Rapids to me.
• Now the VAR to remove the red card was clearly right.  At that point the ref had completely lost the plot.
• While we're on the red card, Apple's coverage was horrible.  They didn't have the ref on screen when he pulled the red but the crowd reaction suggested it was red.  Apple immediately switched to the ref putting something in his pocket and Cannon gesturing in a "WTF" sort of way.  The Apple announcer told us Cannon had seen yellow.  It wasn't until Cobb was walking off the field that they realized there had been a red, and it was to Cobb.  Chris Kamara was funny when he did it, this wasn't.
• Staying on this subject the Cannon/Rosenberry swap at half was botched too.  First he announced Atencio had come off.  The he said it was Ojediran, then 4 minutes later he got around to figuring out it was Cannon.  If Apple hadn't announced they were putting everyone back on site this year I would have assumed he was calling it remotely.
• Going back to the lay, Cannon and Cobb were horrible on the first goal.  Cannon just let Rothrock run free to track down the loose ball, crash into the boards, come back on the field, and make a cross with no pressure.  Then the cross went right past Cobb in no-man's land, leaving Herrington to cover two men, unsuccessfully.
• On the second goal it was more of the same.  Aaronson lost the ball, Herrington stepped up and made a defensive play but a bad deflection and Cobb being in no-man's land, and Rosenberry being caught up field, meant Rothrock had a clean shot.  Plus Steffen made a horrible play on it.
• Guess who had the assist on that?  Yeah, our old friend Albert Rusnak.  I hate that guy.
• You'll notice I've said nothing about offense, because we had none.  The whole plan was to play it out of the back by going to Steffen to start anything, and he's not good at it!  How he didn't give the ball away for at least two goals I have no idea.  Playing it out of the back only works if your defenders can pass, and they couldn't.
• When guys like Manyoma and Harris came in late the game evened out its tilt and there were some good moves, but never with the good final pass.
• Partially because of the offensive game plan but also dye to their own play, Aaronson and Navarro were invisible in this game.  That can not happen again.
• Of the starting XI Herrington probably had the best game, but that bar is so low its underground.
• After the game Wells was very candid in his post-game comments about how bad that was, which I appreciate.  He essentially said he picked the wrong starters and that there would be changes for Saturday's game.  That should include Cobb and Travis not starting, probably not Atencio or Sealy either.
• His comments also suggest that the starting jobs are up for grabs every week and he rewards those who train well.  I appreciate the idea of having competition at every spot, but there are some players who are clearly better than others on this roster.  Play them.
• He also said this will take "a lot longer than longer than 4 weeks".  Somebody needs to remind him all those game count towards the expectation of "being in the MLS Cup conversation" that Demoff set for this team.  This can not be a rebuilding year.

The tl;dr of all that is we looked unprepared and untalented compared to the Sounders.  If this is our level then heads should roll, starting with Smith but possibly extending to Wells.  No, I'm not calling for Wells' head after one week, but if this doesn't get significantly better quickly the decisions made this offseason are such that nobody in charge should be back in 2027.

Man of the Match: Alex Harris.  Until late in the match I wasn't going to award a MOTM, but Harris came off the bench and started showing what this team is trying to do.

Opening Night!

The last major event at Lumen.  Go Hawks!!!

Its taken us a while to get here, and we're in Seattle without a couple of faces we would have expected to be there, but its time to get the last summer season underway.  OF course we have to stat in one of our cursed places, Seattle's Lumen Field.  But perhaps the stunning 3 goal comeback last season has broken that curse.  Regardless kickoff tomorrow is at 7:15pm on both Apple TV and FS1.  The official Rapids watch party is at DNVR, C38 is having their kickoff event at the Celtic as is tradition.

Also a reminder that MLS Season Pass on Apple is no longer a thing.  MLS is now folded into Apple TV so a subscription gets you the Rapids, F1, Ted Lasso, and my personal favorite, Slow Horses.

Availability Report:

OUT: Ali Fadal (abdomen)

I'm sure its just coincidence that our only injury is an international player when we have seven internationals and six international spots...

Going out on a bit of a limb here as with a new season and a new coach its always tough to predict what a lineup will look like.  The three biggest guesses are who the third midfielder will be alongside Ojediran and Aaronson and who else will be on the back line with Cannon and Holding.

For center back I went with Cobb due to his experience but if its murphy or Herrington I won't be too shocked.  I would have had Vines as the starter at  left back giving Navarro a bit more time to integrate but tonight's news blew that out of the water so I'm going to go with the newest signing assuming we have his paperwork.  Otherwise it will be Travis.  Last but not least the Atencio/Ronan question in midfield.  Wells mentioned about pulling out some surprises and I think this is the place it happens, with Ronan playing the forward midfield/10 spot with Aaronson behind him.

Prediction: 3-2 loss, goals by Navarro and Yapi.  A high scoring game like this seems like a stretch but Wells' style appears to be up-tempo, high pressing, and attacking the goal.  Meanwhile the Sounders have a number of center back injuries and I don't yet trust our back line.  Those are all ingredients for a high-scoring game.  In the end though Seattle has more talent than us and are at home, so they get the win.

Sam Vines Waved And Bought Out

The Rapids announced tonight at the roster compliance deadline that they have waived Sam Vines and bought out his contract.  This means he has no impact on the salary cap for the Rapids this season or next (his contract was trough the 2027 season and/or the end of 2027, however this sprint season is going to work).  His roster spot is also freed up, though that wasn't going to be a problem either way.

This decision isn't surprising, but the timing is.  With Miguel Navarro being brought in the writing was on the all but I thought they would take this season to see how things went.  In the end I wasn't expecting Vines to be on the roster for the sprint season unless he had a huge turnaround this year.

Matt Wells said there would be some tough changes, and certainly moving the two most successful homegrowns in club history in Bassett and Vines would qualify.  I think cutting Vines free is the right move though.  He needs to get a fresh start somewhere and hopefully find his game again.

Vines is now free to sign anywhere he wants, including within MLS.  The Rapids now have freed up a bit over $900K in salary, so essentially a max salary player and some GAM, assuming they didn't have to cut him to get under the cap.

This news interrupted my game preview, which will be up tonight!

2026 Preview And Predictions

This season preview it a hard one to write because so much of it is a mystery.  Really all the changes from the end of last year are mysteries in MLS, with, until this week, Dante Sealy being the only new ingredient with any MLS time.  Adding Miguel Navarro gives some idea of what to expect but he's two years removed from playing on a bad Fire team.  In fact arguably the biggest roster move of the offseason was selling Cole Bassett to Portland.  Addition by subtraction I guess?

Of course the biggest mystery is on the sideline.  Is Matt Wells ready to be a head coach and is he ready to do it in MLS, which has its own set of challenges?  Based on the lack of game-changing signings it feels like the Front Office thinks that Steffen, Aaronson, and Navarro are a good enough core to take this team further in 2026 under Wells than they did in 2025 under Armas.  Wells is saying all the right things, but what matters is what happens starting on Sunday night.

It looks like the Rapids are going to play something similar to how Armas set them up.  4-man back line, a central triangle of midfielders, a lone striker, and an outside option on each side.  Wells seems to be looking for more true wingers than Armas was by the end.  The new manager also gets the advantage of the first true destroyer-style defensive mid the Rapids have had in a few years in Ojediran.  That's a role this team has needed for a while.

Its going to be needed this year two with the number of open questions on defense.  I'm not particularly satisfied with any of the options on the back line.  Cannon is a jack of all trades, doing none of them well.  Holding is still somewhat of a question mark but doesn't seem to be a guaranteed lock-down CB.  The second CB position is a toss-up between three young (ish in Murphy's case) players.  At LB things were going so poorly we needed to get Navarro.  Not a lot of confidence there.

Beyond that there's still a time bomb waiting to go off on this team.  Navarro has made it clear he wants to go back to Brazil eventually, and there have been multiple rumors about teams in Brazil and in Mexico interested in him.  He's under contract through at least the 2027-28 season and possibly to the midpoint of the 28-29 season, depending on how this season transition is handled.  You have to think at some point the Rapids will look to make some money off of him.  If he's here for Galaxy game on March 7th, right after the Brazilian window closes, it means he'll be here at least until the World Cup break and the windows opening again in July.

Overall I expect a season of transition, which doesn't seem to match with the stated goa by Smith and Demoff of being in the conversation around MLs Cup.  In a normal situation it would be expected that the first season under a new coach might be a bit rough, but this club has asked for patience from fans FAR too many times for that to be acceptable now.  Add to that the addition of the Summit and the schedule change and this is a critical year for the Rapids.  One I don't think they're up for.

And on that bombshell, on to my predictions:

• Starting out on a positive note, this is the year where we finally beat a MLS team in the Open Cup for the first time in 20 years.  I think by the time a MLS matchup happens Wells will realize that's the best path to success this season and take the game more seriously than we have in a long time
• Likewise we retain the Rocky Mountain Cup for the third year running.  FSL hasn't improved that much and we take advantage of having the home leg second to win it
• All that success does not translate in league play though.  Despite the win in the home finale to claim the RMC the Rapids are already eliminated from playoff contention by that point and finish 11th in the West
• In their end of season press conference Smith and Demoff will preach patience and say this season was necessary to get on the right track.  I'm not making this part a prediction but I would not be surprised if sometime in the offseason Padraig Smith is not renewed to allow Demoff to "start fresh" in the Front Office, ,but with no significant additional investment
• The Rapids will lose to Messi, who will play at least as a sub, and Inter Miami in their big 30th anniversary match and overall it will be a bit of a cluster and missed opportunity for the team despite a huge crowd
• Coming out of the World Cup break the season will look like the best case scenario is barely making the playoffs and bowing out quickly, so Navarro will be sold and Yapi will be the starting striker for the rest of the season
• The Rapids bring in a center back and a winger in the summer window, and will be linked to a couple of bigger moves for an attacker, but nothing actually happens.
• Ojediran becomes Hamzat the Destroyer and is a fan favorite, even if maybe it was a slight overpay to get him
• Miguel Navarro claims the left back spot fairly quickly and is a serviceable but not amazing MLS left back
• Aaronson is Player of the Year
• Wells struggles to figure out MLS early but after the World Cup break comes back and really shows some exciting ideas for the 2027 sprint season, despite it being too late for 2026

International Signing Rankings, 2026 Version

This is the third time I've gone through this exercise, which originally started as a way to address how well the Rapids have done in their international scouting.  the rules were simple, any player who came to the Rapids from somewhere other than a team in the U.S. or Canada, including college/high school.  Essentially players that the Rapids had to find, not players that would have been on multiple radars or part of systems designed to expose them to MLS teams.  This includes returning Americans.

I separated them into 5 categories, and here's the list as of this time 2 years ago.  The * by the name means we'll be revaluating them in this column.

Group 1: The question marks, because we haven't seen them yet:

*Djordje Mihailović

*Zach Steffen

*Sidnei Tavares

*Sam Vines

Group 2:  The failures, no sugar-coating it, these were bad to horrible signings:

Stefan Aigner

Yannick Boli

Joe Mason

Nicolas Benezet

Younes Namli

Max

Alex Gersbach

Felipe Gutiérrez

Marko Ilic

*Rafael Navarro

Sam Nicholson

Group 3: Replacement level MLS players or overpaid for their decent production:

Giles Barnes

Johan Blomberg

Tommy Smith

Edgar Castillo

Lucas Esteves

Braian Galvan

Collen Warner

Andreas Maxso

Group 4: Solid contributing players worthy of the international spot (eventually):

Danny Wilson

Connor Ronan

Group 5: Top signings:

Jack Price

William Yarbrough

Now onto the ten new players and the re-evaluation of the five above.

Group 1: The question marks, because we haven't seen them yet:

Lucas Herrington, Miguel Navarro, Hamzet Ojediran,  - 2026 Winter - Too soon to have seen them.

Alexis Manyoma - 2025 Summer - Only played 38 minutes, not enough to go on

Dauoda Amadou, Ali Fadal - 2025 Winter - Technically Amadou was signed from Rapids 2 but his R2 contract included an automatic signing by the first-team.  Neither of them have had time with teh first-team (10 minutes for Amadou) but time is running out to show something.

Group 2:  The failures, no sugar-coating it, these were bad to horrible signings:

Lamine Diack - 2024 Winter - Bring in a guy on a TAM contract, on loan, and then never play him.  He had 16 minutes over 4 appearances before the loan ended.  I know the excuse was that his visa took so long he never integrated with the team, but that's why you make these moves early enough to queue up all of that work, not 3 weeks before the start of the season.

Sidnei Tavares - 2023 Summer - Last time I wrote:

5 appearances and 300 minutes on a last placed team isn't really enough to judge, but its not looking good

About 6 weeks later he was released before the start of the 2024 season.  Unlike Navarro, who came in on loan at the same time, Tavares was another d-mid who could not crack the starting lineup.  Of all places he's ended up in Blackburn where he got 11 appearances early but has been out since Christmas due to a knee injury.

Sam Vines - 2024 Winter - Yeah, its killing me to list him in this category, but I don't see how I can justify putting him anywhere else.  After a decent 2024 Sammy fell off a cliff in 2025, making only 13 starts.  We've now brought in Miguel Navarro on loan to provide competition for his role this season, which suggests that his preseason under Wells hasn't been great either.  We need a lot more out of a guy we're spending $900K on.

Group 3: Replacement level MLS players or overpaid for their decent production:

Paxten Aaronson - 2025 Summer - Aaronson won't stay in this category.  Either he'll find his footing and move up to 4, or he won't and he'll become a 2.  Right now though he was fine in the final group of 2025 games but so far hasn't shown his $8 million in value.

Reggie Cannon - 2024 Summer - Cannon does everything decent as a MLS defender, but doesn't excel at anything.  That's fine for a middle of the roster $500K guy, but its disappointing for a guy making $750K and with National Team experience.  When we have a couple of young guys on the back line you hope for more from somebody as experienced as Cannon.

Rob Holding - 2025 Summer - Another guy who could move out of this category after 6 starts last season.  We saw just enough of him that I couldn't put him in Group 1 but so far he hasn't been amazing and had one notable mistake late in the season.  He's at $1.2M so expectations are high.

Group 4: Solid contributing players worthy of the international spot (eventually):

Rafael Navarro - 2023 Summer - Navarro only went out and challenged Rubio's goal-scoring record in 2024.  The reason he's not in Group 5 is that we need to see what he can do without Mihailovic setting him up.  He may also be sold before the end of the 2025 season.  If he puts in another 12+ goal scoring season this year and is then sold for a profit it would be hard not to put him in Group 5.

Zack Steffen - 2024 Winter - His 2024 was a bit rough but a great 2025 puts him in this category.  If he can keep that up he'll be a key part of whatever success we have in 2026.  Obviously he doesn't take an international slot but as one of four players still on the roster making 7 figures he needs to keep his high level.

Group 5: Top signings:

Djordje Mihailovic - 2024 Winter - Set the team single-season goal involvement record, represented the U.S. and the Rapids in the Paris Olympics, and was sold to Toronto for a record amount.  I know he "asked out" but I'm not convinced we've herd the full story there.  That's really the only black mark against him in his time here.  He is, arguably, our best ever DP signing.

We are now up to 37 international singings in 18 windows since Padraig Smith took over.  They break down like:

Group 1: 6

Group 2: 13

Group 3: 11

Group 4: 4

Group 5: 3

Our failure rate has dropped from 40% two years ago to 35% now, which suggests that our recent signings have been better.  Certainly we've added Navarro, Steffen, and Mihailovic to the success categories where the prior additions to those categories were only Ronan and Maxso and both of them barely cleared the bar.  Still we need guys like Herrington and Ojediran to be successes if we're going to fully turn this around.

Its Like Deja Vu All Over Again

You'd be forgiven if you thought you had already heard today's news out of the Rapids because its all very familiar.

First of all the team announced the loan of left-back Miguel Navarro from Tallares in Argentina.  If that sounds familiar its because last offseason we sold Navarro to Tallares after having loaned him there for the 2024 season.  To recap:

In December of 2023 we traded left back Andrew Gutman to Chicago for a bunch of GAM and Navarro.  A month later we found out Sam Vines was available and brought him back, making Navarro expendable.  We loaned Navarro to Tallares at that point with an option to buy, which they exercised.

Of course after that we went into last season and realized that Vines wasn't the old Vines.  We tried using Jackson Travis there, but that didn't work out either.  So we traded for Rafael Santos from Orlando and he was more solid than either of the other two.  Of course we declined his option at the end of last season and let him walk and he signed with St. Louis.

So a week before the season starts our options were back to Jackson Travis and Sam Vines, options that didn't work last season.  Or at least, that's what we thought.  It turns out that Navarro was already in camp and training with the team, he was probably the 'Trialist' that subbed in to the Orlando game for the Rapids.  He has a green card already so he'll be eligible as soon as FIFA processes the transfer.

I have to ask though, what are we doing?  Since we sold Vines in mid 2021 we've signed Lucas Esteves, Alex Gersbach, traded for Andrew Gutman, signed Jackson Travis as a home grown, traded for Miguel Navarro, re-signed Sam Vines, traded for Rafael Santos, and now reacquired Miguel Navarro to fill the left back hole.  8 players (one twice) for one role in 4.5 years.  Now our plan is to spend money to get a player we already had under contract 15 months ago.  While I can't really blame the FO for going for Vines when he was available and making him the starter (imagine how mad we would have been if he signed somewhere else in MLS?) not working to get Navarro back when Vines started faltering in 2024 or keeping Santos after last season seems like a more efficient plan than this.

Later in the afternoon the Rapids held their season kickoff press conference with head Coach Matt Wells, Team President Padraig Smith, and KSE President of Team Operations Kevin Demoff.  Again, fi this event seemed familiar and repetitive its because it was.  We saw Demoff and Smith say largely the same things in their end-of-season presser in November, and we've seen Smith say these same things over and over during the last 8.5 years he's been in charge of the team.  Essentially "trust us, we've got it right this time because of A, B, and C".  Yeah, I've heard that one before.

The one notable quote was from Kevin Demoff when asked what a successful season looks like.

Our expectation is to compete for MLS Cup and a successful season is taking meaningful steps in that direction and being in that conversation

So that's the expectation.  Meaningful steps towards winning MLS Cup.  I have my doubts but we'll see.

Honestly the best part of the quote was that he prefaced it with coming at it from a different angle having just finished a season in the NFL where they lost in the NFC championship and is that successful season.  That's right, Dark Side defense baby!  Go Hawks!

So yeah, a day of repetition for the Rapids.  We'll see what comes next, hopefully not a repeat of the 2025 season.

Its Game Week!

We're now within one week until kickoff of the season in Seattle on Sunday at 7:15pm.  That means its officially game week!  The offseason is over and its time to look ahead to the season.  Before we do that though there was a final preseason game against Orlando in Florida yesterday, which the Rapids won 4-1.  The 4 goals doubled the combined goals of the first two games which was a welcome sight after a couple of questionable starts.  To be fair Matt Wells was very clear that his goal in the preseason games was to see how a tired squad reacted so he didn't set the team up to win those first two games.

Yesterday Navarro had a pair of goals, Yapi had one, and our new Aussie Herrington had the last one  Yapi also picked up an assist and Aaronson has two helpers as well.  Good to see the big 3 of our attack on the scoreboard.  Also Atencio was subbed off for a "trialist" so there might be an additional name in camp we're unaware of..  Otherwise Holding, Cannon, Vines, and Ronan had the game off and Steffen and Hansen split time.  Otherwise the expected names got the start, with Ojediran coming off after 65 minutes.

Matt Wells said we should judge the team at the end of the transfer window, which is still 4.5 weeks away.  That said the team now is likely the team the starting XI on Sunday will be chosen from.  Anyone signed from outside the U.S. won't have their paperwork done in time, unless they're American but they still won't be ready to step into the starting lineup in less than a week.  This is the week where teams have to reach roster compliance which has led to the Rapids making notable intra-MLS moves in the past, most recently trading for Josh Atencio just before the start of last season.  Even if that type of move is made I think its unlikely that player starts since Wells seems to want a high level of fitness and integration for his team. 

Later this week I'll have my normal preview and predictions.  I may also update my international signing rankings for the first time in a couple of years.  And then of course we'll have a game preview either Friday night or sometime Saturday.  Remember, this will be the last full-season kickoff week in February.  Next year we'll be looking at the 14 game 'sprint season' before the calendar change next fall.

Offseason Continues To Land With A Thud: Jersey Reveal

A couple of hours before the official announcement this morning the new Rapids kit leaked.  The official release came at 10:

That's the 2026 'Colorful Colorado' kit...which is mostly black.

There is nothing I like about this kit.  Honestly outside of our blue & black years from 2003-2006 I think this is the worst home kit we've ever had.  I could see this as trying something different as an away/alternate kit, or as a third kit, but as a home kit?  We are the Burgundy Boys and yet three stripes on the shoulders is the extent of burgundy.  Also the detailing around the collar and sleeves is supposed to be a nod to our heritage and our prior colors but they're lost in the sea of black.

There are some fans who are linking this to the proposed rebranding but I think that's a mistake.  Teams start working on kits two years in advance so this was in the planning before anything about rebranding was discussed.  I feel like the rebranding push is coming from our new Chief Business Officer, who was only hired in the last year, far after this jersey was planned.  It is however a poorly timed release after the rebranding idea was panned by many fans.

Also I will continue to rant about the pricing of these kits, which is something completely out of the hands of the Rapids.  Those are set by Adidas (possibly with input from MLS, but not the teams).  $160 for an authentic.  $100 for the replica which doesn't include the star or the collar detail.  Add $35 to that if you want Navarro's name and number (or any other name and number) on either kit.  $195 for an authentic player kit.  Unbelievable.  For comparison's sake I got an authentic Aurora FC (USL Women) kit to support Minnesota two weeks ago for $95 shipped, and it arrived in 3 days.  It included name and number for that price, though I chose to leave it blank.  And its a better design of a black kit than this one.

After a run of good to great kits the Rapids completely missed with this one.  Consider this.  2026 is our 20th season playing at Dick's Sporting Goods Park and our 20th season playing in burgundy.  To celebrate or history we're going to play Inter Messi at Empower wearing black.  How does that make sense?

Rapids Continue To Trade Player Options For Money

So two official moves since last I wrote.  Bassett to Portland is now official, with the final price being the same as reported up front but the add-on potential being $100K less than first reports.  As I covered last week, this is not a great move.

Today the Rapids sent two international slots to Chicago for $650K of GAM this year and another $200K of GAM next year.  This is the most ever(?) paid for an international slot.  So good business, but it ties our hands in the number of reinforcements we can bring it.  By my count we have 6 internationals right now:

    Rafa Navarro

    Hamzat Ojediran

    Rob Holding

    Lucas Herrington

    Alexis Manyoma

    Ali Fadal

With two spots traded away that covers all 8 spots.  Now Navarro or Fadal could be getting a green card, or the plan might be to loan Fadal to Rapids 2 this season, but as of right now it appears we have no room for any more internationals.

Which makes this rumor interesting,  The Rapids are linked with Spanish center back Loic Williams, who currently plays for Granada in the Spanish Segunda Division.  The catch is that Granada is fighting relegation and won't sell him until the summer window.  By summer either one of those green cards may have come through, or Manyoma's loan will be up and if we don't buy him that spot will be free.

Williams just told 24 years old and has played his whole senior career in the Spanish lower leagues, amassing 95 appearances over the last 4 seasons for three different teams.  Granada bought him for 600,000 Euros from Tenerife after they were relegated to the third division last year.  The last player I can think of to come over from Segunda and make a solid career in MLS was Shaq Moore leaving Tenerife for Nashville in the summer of 2022 but its not something I've tracked closely either.

Right now the Rapids opening night lineup in Seattle in 19 days looks something like this:

Steffen

Cannon - Holding - Cobb - Vines

Ronan - Ojediran - Aaronson

Yapi - Navarro - Sealy

Which...isn't a MLS playoff-level starting XI.  Not unless Matt Wells has really turned some players around.

I know its been a quiet offseason here, but its hard to have much to talk about when you look at this roster and the lack of action this offseason.

From Goal Bassett To Gone Bassett

Tom Bogert broke the news early this evening and its been confirmed by Nourse at the Post and Burgundy Wave.  Cole Bassett is being sold to Portland for $2.65M and 1.05M in performance add-ons.  The Rapids retain a sell-on percentage.

A stunning move by Padraig Smith and (presumably) Matt Wells.  Bassett is the best homegrown player the Rapids academy has ever developed.  He was probably the player most likely to be the next addition to the Gallery of Honor in 10-15 years, and he's only 24.  Instead the majority of his career will now not be in Colorado.  He's also the long-time face of the team in the Colorado market.

Bassett was an expected starter in 4 weeks and started the one preseason match that has been played so far, setting up Yapi for the only Colorado goal of the game.  Bogert's report says the relationship between Cole and the club "remains strong" which doesn't suggest that Bassett asked out.  Tom also said that multiple clubs had asked about him this offseason.

There is a new manager with a new style of play.  Its possible that Wells doesn't see Bassett as the player he wants in the midfield 8 position.  Or maybe he's not planning to use an 8 at all.  If that's the case A. I think that's a poor decision given the rest of our roster but also B. it does make Bassett the most valuable asset we have to move.

Two years ago this month I wrote an article for Burgundy Wave about how Padraig Smith's methodology seemed to map to the one laid out in Soccernomics.  One of the principles of that methodology is "Sell any player if some club offers more than he’s worth.".  That's followed by this quote:

Buying and selling players is not an activity for improving soccer performance. It’s a trading activity in which we produce gross margin. If an offer for a player is greatly superior to his market value, you must not keep him

This move feels like it falls into that rule.  We got an offer for Bassett we were happy with, so we sold him.

The only reason I'm not fully convinced is that $2.65M guaranteed is too low  for what Bassett means to this club on and off the field.  We got $8M for a 26 year old Mihailovic (and that seemed low), we get barely a third of that for a 24 year old Bassett?  This doesn't seem like being offered "more than he's worth", especially if multiple teams were asking.  Essentially selling Cole paid off what we paid for Sealy.  Those two do not feel like equal players.

If we had gotten the full $3.7M up front it would make more sense.  Maybe those performance goals are so low we think we're going to get the full amount without difficulty and breaking them out just let it fit into Portland's budget?

The real problem I have with this, beyond the low number, is the timing.  We are 26 days from the season opener.  If this was going to be our major move of the offseason (so far) it needed to happen in December so we could spend the money we got before the season starts.  Now whomever we spent the money on has to be negotiated, signed, and processed in less than a month.  Unless that player(s) is American or already has a visa its a safe bet they won't be in Seattle for the season opener.  So once again we're starting the season at less than full strength.

With Mihailovic, Larraz, and Bassett all gone we have lost 6500 2025 minutes from or midfield in the last 5 months.  Obviously we should expect Aaronson to take a third of those.  But what about the other two-thirds?  Hamzat?  Atencio?  Ronan?  Unknown signing?  Going back to my post two weeks ago we now need ether another signing or another young player like Atencio to step up just to get us back to our 2025 levels.  This offseason is not filling me with a lot of hope that we're going to see a significant improvement in 2026.  We seem to be going all in on Matt Wells being the secret to unlock this roster.

One Month To Go

One month from tonight the Rapids kick off the season in Seattle., opposite NBC airing the Closing Ceremonies from Italy that would have taken place 8 hours earlier.  The Rapids haven't made a whole lot of news in the last week or two until today where they signed a draft pick and played their first preseason game.

Colorado signed 2025 Superdraft pick (so December of 2024) forward Donovan Phillip to a 2+3 season contract.  With the sprint season next season this means he's guaranteed through the sprint season, then has 3 team option years.  After being picked last season Phillip went back to school at NC State and won the MAC Hermann Trophy this year, which goes to the top player in Division 1.  He is actually the third Hermann trophy winner to make his MLS debut with the Rapids, but the first as a player.  Former GM Dan Counce and former coach Mooch Myernick were also Hermann trophy winners.

Phillip will join the team in Florida once he gets his visa.  On that subject Matt Wells was able to join the team in Florida just a couple of days after they got down there.  His new assistant coaches are still waiting for their visas though, as is new midfielder Hamzat Ojediran.  Braidon Nourse of the Denver Post has a good article about why these are taking longer than they used to and how its largely out of the Rapids hands.

The Rapids also extended Nico Hansen through the 27-28 season with options for the two seasons after that.

Today the squad got their first preseason action in, facing Nashville SC.  Interesting note is that Sam Bassett is in camp with Nashville and got time in this game, but after Cole had subbed out for the Rapids.  Colorado started in what looked like a 4-3-3 with a largely second-string lineup but with Steffen, Holding, Cannon, and Bassett starting alongside Herrington, Travis, Frederick, Wathuta, Harris, Sealy, and Yapi.  Yapi got the scoring going early with a nice curving shot into the far corner but after that it was all Nashville as they scored 3 to win 3-1.  The second half roster was another mix of starters and backups as it was Hansen, Rosenberry, Murphy, Cobb, Vines, Ronan, Antencio, Aaronson, KSB, Manyoma, and Navarro.

Hard to take much out of the first preseason game (or any preseason game really).  Wells had mentioned that he was intentionally working the team hard leading up to this one as he wanted to see how they reacted when they were tired.  About the most preseason tells you is if somebody notable isn't playing, but nobody was really missing from this one.  Ted Ku-DiPietro was the only notable name not to play but hard to get all our potential wingers on the field with everyone getting 45 minutes.

My bigger concern is that we're one month out and nothing has changed from my roster analysis a week and a half ago.  I did have one glaring mistake, I didn't consider the addition of Lucas Herrington.  That said right now to me he's the Australian Noah Cobb (or maybe since Herrington signed first Cobb is the American Lucas Herrington).  Both young center backs playing at a high youth level but yet to prove they can be a regular MLS starter.

Herrington aside though, I still have the same conclusions. With no other changes we're banking heavily on young players being able to quickly step up to be full-time starters and that Wells can unlock something in the team Armas couldn't.  I'm most concerned about a defense that is looking like its going to be Cannon - Holding - Herrington/Cobb/Murphy - Vines across the back line.  This is a defense that is likely to get torched regularly while only Vines would be expected to add to the attack.  The Rapids really need to make a move for a MLS ready CB and make it soon so they can integrate in camp before Feb. 23rd.

Problems ON The Pitch: 2026 Roster Seems To Have Regressed

So in the down time over the holidays the Rapids had three big additions and have now opened camp.  First the details of the additions.

• As covered before the holidays the Rapids officially announced Matt Wells, on December 23rd

Very odd timing for what is essentially the biggest news of the offseason.  Hiding it the day before Christmas Eve means it probably didn't even register for most causal fans.  The original news broke a couple weeks earlier and the delay was thought to be because of wanting to get his visa done before the announcement.  Except that Wells is not with the team in Florida (nor are the two assistants e's added from England) while he waits on his visa.

My first reaction was that this was a bit stunning to me.  How do you open camp without a manager (unless you're the 2014 Rapids but we are not reopening that old wound)?  I recognize that the current government has played hell with any type of immigration, but that's something I would assume the team would factor in.  But then I decided to take a look around.  The Crew are the only other MLS team to hire an international manager who hadn't worked in MLS before and has to go through the visa process.  Sure enough, they're in the same situation waiting on paperwork as camp opens.  So I'm going to cut the Rapids some slack, at least for the first couple of weeks.  ;)

• The Rapids traded $1.9M in GAM, plus up to 600K more based on performance, to Montreal for winger Dante Sealy.

Sealy was originally a homegrown with Dallas before ending up in Montreal.  Last season he started 28 games, tallying 9 goals and 2 assists, with six of those goals and one of the assists all coming in the last 9 games of the season.  Sealy will be 23 in April with 141total professional appearances, his 9 goals last season exactly doubled his career total.  He was capped at each of the U.S. youth levels, all single-digit number of times, but last season officially switched to Trinidad & Tobago, being capped 6 times in 2025.

• Colorado signs defensive midfielder Hamzat Ojediran from RC Lens of League 1.  Reportedly the transfer fee is around $3 million.

Ojediran is Nigerian and has played in Albania and Hungary before France (60 total professional appearances).  He's also been capped by the Nigerian U-17 team.  Ojediran will join the team in Florida once his visa comes through.  Something that might be harder with the current governmental leadership.

So that's the additions.  Are they enough to improve this team from 2025?  There are two areas to look at, quantity (minutes), and quality.  Lets compare to what we lost.

Goalkeeping: The Rapids return essentially all their goalkeeping from last season.  Beaudry played one game but Steffen and Hansen should easily cover that.

Defense:  As far as playing time Holding was almost an exact replacement for Awaziem so that covers that hole.  On top of that the team lost 3261 minutes from Maxso and Santos that needs to be covered.  Vines and Travis can talk Santos' minutes (we'll get to quality later), but who will take Maxso's 2880?  Noah Cobb?  That's a lot to put on a 20 year old.

Midfield: Obviously Aaronson is meant to be the replacement for Mihailovic.  Larraz's 2225 minutes, Harris' 1327, Cabral's 770, and Sam Bassett's 333 have to be replaced though.  So far Manyoma's play has approximately replaced Omir Fernandez.  Now Ojediran could e a like foe like with Larraz and Sealy could take the Harris/Cabral minutes.  That still leaves Manyoma as a wild card, or vice versa if Manyoma takes the minutes.

Forward: No real losses up front, as long as Navarro stays around.

So from a quantity aspect the Rapids have gone out and gotten the minimum additions needed to replace what they lost from 2025.  But that means expecting full starter minutes from 20, 22, and 23 year olds (Manyoma and Sealy are the same age).

From a quality standpoint the changes are again, a 20, 22, and a couple of 23 year olds.  That is not a normal age range you expect to improve a team.  Meanwhile across the board we're brining back a roster that failed to make the playoffs last season.  At this point guys like Steffen, Cannon, Holding, Bassett, and Navarro are who they are.  The only way to get improvement out of them is through tactics, they're unlikely to suddenly find another level in their play.  Aarons is young and talented, but can he carry this team to the playoffs on his own?

Given that our major weakness in 2025 was defense and we've really only subtracted from it in the loss of Maxso and Santos its really hard to see this roster as better going into 2026 as currently constructed.  We've spent $5 million in GAM and cash to bring in two unknowns who might not even be ready for a full-time starting role as our only changes.  Meanwhile other team have been getting better, largely by spending less on more known quantities it seems like.  This feels like another offseason where Padraig Smith thinks he's outsmarting the league by zigging while everyone is zagging but the reality is that has rarely worked for him.

Really Questioning Why The Rapids Deserve A Fanbase

Yeah, I'm not dead.  I was originally planning to come back and write something after the new year.  But I've started this post a couple of times and each one ended with "Do I really want to get that worked up?".

To be blunt, I feel like MLS and the Rapids really stopped all pretense of caring about long-term loyal fans this offseason.  Some of this was intentional, or at least, intentionally deciding not to worry about how that demographic would react.  Some of it is typical missing the mark.  We've known for a long time that the Rapids have regularly fumbled that market but it was one thing to see them try, even badly, and fail, its another to see them apparently just not care.

The big thing from the league is of course the schedule switch.  I went over this in detail when it was announced so I'm not going to rehash the argument here.  I will mention though that this week is two months since that announcement, 2 of the 15 months between the announcement and the start of the 'sprint season' that will lead into the new schedule, and there's been no further information released by anyone about how this is going to work.  Still no announcement that the players are on board, no announcement about how the Rapids and other cold weather-teams will be handled, and no updates about things like the Open Cup nd Leagues Cup in this new schedule.  But hey, that's only 15% of the time gone.

When I finished up my last post in December I mentioned that the moving of the Messi game was frustrating for me, but I needed a couple of weeks to disconnect.  That coincided with my trip home to Seattle for Christmas.  I was on the train leaving Sea-Tac when I get a ping from the Rapids app announcing a 'fan activation' about rebranding the Rapids.  Everything from the badge to the colors to the name changing is on the table.  Excuse me, what? 30 years with our current name, one of the 5 remaining names from 1996, and 20 years with our badge and colors, and you're just going to throw out the possibility of changing them all?

Now before you think I'm going full "old man yells at crowd" I understand that even classic badges have been updated over the years.  I'm open to the idea of tweaking the badge.  And for other teams trying new colors could be a thing but for a team that's kind of known in MLS for an early history of switching colors (green, white, gold, black, and blue were all used as team colors in the first eight season, then moved to burgundy and blue in the twelfth season) having another rotation of colors is unnecessary, unless you're going to go back to the original green.

But changing the name?  What, we want to be Arsenal Colorado again?  FC Colorado?  Denver United?  Everything we've ever done in our history has been under one name, 'One Club' you might say.  There's likely some belief that this team needs to be "relaunched" to appeal to Colorado soccer fans alongside the start of the Summit but the problem with this team has never been the name or the colors, its been the lack of investment and caring from ownership.

As part of this "fan activation" they invited fans to fill out survey about the Rapids branding,  Fans were asked to rank each of the 4 logos (the classic wave, the classic round soccer ball, the current shield, and the Colorado C badge currently on the Headwaters kits) on a five-point scale between two contracting ideas.  Those ideas?

• Traditional vs. Modern
• Quiet vs. Loud
• Local vs. Global
• Gloomy vs. Cheery
• Fits In vs. Stands Out
• Party vs. Battle

Party vs. Battle?  Gloomy vs. Cheery?  How does a logo battle?  They also asked which of the four *shapes* of the crests best represents the club (ironically in a page that wasn't optimized for mobile so the four crests were all squashed out of shape).  I'm sorry, but this creams "trendy marketing survey" and not a real attempt to engage fans in this discussion.  Of course the fact that it 3as launched on December 22nd, the first day of one of the busiest travel weeks of the year and as we entered the two week dead news zone around the holidays suggests that they were hoping it would fly under the radar anyway.

They did follow up with an offer to sign up for small focus sessions to give more feedback, which I took.  This week I got an email inviting me to a session.  The session will be lead by Name & Number, the consulting agency the Rapids are using as part of this rebranding research, and the available times are 3 90 minute sessions on a Wednesday and one on a Thursday, all during the normal workday.  So I would need to take time off work, drive out to the Dick, and for all of that I don't actually get to give my feedback to the Rapids about the idea, just to the creative agency they hired to find out if they should rebrand.  This is not a serious attempt by the Rapids to reach out to their fans.

I can't help but notice that this is all happening six months after the Rapids hired Haley Durmer as CBO after the departure of long-time CBO Wayne Brant.  I'm all for new ideas, god knows this team needs them, but this feels like going from 0 to 100 without stopping to see if 50 would work.  I'd also point out that the one leak we have of the new jersey, from Footy Headlines which has been a reliable leaker of MLS kits in the past, is that the Rapids will be in a Black and Light Sky Blue kit for their new home kit this year.  Needless to say, that's not home burgundy.  MLS also posted a behind-the-scenes of media day reel that showed Aaronson wearing black socks with burgundy trim.  I'm going to be real suspicious if the findings of this fan activation finds that there' support for changing the colors, say to black and light sky blue.

Add to that the moving of the Messi game.  The Rapids have claimed that they were always planning to move a game to Empower Field this season to celebrate their 30th anniversary.  Right.  A team that can barely sell out the sub-18K Dick for fireworks was going to take on the costs of playing in front of maybe 20K at Empower to see the Rapids take on the Galaxy or something.  In fact they were so prepared to play at Empower that they waited 4 weeks to announce the game was going to be played there.  At best they knew they were likely to get Miami this season and reached out to Empower to reserve some dates.  Of course in those four weeks they didn't bother to get anything sorted out as far as tifo, instruments, tailgating, etc., just assuming the fans would handle it themselves.  There was even an issue over C38 tickets for that game, but that's been worked out this week.

All in all the attitude from MLS and the Rapids this offseason has been "we're going to do whatever we want and the fans will come with us or not, we don't care".  MLS talked about getting feedback from the fans before their schedule decision but I wonder how much feedback they really got from the Rapids fanbase if apparently nobody in C38 was ever asked.  The rapids talk about wanting to build the fanbase but again, they make decisions and then reach out to the fans, not the other way around.  Its quite possible that in 18 months the MLS team in this city is playing in the winter, under new colors and a new name, after their biggest game in years not being in their home stadium.  As somebody who's been following the Rapids (almost) from the beginning, is that even something I want to be involved in?

The worst part?  I'm still going to be back later this week talking about our very questionable offseason, including holding the biggest announcement of the time off (our new coach) until two days before Christmas.  There's a whole other discussion about what we've done to prepare on the field (not enough) but this rant is long enough.  Rapids, why can't I quit you?