No Coach Yet? OK, POTY And Prediction Recap

Well, all signs were pointing towards a coach announcement this week, but here we are on Thursday night watching the Kraken beating the Avs (Fear the Deep!) and no announcement yet.  Teams usually don't make announcements like a coaching hire on a Friday, unless they want it to get lost in the weekend so I'm assuming we won't hear anything until next week.  If we don't hear by a week from now eyebrows should be raised.

In the absence of a new coach lets look back at this season, if we must.  Instead of going back and looking at who I gave man of the match to each game I'm going with a gut feel for this one, mainly because there's really only 3 players in the running IMO.  

• William Yarbrough, for being the rock in the back until his injury.
• Conor Ronan, for making what little offense we had go.
• Cole Bassett, for being the Golden Boot and actually speaking some truth and caring about this club.

In the end it was that last piece that made the decision for me.  In a season where it seemed like the team just gave up in multiple games and nobody seemed to care, Bassett did.  You could see it at the final whistle of the season finale.  Losing for a fourth time to FSL, a third time in our house, to end the worst season in club history obviously hurt him.  He stood for a couple of minutes midway between the box and the center circle staring at the ground just trying to come to grips with what happened.  Even when he turned and joined the team to thank the supporters you could read the pain on his face.  Combined with some of the comments he made in post-game interviews, especially late int he season, you could tell that if anyone in the locker room cared it was him.  In a season where nobody played well, at least Cole realized it wasn't acceptable.

I won't disagree with anyone who goes with Ronan or Yarbrough.  They are certainly worthy of the award this season.

And then we get to the annual tradition of reviewing my predictions to see how badly I did.  I'll warn you this year was really bad.  But, here we go!

• Colorado, on the back of great goalkeeping from Ilic, beats a lower league side in their first USOC game but then gets eliminated by a MLS side in the next round

I'm claiming this one as accurate as we did beat a lower-league side and then got eliminated by a MLS side.  Technically it was two lower-league sides and we didn't need great goalkeeping, but close enough.

• The Rapids surprise some people and actually make it out of the group stage of the Leagues Cup, getting a draw in Nashville and beating Toluca at home.  But one knockout match is all they get

LOL, no

• We bring the Rocky Mountain Cup home by beating FSL on the last day of the season

I literally could not have been more wrong on this one

• With that win Colorado leapfrogs FSL into 7th place, avoiding the wild-card play-in game and qualifying for the playoffs

• But its one series and done again, but with the new format at lease we get a home game

I said this was going to go poorly for me...

• The summer transfer window is quiet for the Rapids, other than exercising Ilic's purchase clause.  No other major moves are made (in or out) but some depth is added

I wanted to take half credit but that seems like a stretch.  We did bring in Gutman and loaned in Navarro and Tavares (though the latter does seem like no more than a depth move) .

• By midseason Ilic will be the clear #1 in net

Ilic only became the starter because of Yarbrough's injury, though I expect he'll be the starter when we start next season.

• Diego Rubio wins the team Golden Boot with double-digit goals but less than 15

Bassett was the Golden Boot, and with significantly less than double-digit goals

• Cole Bassett is the team MVP, cementing his status as an everyday starter and getting interest from Europe again by the end of the season

Taking full credit on this one, especially as his game improved once Little took over.  I doubt he has much European interest but the rest is accurate. 

• Jack Price returns to being one of the most underrated players in the league

One of the big "what if's" of this season is Jack's injury.  Without that maybe we see a very different team.

• Maxsø is the clear defensive player of the year and makes a push for the league's best XI

I think he's better than he showed, but based on his play he's not even a definite starter right now

• Ronan and Max both struggle to claim the third starting spot in midfield, creating a rotation all season

Half credit.  Max certainly won't be a starter, and Ronan did have a dip in midseason that had Max been available would had led to a rotation I think.  Still by the end of the season he was clearly a starter.

• Cabral finds himself in Colorado and while he doesn't live up to the DP money the Galaxy paid to sign him does justify the GAM we traded to bring him here.  10 or more goals + assists this year.

Nope, not even close.  3 total goals+assists and nowhere near justifying any of his price 

• Yapi shows he's a year away still, but really looks set for a big 2024

Half credit, as Yapi might have been a year away from being a year away this season

4 out of 14 possible points.  4.5 if I want to be really generous.  I had 4.5 out of 12 last year, 5.5 of 11 the year before that, and 8 of 11 in 2020.  I'm getting worse by the season. 

Player Of The Year

Usually to pick my player of the year I go back through my game recaps to total up Man of the Match awards, look at the stats, think about the season to consider if there were any lynch pins that don't show up in the numbers, etc.  This year though it was a no-brainer.  The player of the year was clearly Dominique Badji.

Badji had 9 goals and 6 assists this year, the team leader in both categories.  He came up a few inches short of hitting double-digit goals in Seattle and it also would have given him 16 combined goals and assists which means he would have contributed directly to 50% of the goals the team scored this season.  Doyle was second in all those categories with 5 goals and 4 assists.  He was also second in games played and started, playing in all but one game and starting all but 5, and fifth in total minutes.  Miller, Hairston, Azira, and Howard are the other players near him in those categories.

Badji took a big step forward  this year, going from the frustrating forward who could score the hard goals and miss the easy ones of past years to a dangerous striker on the break.  Ok, his penalty taking apparently needs work but I feel much more confident when I see Badji get a look at the goal after this season.

Dominque got a new contract near the end of the season and we can expect him to be part of the plan going forward.  Personally I'd like to see him still as the 3rd striker that's used as a sub, change of pace, or to fill in when one of the starting two is unavailable but we'll be well off if he's our second striker next year.  He shouldn't be called on to carry the team like he did (as much as he could) this season.

2016 Player of the Year

my 2016 Player of the Year is the Rapids Goalkeeper.  Yes, I'm splitting the award between Zac MacMath and Tim Howard.  Both played the same number of games (19 league games, including playoffs), they both led a league leading defense, and they both dealt with the tough situation of being the #1 at different times of the year.  It was the most consistent position on the team and that's largely because they are two of the more talented players on the team and handled their job with professionalism.  This could have easily "gone wrong" this year with MacMath pouting or Howard thinking he could take it easy coming back to MLS but neither one allowed the situation to get to them.

They were also named team MVP at the Rapids awards banquet, splitting the award.  I however am not copying the Rapids on this pick.  If you go back to the Voice of C38 podcast right before the playoffs I was interviewed at the tailgate and suggested that the Rapids GK should be team MVP. So the Rapids stole the idea from me, not the other way around. :D

2015 Player Of The Year

Lets start by looking back at my Man of the Match awards:

1 award - Badji, Burling, Eloundou, Harrington, LaBrocca, Pittinari, Sarvas, Sjoberg, Solignac, Torres

2 awards - Sanchez, Serna

3 awards - Ramirez

4 awards - Doyle, Powers

9 awards - Irwin

Well, that makes this easy.  My player of the year is Clint Irwin

This is really a no-brainer.  Irwin was the most consistent and best player on the team this season.  He single-handedly kept us in several games.  He was also a leader off the field (mainly through Twitter) acknowledging to the fans that things weren't good and tanking them for their support.

I'd have to say the runner-up is a tie between Sanchez and Doyle.  Both were the only thing close to a consistent offense this team had but both also had their weaknesses.  Doyle isn't the type of player that can create on his own, while Sanchez tried to do too much at times this year.  Doyle led the team in goals with 5 while only playing less than 50% of the season,  4 of his goals were game-winners.  Sanchez had 9 total goals and assists, tied with Powers for the team lead.

2014 Player Of The Year

I'm a little late getting to this, but I need a break after he way the season ended.  Reviewing my Man of the Match awards:

1 award - Berner, Jose Mari, Nasco, Piermayr, Torres, the fans (the Mother's Day blizzard loss to Chivas USA), and the fan who paid for the plane at the final game

2 awards - Buddle, Eloundou, Moor, Sanchez

3 awards - Irwin, Powers, Serna

5 awards - Brown

Well, that makes this decision easy, and right in line with my gut feeling.  My Player of the Year is Deshorn Brown.

This season Brown was the only thing close to consistent on the offensive end.  He could be maddening at times but he still managed to finish 10 times for the second year in a row.  Only two other Rapids players have ever had back-to-back double-digit scoring seasons, Mark Chung and Conor Casey.  He's also the only player other than C+C Goal Factory to get to double-digits since Cunningham in 2005.  Over his first two seasons he's already 9th on the Rapids all-time list, and his current rate of scoring (a goal in just over every 3 appearances) is behind only Conor Casey and John Spencer all-time.

This year he had 4 more goals than Sanchez, and 5 of Sanchez's 6 were from the PK spot.  Powers was third with 5.  Essentially Brown doubled the goals of the next closest player.  Given how bad our defense was, nobody on that half of the field could be PotY and Brown is clearly the offensive PotY.

Despite my Man of the Match awards I'd give Jose Mari the runner-up spot.  He was 4th on the team with goals (with 4) including some absolute stunners.  He also was a sold distributor in midfield and largely wasn't at fault in our defensive breakdowns, other than the team is used to playing with hard-man defensive mid like Pablo and Thomas which isn't Jose Mari's game.

Not surprisingly Brown's season has continued after the season.  He's currently with the Jamaican National Team which is playing Martinique this evening (right now actually) in Caribbean Cup competition.  The Caribbean Cup is the qualification tournament for next summer's Gold Cup.  They will also play Haiti and Antigua and Barbuda later this week.  The top two teams in that group will qualify for the 2015 Gold Cup and the 3rd placed team will have a chance (if they're better than the 3rd place team in the other group) to play Honduras for the final spot.  Also the winners of the two groups will play for the Caribbean Cup championship and a spot in 2016's Copa America Centenario.

2013 Player of the Year: Clint Irwin

There were a lot of options for Player of the Year this year, which was a change from 2012 when the choices were Pickens, Pickens, or Pickens.  Looking back at my Player of the Match choices I gave it to 14 different players, 7 players more than once, and 4 players more than twice.  Those final 4 were Irwin, Brown, Sanchez, and Powers.  Out of the group Irwin got my award 9 times which made him the choice but I couldn't argue with any of the 4.

Irwin was a nobody who was a backup in the USL last year and who got a tryout chance with the Rapids in the pre-season and signed as the 3rd keeper replacing Ian Joyce.  After Ceus had a disastrous outing in the season opener in Dallas, allowing a ball to bounce over him for the only goal Pickens returned to the lineup for the next game against Philly before breaking his arm in the 5th minute of the RMC match in Salt Lake.  Enter Clint Irwin, who had taken the backup role from Ceus after the Dallas game.  Once Ceus stepped between the pipes though he never left, starting every league game from that moment on.  He set a MLS record facing a PK in each of his first 4 starts, saving one (against FSL no less) and having a second go off the post.  He tied a team record for shutouts in a season on a team that has had keepers like Marcus Hahnemann, Adin Brown, Joe Cannon, Bouna Coundoul, and Matt Pickens.

A guy who had no MLS experience and no expectations on him put up one of the best goalkeeping seasons in team history.  His career GAA of 1.10 is 5th best in league history and would be the 4th best season GAA a Rapids keeper had, just slightly behind the 1.06 of Hahnemann, 1.07 of Cannon, and 1.08 of Coundoul.  Clearly much more than was ever expected of him.

Player Of The Year

No surprise here as Matt Pickens was the run away winner for my Player of the Year award.  Looking back at my Player of the Game awards I gave it to him 9 times, over a quarter of the games.  The next closest player was Mullan with 6 awards.  No other player got more than 2.  In a disappointing season where most of the team struggled to get on the same page Matt was a steadying influence in the back.  He saved the teams countless number of times this year, preserving 1 goal leads and draws for the few points we managed to get.  Even in games we got blown out of he was the best player, keeping 3 goal losses from being 5 or 6 goal losses.

Last off-season I question if Pickens was worth keeping around long-term after his play dropped off at the end of the 2011 season, suggesting that if we got a good offer we should trade him.  That's why I'm not the coach or Technical Director as I was badly wrong with that suggestion.

Player Of The Year: Marvell Wynne

Two small pieces of news before we get on with the Player Of The Year discussion:

*Steve Nicol turned down the Rapids interview request. There was some talk about him being uncomfortable with the environment here, but all along I thought getting Nicol out of Boston, where he's been for 13 years, would be a long shot. The concerns about the FO environment are a convenient excuse, but if he was really interested in the job otherwise he would have at least interviewed with Plush and Bravo to find out how many of the rumors had a basis in fact.

*MLS announced he season will start on March 10th and the Rapids will open at home that day. The opponent is still to be announced but given the other teams having their home opener that week we know that it will be FSL or an Eastern Conference team other than DC.

****************

The Rapids player of the year is Marvell Wynne. No offense to my Class VI and Pid Army brethren who picked Moor as Player of the Year and Kimura as Defender of the Year, but Wynne was better than both of them. His speed allowed him to team up with either Moor or the slower Marshall at center back which allowed him to push forward in the attack while his partner covered behind him. When needed he was also able to move back to his "natural" position on the right to cover when Koz was injured or pushed forward to midfield.

While playing Wynne made numerous plays that made me sure that he has committed a penalty, only to see on replay that he had made a perfect tackle or interception of the ball to deny a scoring opportunity. Wynne regularly made opposing strikers look stupid as they thought they had a clear run at goal only for Marvell to come flying by them and take the ball off of their foot. His speed in the attack didn't get him credited on many goals (2 assists total) but he regularly pulled defenders out of position and chased down loose balls that allowed Colorado's attack to succeed.

Reviewing my game recaps there were other strong candidates, Drew Moor, Jeff Larentowicz, and surprisingly Matt Pickens. Moor gets points for playing out of position most of the season, but loses those points since he wasn't as good in his new position at left back. Pickens started out the season on fire, but his late season gaffes (highlighted by the goal in Vancouver) really prevented him from getting the award. Ginger Ninja had a solid season but when push came to shove the fact that I think Wynne would start for almost every MLS team based on his play this year was enough to give him the edge.

Player Of The Year

After the game on Saturday Class VI will award its Player of the Year award and the Pid Army will award its Defensive Player of the Year award. I thought I would tell you who I voted for and why.

First let's look back and who I named Player of the Game for the 27 games I've awarded it this year:

• Omar Cummings - 6 times
• Pablo Mastroeni - 4 times
• Marvell Wynne - 4 times
• Matt Pickens - 3 times
• Mehdi Ballouchy - 2 times
• Jeff Larentowicz - 2 times
• Drew Moor - 2 times
• Julian Baudet - 1 time
• Conor Casey - 1 time
• Claudio Lopez - 1 time
• The fans - 1 time (the KC home game mess)

For player of the year I already had a pretty good idea of who I would vote for and the review of my Player of the Game awards reinforced it. Omar Cummings is clearly the Player of the Year for the Rapids. He leads the team in goals and so many of them came at crucial moments to put the Rapids in the lead or to put a team away.

I know another favorite pick is Marvell Wynne, who has also been great. I think he's been so much more than we expected that he's picking up some votes there, but I'm not sure that means he was the best player. Pablo has had one of his best seasons as a Rapid in years, and if it weren't for Cummings great season he'd be my pick for Player of the Year.

For Defensive Player of the Year its a little less obvious. Wynne was Player of the Game often for both his defensive work and his offensive work. Matt Pickens has been solid but never really spectacular. I actually went with Drew Moor. Moor has not been flashy but he's been consistent. He's played every minute of every game and is the only player to start every match. (Larentowicz has 29 appearances but only 28 starts). Every game if you were asked to name the best defensive effort his name may only come up a handful of times, but if you were asked to name the best two defensive efforts I think his name would appear for pretty much every game. He's reliable, an ironman, and our Defensive Player of the Year.