Front Office Changes

A couple of leadership rumors out of Commerce City today:

First, confirmation of how the Rapids are filling the void left by Bravo's departure:

With Paul Bravo out, Padraig Smith is now running point for Rapids' tech staff ahead of draft, Mastroeni and club spokesman confirm.

This is not a surprise, I think most people figured this was the case.  Now is this a permanent change or do the Rapids still plan to fill the Technical Director position from outside the organization?

The second rumor is a little more surprising:

Hearing that John Spencer has left #Rapids96. Heard further rumblings that he might be San Jose bound.

 To provide more context, Spencer assisted Kinnear when the 2 were in Houston. If he joins #Quakes74, I suspect it will b in similar capacity

As reported by @JeffreyCarlisle, John Spencer has left Rapids. Conor Casey is here with the club, looks like he'll fill assistant vacancy.

That's the 3rd assistant coach in 3 seasons under Pablo to leave their coaching post.  John Metgod left midway through the 2014 season, Claudio Lopez went back into the Front Office after the 2015 season, and now John Spencer has apparently left after the 2016 season to join San Jose.  There are reasonable explanations for all of these (Metgod didn't fit, Lopez never wanted to be a coach, and Spencer is rejoining his mentor) but its a bit distressing to see that much turnover in a spot that was (at least for the last two) brought in specifically to fix the attacking issues the team has.  Consistency would probably help with that process.  The possibility that there's something we don't  know that links these moves together (people can't work with Pablo, FO doesn't pay enough, etc.) is even more concerning, though also less likely.

The Conor Casey part of the news is an interesting surprise.  When he left the Rapids after the 2012 season it was a well-known rumor that he was unhappy with team leadership.  He also infamously stormed off the training pitch after getting into a verbal altercation with Gary Smith right after the 2011 season ended.  I'm glad to see that whatever issues that there may have been between him and the leadership have been solved.  Given what has been rumored I think his issues were more with the coaching staff (Smith and Pareja) than the front office leadership.  I didn't know he was interested in coaching but seeing what he brings to the team will be something to watch for.

The Wheels Are About To Come Off

(Those of you who think I'm too pessimistic may just want to skip this one)

Full game recap coming tomorrow as normal but after last night I think this team is in a world of hurt and its largely due to Pablo's coaching and front office mismanagement (and to be fair, some bad luck with injuries).

Five games  into the season means we've had a chance to use 15 subs.  Pablo has used 9.  Its not hard to watch the Rapids and see some gassed players at the end of the game (like Pappa and Gashi last night).  Yet players like Serna and Conor Doyle stay on the bench.

That's bad enough in a normal week.  Its a long season and there's no reason so average less than 2 subs a game just to get players rest if for no other reason.  Its a horrendous decision though going into a week like this one.  We play in Kansas City on Wednesday and host RBNY Saturday night.

Looking at our roster we have one player (Jones) suspended for KC and 2-3 out for both games (St. Ledger, Doyle, probably Berner).  We have two others injured enough to not even make the bench for FSL (Hairston, Watts) so the best we can expect is their availability off the bench at some point this week.  Finally we have Williams who's stuck in visa limbo but hopefully will be in KC after not training with the team in over 3 weeks.  We also have two players (Appiah, Calvert) on loan in Charlotte.

So that's best case 7 players and worst case 9 unavailable for this whole week.  On a 28 man roster that's a big hit.  On a 25 man roster, which is what the Rapids have right now, its disastrous.  That's why the last two games Colorado has only had 5 of a possible 7 players on their bench.

There's really no excuse for this as the league allows a 28 man roster.  We're saving one spot for Howard in mid-season, but that still leaves 2 unfilled spots on our roster.  Why are we 5 weeks into the season going into a busy week with unfilled spots?  What happened to "having our team together at start of camp" as Bravo set as the goal?  Maybe we'll have our team together at the roster deadline in September?

So that's the front office mismanagement that has put us in this situation.  Now lets look at Pablo's handling of it.  He knows what the schedule is and what he'll likely have available the rest of the week.  With that he used....1 sub last night.  1.  10 of the 11 starters went 90 including both Pappa and Gashi, who played their first full games this season.

So going into KC what do we have?
GK: MacMath, who has to be questioning himself at this point, Froschauer who's never played
D: Miller, Burling, Sjoberg, and Burch, all who played 90 last night (to be fair, Pablo had no subs for them) and maybe Williams coming back after 3 weeks away.  Serna could be moved here.
DM: Azira and Cronin, both after 90 minutes last night
AM: Pappa and Gashi, both off their first 90 minute outings last night, Pwoers, who got 11 extra minutes of rest, and Pfeffer and Serna who are rested.
F; Solignac, after 90 minutes of play, Badji, almost fully rested after playing almost 11 minutes, and Conor Doyle fully rested

That's it.  Most likely we're going to line up the same 11 in KC as we did last week, maybe with Williams or Serna instead of Burch or Miller.  We will hopefully use all 3 subs.

Then on Saturday we'll get Jones back, maybe Berner, Watts, or Hairston.  But again the majority of the lineup from FSL and KC will have to start again.  How much do you think Gashi or Pappa or Burling is going to have in heir legs by the 60th minute Saturday night?

Its not like Pablo's teams have a real good track record in 3-game weeks.  7 times under Pablo we've played 3 games in 7-9 days.  In the first game we've had 5 wins and 2 draws before last night.  That's a great record.  Then it all goes downhill.  In the second game we've had 1 win, 3 draws, and 3 losses.  In the third and final game of the week we've had 1 win, 1 draw, and 5 losses.

In every case we've never had a better result later in the week than we had earlier in the week.  Last August, the lat time we had a 3 game week, we won all 3 games but other than that its been W-D-L or W-L-L, or D-L-L.

So we've got a tired team going into a series of games that historically we get worse in as we go on.  Instead of signing a full roster and using all our subs to stay fresh for these games we played most of our available players 90 minutes.

I fully expect the wheels to come off this week and for us to end it with at best 8 points after 7 games.  A far cry from the 7 points after 4 games we were at a week ago.

Welcome Back Spencer!

Today the Rapids announced that the long discussed "offensive coordinator" will be Rapids legend and Gallery of Honor member John Spencer.  Spencer has been advising the team at least since the combine earlier this month and will be the primary assistant to Pablo going forward, presumably taking over Lopez's role.

For the newer Rapids fans, the wee Scotsman played for the Rapids between 2001 and 2004, becoming the 2nd highest scorer (at the time) in Rapids history, finishing just 2 goals short of Bravo's record in 47 less games.  After retirement he was an assistant coach with the Dynamo for 5 seasons before getting his first head coaching job with the expansion Timbers.  He was fired midway through his second year in Portland (2012) and since then has not been coaching.

Spencer would appear to be the coach-in-waiting if Pablo gets off to a bad start.  Spencer is a Rapids legend but I'm not sure he would be willing to return to assistant coaching without some path back to being  a head coach, either by helping turn around the current train wreck as an assistant or taking over the reins if the train wreck continues.

I loved John Spencer as a player but I have concerns about this move.  His track record in Portland wasn't good but they were an expansion team so its not really a fair measure.  Players have been positive about his work as an assistant in Houston which is a positive sign.  A real concern is this article about his time in Portland.  It appears that he was unhappy with the hands-on approach Merritt Paulson had with the Timbers.  We all know that Paul Bravo and Tim Hinchey are hands on with the Rapids, could that be another friction point?

I also wonder if this is another case of the Rapids not looking very hard to fill a hole.  This Front Office has suffered recently by doing the same thing over and over and now we're filling another coaching spot and we get an ex-player (Lopez, Mullan, Smith) and Gallery of Honor member (Pablo, Bravo).   We may have been better served finding someone with no ties to the organization to get an outsider's look at the team.

In the end I think this move is more positive than negative.  Its not a home run hire but its a solid double.  Now the key is getting the offensive players for Spencer to coach.

Odds And Ends To Start Draft Week

A couple of news stories/rumors from the weekend to get draft week started.

According to this tweet, Juan Ramirez is set to be transferred to Spanish Second Division (same league as CD Tenerife) side Almeria.

• So far nobody else has picked up this story but if its accurate I just shake my head.  The Rapids track records with DPs would be three forgetful seasons of Torres and then cutting him for nothing, one season for Ramirez and then selling him for hopefully as much as we paid, and a half season of Doyle with more to come.  Not exactly stunning work there.

John Spencer seen at the combine hotel in a Rapids shirt, says he's a temporary adivsor

• Of course Pablo was only leading the team in preseason temporarily as well.  Our new "offensive coordinator" perhaps?  Hard to get real excited about it given the lack of firepower his Timbers teams showed but to be fair, they were an expansion side.

After running through Google Translate, Pulido doesn't want to come to MLS?

• I'm thinking bad translation or a negotiating tactic.  If Paul Bravo (or Paul Pravo) actually flew to Greece to seal the deal I'm sure they've already talked with him and determined he's interested in MLS.  Of course given this team's track record of getting ahead of itself (Rivero, Torres) I can't rule out that Pulido doesn't want to come.

Look for a Superdraft preview Wednesday night and coverage of our picks on Thursday.

Rapids All-Time Team: All-Around Forward

The starting all-around forward for the Rapids All-Time Team is John Spencer.

How Acquired: Transferred for free from Scottish side Motherwell.

Years In Colorado: 2001 through 2004

How Departed: Retired after the 2004 season.

For the final player pick on the All-Time team I went with possibly the biggest heart the team has ever had (though Kimura gives him a run for his money) the wee Scotsman John Spencer. The heart and soul of the Rapids in the early 2000s, Spencer was the face of the team under Tim Hankinson. His fiery play led the team and made him a fan favorite.

In his first season Spencer scored 14 goals in 22 games, a Rapids record for goals in a season (since broken by Conor Casey), and was named to the league's Best XI squad. After an injury-plagued 2002 he repeated his 14 goal total in 2003, once again making the league Best XI and becoming one of the finalists for the MVP award. Spencer scored the first hat-trick in Colorado history, and he still ranks in the top 3 in most of the Rapids goal-scoring records. He is probably the best international player ever found by the Rapids, with Anders Limpar being his only real competition for that title.

Beyond the numbers Spencer brought a level of emotion to the field rarely seen in Colorado. As a fan you knew that he was giving it all for every minute he was playing, and he would have nothing left when he came off the pitch. Not only that, but woe be to the referee or opposing player who Spenny thought had done him or his Rapids teammates wrong. Somehow he had a way of showing his...displeasure...with whomever ticked him off without looking like he was losing it like Pablo often does. He was rightfully named captain most of the time he was in Colorado and was the team leader on the field.

That wraps up the starting lineup for the Rapids All-Time Team. This series is not over though as there are other positions still to be named.