The Offseason That Was

I was approached last week to fill a hole in the Burgundy Wave writing staff.  Below is my first article copied over from there.  I still plan to do most of my writing here but from time to time you may see cross-posts now.

This was certainly one of the more interesting off-seasons for the Colorado Rapids in recent years. The Front Office essentially started with a clean slate, with Pádraig Smith building out his staff after taking over the GM position, new Head Coach Anthony Hudson taking over the reins, and (as of now) 13 new players added to the 30-man roster.

There’s a lot to cover so let’s get to it.

Front Office
Normally I don’t focus much on the FO but they deserve a shout-out after the last 4+ months. Smith identified a coach and a style of play and everything they’ve done has been in furtherance of that goal. It’s a level of professionalism we haven’t seen from the Rapids Front Office before.

Not only did they build out the coaching staff and roster, but we saw additions in technical staff like Fran Taylor and new positions like the Director of Player Personnel, Ena Patel, added.

For the first time ever, I believe, the Rapids are starting the season with all 30 of their roster positions filled (though with Mike da Fonte on loan we could sign another player to fill his spot). They also are pushing green cards, with Stefan Aigner and Deklan Wynne getting theirs faster than I’ve ever seen a Rapids player get one.

I’m not yet convinced that Smith has picked the correct identity for this team, but I am convinced he can build to that identity in a way we’ve never seen before.

Coaching
Anthony Hudson was probably not a name many—well any—fans thought of when Pablo Mastroeni was fired in August. I’m sure many thought, like I did, we were either going to get a lower-level manager from somewhere in the British Isles or an MLS retread/assistant.

Even at this point, Hudson’s coaching remains a bit of a mystery as he’s never led a first-division professional club before. He does seem to understand the game and know what he wants to do, so I don’t fear him learning on the job like I have our past coaches. I just don’t know if he has the skills to coach at this level yet. It’s one of the intriguing things about the beginning of the season.

Goalkeeping
Unsurprisingly, there was no major change here. It’s still Tim Howard 1, Zac MacMath 2. The only real surprise was the trade with Sporting Kansas City for Andrew Dykstra—I figured we’d go with a young guy out of the draft to be the 3rd keeper.

The big question going forward is: where is Howard’s play at? He didn’t look great in the 3-degree temps at the CCL game, but nobody was really moving fast in that weather. With grumbles about his play at the end of last season, he’s going to need to show he still deserves that number 1 spot; otherwise, Hudson will have the first big decision of his Rapids tenure on his hands.

Central Defense
The roster currently has 7-8 players who could play on the back line of the 3-5-2, which should be plenty of depth for the season. Big changes in the starters though: it appears regulars from last season like Axel Sjoberg, Eric Miller, and Jared Watts will start the season on the bench and the expected starters will be Kortne Ford, Tommy Smith, and Danny Wilson.

We haven’t seen much of Smith, and even less of Wilson, but the three of them did keep Toronto off the scoreboard on Tuesday night. Their track records before coming to MLS make it appear that both of them will be upgrades, however.

Wing Backs
This is a new position for the Rapids, which has pretty much always played with a flat back four before now. Marlon Hairston was a natural fit on the right and the team’s first big signing of the offseason was former U.S. National Team player Edgar Castillo, who’s a natural on the left. Behind those two, there’s a lot of youth with the likes of New Zealanders Kip Colvey and Deklan Wynne, and new homegrown signing Sam Vines. We could also see Dillon Serna or Eric Miller spend time on the outside.

Midfield
This has been the core of our off-season rebuild. We’ve seen three signings in this area with the biggest being Jack Price from Wolves. We’ve already seen in the two CCL games that Price is going to be the center of everything that happens in midfield this season and I expect him to quickly become both a fan favorite and indispensable.

Around him will be the likes of Aigner, Shkelzen Gashi, Nana Boateng, Johan Blomberg, Micheal Azira, and Enzo Martinez but if you ask me who’s going to start on Saturday, I couldn’t tell you.

Gashi missed essentially all of preseason with a calf strain, though by all reports he’s much more ready for the season than he was at this time last year. Aigner didn’t get any time in the CCL matches but that was precautionary to avoid aggravating a slight knock he had. Azira appears to be the odd man out at this point, but he might be the most natural backup to Price as well.

There’s not going to be much playing time available for our young guys like Sam Hamilton and Ricardo Perez, who will likely be loaned out or get their playing time in the Open Cup matches.

Forward
Here we get to the elephant in the room. The glaring weakness in 2017 appears to be the glaring weakness at the start of 2018. Who is going to score the goals? The battery of Dominique Badji, Caleb Calvert, Niki Jackson, and Jack McBean doesn’t scare anyone in MLS (with good reason).

The one signing that was made, Joe Mason, happened late in the preseason and he isn’t even in Colorado yet, so he’s a huge question mark. Best case scenario with this group is that Mason puts it together in a way he hasn’t done in a few season and between him and Badji they net 20 goals, supported by Gashi and Aigner getting their fair share. Worst case is that Mason is no better than Badji and we limp to the end of the season with another single-digit Golden Boot winner.

In reality what needs to happen is the Front Office needs to sign a major striker. The window is open in MLS until early May so there’s still a chance to make a move but more likely, the team will need to put together enough points to keep us in the hunt until the summer window opens. As good as this offseason has been it can’t really be considered a success until this hole is filled.

Most Importantly
Of course, the best addition this team made in the offseason was the addition of GB’s Fish & Chips to Eighteen76!

Offseason Ends Not With A Bang But A Whimper

There were rumors going around a week ago that we could see up to 3 signings this week.  In the end we saw none.  As we saw yesterday the Koomson deal is at last in trouble if not dead.  Rumor has it that Adjel-Boateng is signed but they're waiting for his visa paperwork to be complete before they announce it.  There's been no update on Gordon since the initial report.

And that's it.  There has been literally no other rumors of signings this offseason.  Camp opens on Monday do the last business day of the offseason is complete and our total additions amount to 2 homgrown signings in Ford and Perez.  No slight intended on those guys but I'm not impressed.  We let 7 players go from last season and we're entering camp with 2 new homegrown signings, 4 draftees, and no other additions.

Sadly while I'm not impressed I'm also not surprised.  This is the MO for the Rapids in recent years.  They appear to do no work in the offseason (not that they aren't working, just that there are no public moves), camp opens, we sign players and get them into camp late, and then we hope they can figure out how to play together before the regular season starts.  On average over the last 6 seasons we start camp with less than 4 new non-draftees.  In 2012 we had none, in 2015 we had a high of seven.  Last year we had three (Azira, Pappa, and Pfeffer).

Last season we heard a lot about "having the team together to start camp" from Paul Bravo and in the past we heard talk about getting difference-makers in the offseason.  This offseason the Front Office has been very quiet and didn't set any unrealistic expectations or goals they didn't meet.  That said, we need players and we need them soon.  I think we need more than Adjel-Boateng and Gordon.

Adjel-Boateng looks like a good long-term project but expecting him to be the necessary difference maker this year is asking a lot.  He's had 16 goals in 85 appearances in Norway, which is a league I think most would agree is a bit below MLS at this point.  For comparison that's almost exactly the same ratio as Badji's in MLS (8 goals in 42 appearances).  Adjel-Boateng is two years younger so I think he can be better than Badji, but I don't expect a great improvement this season.  Gordon is a great supersub for 15 minutes at the end of games and his poacher's mentality will steal us points 2-3 times this season but he's not going to fix our fundamental scoring problem,

The Front Office needs to sign somebody that's going to add 10 goals this season, either by scoring themselves or setting up Gashi & Doyle to score more goals.  Without that we're looking at another year of grinding out 1-0 wins and I don't think our success from last season is sustainable.

Tick Tock, Tick Tock

We are 71 days into an approximately 90 day offseason.  Last year the veterans reported to camp on Thursday January 22nd and I assume camp will open around the same date this year.  With the first couple of days being physicals and testing we have essentially 3 weeks until the team takes the field for the first real training sessions.

So far this offseason we've cleaned out a lot of dead weight, lost two notable players (Moor and Sanchez), and acquired two midfielders (Pappa, Azira) and a backup keeper (MacMath).  That leaves us with a signed roster of 19 players (including Greenspan who may or may not be available) and no real improvement yet from a last-placed Western Conference team.

That means the Rapids have A LOT of work to do in the next 3 weeks.  We have 9 open roster spots and a a noticeable lack of quality that needs to be filled quickly.  The #2 pick should get us one sure roster player but should not be expected to increase our quality.

Technically MLS's transfer window doesn't open until mid-February but that only matters for getting players registered to play in competitive matches.  Players can train and playing in preseason games without being registered so that's not stopping players from being signed now.

This team can not afford to have another offseason where we wait until the last minute to make major signings and then spend the first half dozen competitive matches figuring out how to integrate them.  We need quality signings and we need them now.

The FO also needs to do something to show fans that things will be different this year and the easiest way to do that is to make preseason different.  We've heard talk about an "offensive coordinator".  Well that's somebody that should be in place in time to evaluate players at the combine which starts...Thursday.

If you look at the MLS transaction page you'll see that most teams haven't made major moves yet, so the Rapids aren't behind.  This isn't a surprise with the playoffs and the holidays.  As of today though the clock is ticking.  Time to make some moves.

Offseason Training

Its been quiet in Commerce City this post-season, especially compared to this time last year.  Today we got a bit of news about off-season training though.  Andre Akpan, Tony, Cascio, Chris Klute, and Martin Rivero will spend 10 days starting next week in Derby, England training with Derby County FC.  Derby currently sits 12th in the Championship (2nd level), 1 point behind Blackburn Rovers), and is the former employer of Rapids President Tim Hinchey.  Before being hired by Colorado in 2010 Tim was the VP of Commercial for Derby County for 3 years.

We also found out from his Twitter feed this weekend that Steward Ceus has gone to Sunderland, England to train with Sunderland FC (16th in the EPL) through Tuesday.

Unrelated, but a tweet from Media Director David Lindholm today hints at some big news that Mile High Sports will be breaking, probably next week.

Offseason of Nothing

Monday morning the off-season ends as the Rapids players report for the opening of training. What have the Rapids done this off-season to improve a team that missed the playoffs last year?

Cuts:
Tony Sanneh - D/DM
Daniel Osorno - F
Jose Cancela - AM
Zach Thorton - GK

Additions:
Jose Burciaga - LB/LM
Chase Hilgenbrinck - LB/LM

and the draft, which I'll get to.

So the Rapids cut 3 benchwarmers and a defensive super-sub, and added two players who's primary position is left back. This on a team that was worst in MLS in scoring, while having a good, if not great, defense.

I'll say two things about the draft, and why I believe its inconsequential to the offseason improvements. First The Rapids were considered to have had one of the two worst drafts of any of the teams, and every MLS team got to draft, so the quality relative to the rest of the league didn't change significantly.

Now I know there are a number of rumors about players being signed or traded for in the near future, and I hope some of them turn out to be quality. But once again the Rapids are opening pre-season needing to make multiple moves in order to put together a decent MLS side, more than likely leading to a disorganized group that isn't used to playing with each other when the games start to count.