Superdraft Results and Messi Game Moved

As expected there were a couple of trades with today's Superdraft and a last-minute wrinkle impacting our first pick.  With that first pick the Rapids selected forward Mamadou Billo Diop from...Rapids 2.  Yeah, strange.  It turns out sometime in the last few days another MLS team found a loophole in the rules that due to the fact that Diop went to high school in Florida but did not enroll in college he matches a precedent that he has to go through the draft.  Because he came to R2 from Florida and is not a homegrown the only way the Rapids could keep a player already under contract was to draft him, and they didn't want to risk him falling any further.

After that we selected forward Mitchell Baker out of Georgetown at #10.  Mark Kelkenberg expected him to go in the 20's and says:

Young complete center forward with a big frame. Took over for Jacob Murrell and recently had a 14 goal season for the Hoyas. Attended Northwood School/Black Rock FC where he had a lot of success prior to college

At this point the Rapids traded the 19th pick to SKC for $50K in 2026 GAM and the #44 pick.

At number 26 they took forward Wahabu Musah out of Clemson.  Yes, three forwards in a row.  Again from Kelkenberg who had him at 35 overall:

Musah could go earlier based on being the youngest player in the draft, so if he wound up available, I’d be surprised if they passed on him. He has shown great ability at Clemson already, and it’s rare that he played two collegiate seasons before his 18th birthday, which was earlier this month.

In the second round the Rapids traded the 40th ant 44th picks to Dallas for $75K in GAM.  All told they traded a 2025 international slot and the #44 pick and got back $325K in GAM, when you consider the #19 pick came as part of that international slot trade that also got $200K in GAM.  Nice funny-money business, but we'll see what they spend it on.

At #56 was my favorite pick of the draft, defender Asher Hestad from the National Champion Washington Huskies (Go Dawgs!).  We are now far enough down that I haven't found any MLS writeups on these players but Hestad did start at right back for every game in the Huskies run in the NCAA tournament.

In the 3rd round the Rapids took midfielder Koven Johnson out of High Point at #70 and defender Jabari De Coteau out of Xavier at #86.

One interesting note is that De Coteau is a junior and all of our other picks (other than Diop obviously) are sophomores.  So any of them could decide to return to school and the Rapids would hold their rights for two seasons.  So we'll have to see how many of these players actually show up in camp next month.  I would bet Baker will, he is the highest rated of the group and would be expected to be able to contribute at the MLS level in the near future.  The rest might stay in college.  I think beyond Musah anyone else is a long shot right now, as much as I would like to see Hestad have a bit impact.

After the busy Superdraft day the Rapids made a significant announcement.  The April 18th, 2026 game against Miami will be played at Empower Field in downtown Denver and not at the Dick.  This will be the game where the Rapids celebrate their 20th anniversary by returning to where it all began (almost).  On April 21st, 1996 the Rapids played their first ever home game at old Mile High, which was situated in what is now the parking lot of Empower Field.

Season ticket holders will be moved to to seats with similar sight lines in the lower bowl at Empower.  No word yet on parking, tailgating, or the supporters section.  Centennial 38 has a meeting with the Front Office next week to discuss those things, including where C38 season ticket holders in the supporters sections will end up, so more information should be available after the holidays.  Remaining tickets after the season ticket and flex pack holders are covered will be put on sale on January 15th.

Honestly, I hate this.  They can couch this in the terms of "celebrating are origin" as much as they want but we all see this for what this is.  A cash grab with Messi.  Its a betrayal of long-time fans who have worked hard, sometimes with no support or even active opposition from the Front Office, to make the Dick our home.  This is even the 20th season in the Dick and we could be celebrating that, but instead the FO is going for the quick buck and giving away what home field advantage we have so they can get all the Messi fans in the stadium.  My hope is that they announce the week before the game that he's not coming.

This is another log on the fire of disrespect I'm feeling from the Rapids and the league this offseason but honestly its been a long few months for me professionally (in a good way) and I'm pretty fried and I know that's probably driving my reactions lately.  So I'm going to take a couple of weeks off, see family, play some video games and watch bowl games and the African Cup of Nations, and see how I'm feeling come the New Year.  If I still feel this way then I'll write something up about how (IMO) the fans are being treat.  If not then it will be good I cleared my head.  Baring significant news tomorrow (like announcing Wells as coach or the trade for Sealy) this will do it at least until after Christmas and possibly 2025.

I hope everyone has a a happy holiday season and a great New Years!

Schedule Surprise!

Late this morning word started filtering out that MLS could announce some of the schedule details today.  Instead MLS announced the whole schedule, at a time much earlier than they ever have before. This is likely the first time we know next year's schedule before we know which of this year's players will have their options picked up.

Of course the big news in the Rapids schedule is that Inter Miami is finally coming to Colorado.  This is their seventh season so it gets harder and harder, from a competitive standpoint, for MLS to excuse why Miami has never been here but even with that I did not expect them to pass up the big bucks of sending the GOAT back to LA or Seattle or something.  April 18th Miami will be here.

Of course, where will here be?  There was nothing said about a change of venue in today's announcement but many fans think that the game will be moved from the Dick's Sporting Goods Park to Empower Field.  I, for one, hope it isn't.  The Rapids are celebrating not only their 30th anniversary this year but also 20 years in the Dick.  Since they made the move on April 7th, 2007 they have played every competitive home match there.  They didn't move games for Beckham.  They didn't move cold weather CCC games to a better venue.  They didn't play USOC home games at a smaller stadium.  The Dick is our home and we shouldn't give that up just to get 15K extra fans to show up, watch Messi, eave as soon as he's subbed off, and never think about the Rapids again.

The other question is, of course, will Messi travel/play.  The good news is that there are no competitive Argentina matches around that date.  The bad news is that if Miami makes the quarterfinals of the CCC their trip to Colorado comes right after the midweek second leg.  If that happens, I could see them not bringing Messi.  Its also the start of a three game week for Miami, they'll go from Colorado on Saturday to Utah on Wednesday before heading home to face the Revs, which would be followed by the first leg of the CCC semifinals.  If they're eliminated before the quarterfinals I would expect Messi to travel and play some (barring injury) but if they're in the quarters all bets are off with that schedule.

Now that we've dealt with the GOAT elephant in the room, on to the rest of the schedule.  We open in my hometown of Seattle on Sunday February 22nd i what will be the Sunday Night Soccer opening match.  We then come home and face another Cascadia team in our home opener the next Saturday in the Timbers.  Traditionally we do fairly well with the Timbers as our home debut.  Our first long road trip is March 14th through April 4th with 3 road games, including two of our three East Coast trips to NYCFC and TFC (Hi Djordje!).

That Miami match is the first game of our first 3-game week with trips to LAFC on Wednesday and Vancouver the following Saturday.  Our second three-game week starts May 9th when we host St. Louis and then we make a midweek trip to Minnesota before heading to the dark place for the first leg of the Rocky Mountain Cup on Memorial Day Saturday.  We then host Dallas a week later before a long World Cup break.

MLS restarts right after the World Cup final with the Rapids hosting San Diego on Wednesday, July 22nd.  There's a noticeable break in everyone's schedule the second week of August, which will presumably involve Leagues Cup.  That's also in the middle of our only run of 3 straight home games, with Austin on the 1st, SKC on the 15th, and LAFC midweek on the 19th (we pop over to San Diego to finish another 3-game week).  Then to finish August FSL comes through for the second half of the RMC.

Another week break and we're right back to a 3 game week as we go to Columbus, Austin and host Montreal.  October starts with another 3 game week after the International break with San Jose and Minnesota visiting before we go to Portland.  We get a midweek off and, stop me if you've heard this before, another three game week as host Vancouver, go to San Jose, and host Chicago in the home finale on Halloween.  Then we finish the season the next weekend in Dallas.

So we have 5 3-game weeks and a 2-game Wednesday/Saturday week coming out of the World Cup break.  Half our games are played with another league match within 3-4 days of it, instead of the "traditional" week on either side.  And that's before the USOC and Leagues Cup games are added.  Its tough to get a whole schedule in when you're taking June and most of July off.  Good thing its a once every 4 years thing...oh wait.

Other than that though the schedule actually stacks up fairly well.  No ridiculous trips where we play on the East Coast and then on the West Coast in 4 days or anything and no real long road trips or home stands.  One note is that the home opener in February and the Miami games are 2:30pm kickoffs and the home finale on Halloween is TBD.  The other 14 are the normal 7:30pm kicks.  

Unlike this year where the run in looked fairly brutal we finish @Portland, Vancouver @San Jose, Chicago, @Dallas.  You never know who's going to jump up in a given year but outside Vancouver those are teams roughly on our level right now.  Our toughest stretches are the 3-game Miami week (Miami, @LAFC, @Vancouver) and late August/early September (LAFC, @San Diego, FSL, @Columbus).

Massive Day Of MLS News

Well, just as I thought I was slowing down for a while MLS dropped a gigantic piece of news, a major piece of news, an important piece of news, and a minor piece of news today.  Taking them in that order, because the biggest one impacts all the others:

MLS is moving the season from a spring-to-fall schedule to a fall-to-spring schedule.  Lots to cover here:

• MLS will play the 2026 season as planned, with a gap for the World Cup
• MLS will then play a "sprint season" in the spring of 2027 where every team will play 14 games (just enough to play everyone in your conference once) followed by playoffs and MLS Cup
• They'll then break for the summer and start the new 2027-28 season in late-July/August
• The league will then run from late-July/August through early/mid-December, then take a break until either the first or third weekend of February (avoiding restarting the second weekend due to the Super Bowl)
• The regular season will continue through April, with playoffs and MLS Cup in May

And that will be the schedule going forward.  As part of the announcement MLS stated they still are following the principle of having teams play no more than 3 home or road games in a row but some of the statements from the individual teams after the news are suggesting cold weather teams (like the Rapids) could see their December and February games on the road every year.

Notably, but not surprisingly, Colorado's "statement" was just reposting the MLS announcement with no additional comments.

Those are the facts, as we know them.  My opinion of this is that this is being done incredibly poorly and will likely hurt a lot more than it helps in the short to medium term.

I've said for a while now that I can see how this might be better for the league as a whole (but I have my doubts).  But I'm absolutely sure this is going to crush half a dozen clubs and it will take at least 5 seasons for them to get back to where they are now.  And I don't think anyone who's being honest about the situation would really disagree with that.

Given that the fact that MLS is jamming this through, in less than 2 years, without even the union on-board, has me very nervous.,  Japan is making the same change and they've spent the last 3 years being very open about the change, talking to the teams, players, sponsors, and fans, to get everyone on board and rowing the same way.  They are carving out budget chunks to help the further northern teams to adapt.  They're offering deals to fans who will be impacted.  In other words they know that this will only be successful if everyone is bought in.

Here we get MLS just making a decision and expecting everyone to fall in line.  No effort at all to talk to the fans that will be impacted the most.  Apparently no care for the clubs that have to make major infrastructure investments.  The players haven't even agreed to the move according to reports today.

Given all that, why should I expect this to be a success for the heavily impacted teams?  Why should I think MLS values me as a fan?

I can go on more about this, and likely will in the future.  The scheduling problems alone, especially if they send teams out of market for 3 months at a time, are legion.  But we need to move on to other news for now.

MLS is changing the season format when the schedule changes

MLS will go to a single-table model but there will still be divisions.  The 30 teams will be split into five 6 team divisions based on geography.  Teams will play their 5 division rivals home and away (10 games) and everyone else in the league home or away (24 games) for a total of 34 games.  Division winners would automatically qualify for the playoffs, the other playoff teams would be determined by the single-table.

The division makeups have not been announced yet but the most common suggestions for the Rapids are the Cascadia Cup teams, San Jose, and the Rocky Mountain Cup teams or the RMC teams and the four Californian teams.

This is probably an improvement.  I like the idea of seeing every team every year.  As long as they keep FSL and Colorado together I don't have a strong opinion of who else we're grouped with.

MLS Ends Season Pass, Merges With Apple TV

Starting next season (2026) MLS Season Pass is going away.  Instead of a separate MLS-only subscription MLS games will now be under the Apple TV subscription (until recently Apple TV+ but Apple renamed it to Apple TV).  MLS season ticket holders will get a free Apple TV subscription instead of the MLS Season Pass subscription they have been receiving.

This is a good step, probably driven by the recent Formula 1 deal Apple signed that placed F1 coverage inside the Apple TV subscription instead of a separate F1 Season Pass.  At that point neither MLS or Apple could likely justify having a separate subscription.  This opens MLS up to Apple's reported 45 million subscribers world wide.  And MLS fans get to watch Slow Horses and Ted Lasso.  Win, win.

FIFA and CONCACAF agree that Canadian MLS teams can be considered domestic

This has essentially no impact on the Rapids but will help keep everything on a level playing field.  Up until now the Canadian teams were tied to the CSA's timing and rules around transfer windows and the like.  Now they'll be part of the USSF's rules around those areas.  That makes everything easier for the league.  A note, this does not change the domestic/international status of players.  That's driven by employment law in the the countries.

Well, that's plenty.  More to come as we find out more details of the season timing and structure changes.

Wrapping Up 2024

Well as I was busy with the holidays two big things happened, the SuperDraft and the schedule drop.  We'll get through those two today and then I'll circle back to reviewing my 2024 Predictions hopefully no later than New Year's Day so we can move into 2025 and look forward.

Starting with the schedule the big change this year is that San Diego joins the league, so its 14 home and away against the West and 6 against the East, split 3 and 3 home/away.  No 3-game Rocky Mountain Cup anymore.  Speaking of, we defend the Cup at home on May 17th and then finish our road slate in Salt Lake on October 4th.  We start the season in St. Louis on Feb. 22nd before the home opener against Dallas on March 1st.

Unfortunately for all of us who wanted a new road trip, or away day at San Diego is midweek right before the RMC home game which makes it a difficult road game for most of us, since we all want to be back in time to support the boys against FSL.  (Specifically for me I'll likely use that week for my spring work trip to the UK and fly back Friday night so I can be at the game on Saturday).  San Diego comes to the Dick on April 12th.

There was hope that Apple would spread out the game times this year and they have, but not so much for Rapids home games.  All but two home matches kickoff at 7:30, the season finale is at 7pm and Charlotte's visit on March 29th is at 2:30pm.  The Galaxy's visit on June 25th (Wed.) and KC's visit for the annual 4th of July match (Fri.) are the only home games not on Saturday.  We have two Wednesday road games in May, one in July, and a Sunday away game in August, the other 13 road games are also on Saturdays.

May is going to be tough with 7 matches.  We start the month in DC and then come home to San Jose the next weekend.  Then the rest of that week is the trip to SD and the FSL home match.  Then after 7 days off we get St. Louis at home before a midweek trip to Portland followed by a trip to SoCal for LAFC on the weekend.  Those are our only two 3-game weeks (at least for league play) though.

In June we have 3 straight home games before finishing the month in New England.  We only have one home game between Vancouver at home on July 12th and Houston at home on September 13th, that's Atlanta in mid-August.  Otherwise we play in Seattle, Philly, and Minnesota before the ATL game and at the Galaxy and SKC after.  That's going to be a tough stretch.  But that's the only times we have more than two home or away games in a row.  We finish the season at home against, you guessed it, LAFC.

Now, onto the Superdraft.  We already covered the trade for all of Philly's picks but we were busy trading on the day of the draft.  Summing it all up we traded $287,500 in 2025 GAM, a 2025 International Slot, and the #8 pick for the #4, #6, and #12 picks and $50K in 2026 GAM.  That left us with 5 first round picks and nine picks total.  So we went to town on the draft,  The full list:

Round 1: Alex Harris (No. 4) - F, Cornell

Round 1: Matthew Senanou (No. 6) - D, Xavier

Round 1: Efetobo Aror (No. 12) - M, Portland

Round 1: Sydney Wathuta (No. 16) - F, Vermont

Round 1: Joshua Copeland (No. 26) - F, Detroit Mercy

Round 2: Charlie Harper (No. 38) - D, UNC Chapel Hill

Round 3: Donovan Phillip (No. 62) - F, North Carolina State

Round 3: Shawn Smart (No. 68) - D, Las Vegas Lights

Round 3: Matthew Van Horn (No. 75) - M, Georgetown

Most reviews of our picks were positive, with the caveat that we shouldn't expect much from this group in 2025.  Specifically Aror could return to school for a year before coming out.  Also Smart is already signed and playing for Las Vegas but Colorado retains his MLS rights now.  Reports are that we're happy to let him play out his contract in Vegas (he has one year left) before negotiating with him and we're not looking to pay a transfer fee to get him here this season.  He's also being scouted by Sparta Rotterdam and a couple of Championship clubs so this seems more like a flyer on somebody we might be able to flip quickly than any expectation he will have a notable impact on results.

We'll see how many of these guys join camp next month and how many of them make the team.  I expect most of them to be on Rapids 2 if they're not back in school (or in Las Vegas).

Pre-Holiday News Dump

I take a day off and in the 48 hours since I last posted the Rapids sign 3 players, draft 6 others, drop the 2024 schedule, and Burgundy Wave announces info about Armas' contract.  Oh, and the USSF says no to MLS's idea to skip the Open Cup.  So buckle in, this is going to be a large post going over all of it that will likely wrap up 2023 for Rapids news (I hope!).

Lets start with the singings.  First Colorado re-signed homegrown players Seb Anderson and Oli Larraz to one year deals with team options for a second season.  Anderson's deal also has a team option for a third season.  Pretty clear that this is a make it or break it season for both of them, I'm really hoping to see Larraz get some time with the first team after a strong season in MLS Next Pro in 2023.

Then last night the Rapids signed free agent winger Omir Fernandez,  He came up through the RBNY Academy and has made over 110 appearances for the Red Bulls in the last 5 seasons.  Fernandez is 24, making him one of the youngest free agents in MLS history.  He is likely to become the starter ont he right wing but he can also play more centrally or up top.

Yesterday Colorado drafted 5 players and traded for a 6th draftee.  They started the day with the #2 and #4 picks which the club used to select sophomore midfielder Wayne Fredrick out of Duke and Generation Adidas forward freshman Kimani Stewart-Baynes out of Maryland.  Fredrick has the option to return to school while the Rapids keep his rights while Stewart-Baynes, as a GA player, has already signed a contract with the league and will be turning pro.  Both of these picks are long-term picks, though you would hope that Stewart-Baynes could contribute a little in 2024.

Then the wheeling and dealing started.  By the end of the first round the Rapids had acquired $300K in GAM, an additional second round pick and the rights to the #5 pick in exchange for their other two first round picks and moving down in the second round.  The #5 pick was defender Nate Jones out of my alma mater, the University of Washington.  Jones is a junior and is the most likely of our six picks to get notable playing time in 2024.

With their two second round picks and their third round pick we selected sophomore forward Palmer Ault out of Butler, senior defender Anderson Ross out of Central Florida. and junior forward Gunnar Studenhofft out of Manhattan College.  Studenhofft has also debuted for the Cayman Islands National Team, playing in a World Cup qualifier already.

Since none of these players are seniors they can all return to school if they want, other than Stewart-Baynes.  I expect Jones at least to come out of school and the others may depend on what kind of feedback they get from the Rapids on their chances of making the team vs. making Rapids 2.  I assume there's already a plan of what they want to do with Fredrick as you wouldn't use the #2 pick on him otherwise.

If you combine the trades last season with the trades made yesterday, the Rapids traded Michael Barrios, Anthony Markanich, a first round pick in last year's draft, and the #31 pick this year.  In exchange they got the #4 pick, the rights to the #5 pick, the #34 pick, the #42 pick, and $300K in GAM.  No matter how you look at it, that's good business.

Today started with the U.S. Soccer Federation telling MLS that their plans to play MLS Next Pro teams in the Open Cup instead of the first teams was not allowed.  MLS responded that they could continue to work with the USSF on their Open Cup plans.  In the end what will likely happen is that teams will play in the Open Cup but they'll be given more liberal rules for calling up '2' players for those games.  Still its a positive step by the USSF to protect the Open Cup.

Then this year's schedule dropped.  For the first time the Rapids will face Inter Miami, but in Miami.  Messi is not coming to Commerce City.  That will be April 6th in Florida.  Colorado will start the season on February 24th in Portland and then have their home opener a week later on March 2nd against Gary Smith's Nashville side.  They then jump across the Divide for the first of three Rocky Mountain Cup matches the next week.  The second RMC match is in Sandy on May 18th, and the competition will finish on July 20th in Commerce City.

That's also the last match before the Leagues Cup break, and Colorado won't have another league home match for almost two months, when Portland comes to town on September 14th.  We have our home finale on October 5th against Seattle before finishing the regular season the next week in Austin.

Along with Miami we travel to NYCFC and Cincinnati, while welcoming Nashville, Montreal, RBY, and Toronto at the Dick, along with home and aways against all the Western opponents, plus the extra 3rd match with FSL.    We never have more than two road matches in a row, but 3 of our first 4 are on the road.  We have one run of three home games in early July, starting with the 4th of July home match against SKC and then St. Luis and RBNY over a total of 9 days.  We do have multiple 3-game weeks, but only one of them involves two road matches.  Memorial Day week we play at home on Memorial Day Saturday and then go to Houston midweek and Vancouver the following weekend.

Last, but not least, tonight Burgundy Wave is reporting that Chris Armas' contract is a two year deal.  Unless we have an Anthony Hudson situation I expect him to essentially see out that deal even if we don't see great improvement in 2024.  Coincidentally, or not, Robin Fraser's contract was also through the end of the 2025 season so one way or the other by 2026 there will be no legacy contracts on the books.

And with that, I'm calling a wrap on this post and hopefully 2023.  If anything happens over the holidays, unlikely as that is, I'll be back but I'm expecting everything to be pretty quiet for the next week and a half.  Happy holidays to all of my readers and I'll be back after New Years with hopefully enough time to do a piece on Soccernomics and the Rapids I've been hoping to do before the start of camp.

No Messing With Texas (For Now)

Tonight's game has been postponed due to lightning.  A makeup date will be announced in the future, but it will have to be either on the international weekend next weekend or on the Wednesday on either side of it.

Vancouver Home Game Rescheduled For Sept. 27th

The Vancouver home game that was postponed due to the storm last Wednesday has been officially rescheduled for Wednesday Sept. 27th at 7:30pm.  All tickets for the original date will be honored for the new date.  That was our only open date between the September and October international breaks, which means we'll play 6 games in 19 days in that stretch.  Luckily 4 of those 6 are at home and the two road trips are to Portland and Dallas.  Not that it will really matter either way.

Open Cup Details

Earlier in the day on Saturday the Rapids announced the details of their U.S. Open Cup third round game against Northern Colorado Hailstorm.  The game will be played two weeks from tonight, on the 26th, at 7pm.  All season-ticket holders will get a complimentary ticket to the game.  There will be either a limited or no real organized tailgate from C38, based on past USOC games, but I'm sure the regular crowd will still gather in the normal tailgate spot before the match.

A New Rivalry Dawns In The Open Cup?

Tonight the draw was made for the third round of the U.S. Open Cup, where the Rapids enter the competition.  Colorado was put into a group with other regional teams including FSL (though MLS teams can't be matched up in the third round), Phoenix rising, New Mexico United, Las Vegas Lights, and after a repeat of their upset over the Switchbacks last year, the Northern Colorado Hailstorm.  Last night the Hailstorm went down to the Springs and beat the Switchbacks 3-1 after extra time.

The Rapids were the first team drawn for the group, earning hosting rights to their match (Northern Colorado didn't submit a bid to host due to their ongoing stadium delays).  After Vegas and New Mexico were also drawn as hosts the next team out was FSL.  Since, as mentioned, MLS teams can't be matched up in this round FSL was bounced down a spot to travel to Las Vegas.  The next team out?  The Northern Colorado Hailstorm.  That's right, Colorado will face Northern Colorado for the first time competitively.

This is the Hailstorm's second season, and in both preseason they've hosted Rapids 2, but this is the first competitive match for either Rapids 1 or 2 against the new team in the state.  The game will be played either Tuesday April 25th or Wednesday April 26th at the Dick.  The winner moves on to the 4th round where once again a regional group will be created with a random draw in the group (at which point MLS teams can face each other).  The Rapids haven't won a U.S. Open Cup game since their 3-2 win over OKC in 2017.  That was also the last time the Rapids advanced in a knockout competition of any sort.  This is a chance to get this Open Cup campaign off on a good foot, playing at home against a squad two levels below them.

Leagues Cup Schedule Released

The schedule for the group stage of the Leagues Cup was released today.  As a reminder we're in a 3-team group with Nashville SC and Toluca of Liga MX.  Each team will play each other once, top two teams move on to the knockout stage.

Game 1: Colorado Rapids @ Nashville SC - July 23rd

Game 2: Toluca @ Nashville SC - July 27th

Game 3: Toluca @ Colorado Rapids - July 31st

As expected, the Rapids-Nashville game goes first, then Toluca flies in to play its two games and will know if its moving on as soon as their done, so they can go to their next match or fly home.  Somewhat surprisingly we get the best schedule, with 8 days between our two games.  Both Nashville and Toluca will play their second game 4 days later.  I assumed that Nashville, as the seeded team playing at home, would get the greater rest.

All season-ticket holders had the Rapids-Toluca game included in their season ticket packages.  Tickets for the match will go on sale tomorrow.

The teams that advance will play the Round of 32 matches on Aug. 2nd-4th, the Round of 16 Aug, 6th-8th, the Quarterfinals Aug, 11th & 12th, the Semifinals Aug. 15th, and the 3rd Placed game & Final on Aug. 19th (third-place mattes because the top 3 teams get a CONCACAF Champions League berth).

The two Liga MX-Liga MX group stage games are being played at the venue of the MLS team in their group.  In the Round of 32 and beyond the MLS team will host any matches against Liga MX side, matches against other MLS sides will be hosted by the group winner in the Round of 32 and by the higher placed team in the 2022 Shield standings for future rounds.  Liga MX-Liga MX games in the knockout rounds will be played in MLS venues determined by the organizers.

2023 Schedule Released!

At noon today MLS dropped the 2023 schedule  The Rapids will start on February 26th in Seattle and finish at home against FSL on October 21st.  In-between will be 32 other games and the Leagues Cup, plus the U.S. Open Cup.  Looking at some of the highlights:

• 14 Saturday night games, 2 Wednesday night games, and 1 Tuesday night game (July 4th).  All home kickoffs are at 7:30pm except the final match with is TBD.
• All away kickoffs except the opener are at 7:30 local time for the match.  The opener in Seattle is at 5pm local/6pm MT due to being on FS1 (ironically I'm flying home from a family gathering two days before where everyone else is flying home to Seattle, should have gone home with them!)
• This scheduling is part of the AppleTV deal where all games will be on Wednesdays and Saturdays with 7:30pm local kickoffs, unless the FOX TV deal needs them in a different time slot.
• Rocky Mountain Cup matches are home on May 20th and October 21st and in Utah on Labor Day weekend.
• Portland will be the opponent for our annual 4th of July match
• Jameson Night September 16th!
• Eastern Conference opponents are at Charlotte, Atlanta, Columbus, and Orlando, and hosting Philly, Cincinnati, and New England.
• You'll notice Miami is not on that list.  That means in the 4 years they've been in the league we will still have not faced them, unless we matchup in the Open Cup or Leagues Cup (or MLS Cup final).
• We play expansion St. Louis on April 22nd at the Dick and July 1st in St. Louis.

Beyond that the big thing to look at with the schedule is the rhythm of the games.  Only once do the Rapids play 3 home games in the a row, on July 4th, 9th, and 15th, leading into the Leagues Cup break.  They never have more than 2 games in a row on the road.

As far as busy 3 game weeks (by which I mean anytime we have a midweek game between two weekend matches or two Wednesday matches with a weekend match in-between) it happens five times.  The first is in mid-May where we have a midweek trip to Atlanta between home games against Philly and FSL.  After a week with no midweek games we then have a trip to Columbus sandwiched between home matches against Cinci and San Jose.  The next time it happens is over the 4th of July match where as mentioned we play in St. Louis on Saturday, Portland at home on the 4th, then stay in Commerce City to host Dallas on Saturday.  The last two times are like the first two, with 3 games, a week without a mid-week game, and 3 games.  In this case it starts with New England at home on September 16th, Seattle at home on the 20th, and then a trip to Portland on the 23rd.  After a midweek off its then a Texas Trio of Austin at home on Sept. 3oth and then trips to Dallas and Houston on October 4th and 7th.

So almost half our games will be played in 3-game weeks.  Squad rotation is going to be important this season.

The next major offseason news is tomorrow, when the Superdraft will be held tomorrow afternoon.  The Rapids hold the 12th pick in each of the 3 rounds, but they also hold the #3 overall pick which they acquired in the trade with Toronto for Mark-Anthony Kaye.  Some talk that forward Ilijah Paul, Pac-12 player of the year out of Washington, might be available at #3.  If so he fills an obvious need for the team and you can't go wrong drafting a Husky.  Go Dawgs!

Open Cup Game Postponed Until Noon Tomorrow

After getting 19 minutes in and each side scoring (Mezquida for the Rapids) the game went into a lightning/tornado/rain/hail delay and its just been determined there's no chance of getting the playing surface ready to paly before city ordinances kick in.  Events at the stadium have to start by 10:59pm CT (9:59pm MT), which is 20 minutes from now.  So the game will be restarted in the 19th minute with the score 1-1 at noon MT/1pm CT tomorrow.  The game should be streaming on ESPN+ again at that time.

Schedule Analysis

So far its all quiet on the player front.  There are a couple of rumors about players coming and going out there, but nothing confirmed.  In light of that, on to the delayed schedule analysis.

First of all we now know that the Rapids will play their first round CCL games on February 17th (in Guatemala) and 23rd (at the Dick).  Looks like kickoff on the 23rd will be at 6:30pm, which means things are going to be...cold by the end of the game probably.

After those two its into the  MLS season.  We already know we're starting on the road at LAFC before coming home to play Atlanta, one of 8 Eastern teams we're playing next year.  The Rapids did not get a favorable Eastern Conference schedule, playing 5 of the 6 2021 playoff teams, plus Nashville (who's moving to the West).  The only playoff team we miss is New England.  We also get DC and Columbus, the two teams just outside the playoffs.  We do get expansion Charlotte but otherwise we have to play the teams that finished 2nd through 9th in the East in 2021.

Outside of that we  know we're playing everyone in the West twice.  So its really a matter of when we play them.  The first one to look at is always FSL, who we get at home on April 2nd and in Sandy on July 9th.  I have to look but it feels like more often than not we finish the RMC in Utah, which seems an unfair benefit to them.  Its certainly happened 3 years in a row now.  We get Dallas very early, April 9th, in Dallas but then don't see them again until the last home game of the year in October.  Gary Smith and the rest of the 2010 Rapids gang return to Colorado over Memorial Day weekend.

As far as frequency of games go, our first 3 game week is in late May when LAFC and Seattle at home on the weekends have a trip to KC in-between them.  That's as light a 3-game week as the Rapids can have when it comes to travel.  After that Memorial Day game the Rapids don't play at home again until the 4th of July, with only two games total in June, both on the road.  In the two weeks starting on 4th of July the Rapids have 4 games, all but the RMC match in Sandy at home.  Again, another light travel for short rest games.

Getting into the back half of the season there's another 3-game week in August, with two home games around a trip to Vancouver.  Not as easy as KC and Sandy but it could be a lot worse.  Then after a week off there's another 3-game week finishing on Labor Day weekend, this time all on the road in Philly, Nashville, and DC.  I fully expect (COVID permitting) the Rapids to set up for a week in the Philly/DC area instead of flying back to Denver after all 3 games.  So travel won't be that big of a deal that week.  Then again after another week break it's 3 more games in a week, this time with the first two at home before a trip to LA-LA land to play the Galaxy.  The team gets two full weeks off before the final two games, the aforementioned home finale against Dallas and then a trip to Austin to finish the regular season.

That 3-game East Coast swing before Labor Day is the only time we have more than 2 home or away games in a row.  As you can see by that tight end of the season schedule (9 games in 5 weeks) its going to be important to build up a bit of a buffer in the first 2/3rds of the season while we're more well-rested.  Twice we have long road trips between games, but they're both a week apart.  We go between NY and the Northwest on both of them, first from NYCFC to Portland, then Seattle to RBNY the second time.

Overall the pacing and the travel in this schedule is fairly favorable.  Of course we don't know how much added travel and subtracted rest we might get early in the season with our CCL play.  The real negative on this schedule is getting all the tough Eastern teams and not getting teams like Miami, Chicago, and Cincinnati.

Scheduling!

We got both the full 2022 MLS schedule and our CCL draw today.  Full schedule analysis will be saved for this weekend (hopefully) but two things that stand out is that we have an early Rocky Mountain Cup home match on April 2nd, and the week leading into Labor Day is a 3-game week in Philly, Nashville, and DC, which seems like a doable road trip for people so-inclined (at the very least got to Philly, spend a week seeing Philly and DC, and go to the game in DC).

The CCL draw is a little easier to analyze.  Our first opponent is Comunicaciones FC of Guatemala.  The first leg will be in Guatemala on February 15th-17th with the return leg at the Dick on Feb 22nd-24th.  This is a team we should be able to beat, even coming out of preseason.  Assuming we don't fall flat on our face we'll get the winner of the NYCFC-Santos de Guapiles (Costa Rica), again with the first leg away and the second leg at the Dick.

Should we get through that match and onto the semifinals we'll get the remaining team out of Guastatoya (Guatemala), Montagua (Honduras), the Sounders, and Leon.  Leon would be an intriguing matchup given that's where Yarbrough came to us from, and rolling it all the way back to 1996 that's also where Marcelo Balboa came to us from.  We also faced Leon in the first round of the then CONCACAF Champions Cup in 1998 after being the runner up in MLS Cup '97, being eliminated 403 on aggregate after beating Leon 1-0 in the first leg at Mile High.

This is about as solid a draw as we could hope for if we want to finally make some noise in international play.  Only 1 of the 4 Mexican teams ended up on our side of the bracket, and they're in the upper half while we're in the lower half.  So there are two chances for them to be eliminated before we could even face them.  Of course none of that matters if we don't take care of business, first by beating a team we should beat, and then taking out a team we should also beat, or taking out the defending MLS Cup champs.  Both of these are absolutely possible.

Season Openers Announced!

So I wasn't expecting this until after the playoffs or maybe MLS Cup week, but the league announced the home openers for the 2022 season today.  This is a good indication that we'll get the full schedule no later than shortly after MLS Cup.  Certainly before everyone goes into holiday mode in a month.

The Rapids will start where they ended the regular season, facing LAFC.  In this case we'll be on the road.  We'll then be at home in the second week against Atlanta.  And of course, as we discussed yesterday, they will host a CCL game in the week leading up to the opener.  So the schedule as we know it so far:

Feb 15th-17th - Concacaf Champions League, Away leg

Feb 22nd-24th - Concacaf Champions League Home leg

Sat. Feb 26th, 1:30pm MT - @LAFC

Sat. March 5th, 4pm MT - Atlanta United

International Window News

 Two bits of news around National Team play (kind of) came out today.

• Kellyn Acosta was called up for the US's friendly against Switzerland in St. Gallen on May 30th.  He'll miss the home game against Dallas the night before.  Technically this is outside the international window that starts the next day so the Rapids weren't not required to let anyone go.  We don't know if Vines, Lewis, or Bassett were requested.  If I had to guess the Nats enquired about Acosta and Vines and the Rapids said they could have one of them but not both (and may have said specifically Acosta, not Vines, given our LB depth issues).
• Not technically about international play but Minnesota United announced today that our game in Minnesota on Wednesday August 4th will now be played on Saturday October 9th.  The good news is that it eliminated a "3 games in one week" run for us at the beginning of August.  The bad news is that October 9th falls during an international window so we may be missing players for the game now.

Schedule Released!

We finally have the season schedule!  Just a couple of quick housekeeping notes before we get to it though:

• GK Andrew Rawls and D Jeremy Kelly have been loaned to USL Phoenix Rising for the 2021 season, with the right of recall.  This is not at all a surprise for Rawls, who sits behind Yarbrough, Irwin, and probably Rodriguez for playing time.  I'm a little surprised about Kelly given that he showed well in his limited time last season.
• The Rapids have added scrimmages on the 31st against FC Tucson and LA Galaxy II.  They're scheduled just an hour apart so I suspect these will be 45 or 60 minute scrimmages.

Now, the schedule.  As we already knew the season will start in Dallas on April 17th followed by our first look at Austin here in Colorado a week later.  Now we know the full season details.  Back to 34 games, but 31 of them will be against the Western Conference as the league keeps things somewhat regionalized to save costs and allow for same-day travel.  We play seven teams 3 times, Austin, Dallas, Houston, Minnesota, Seattle, KC, and of course FSL.  The rest of the West we play twice (once home, once away) and we go to New England and the new stadium in Cincinnati while Toronto visits Colorado.  

The bad news is that we have to go to Salt Lake not once, not twice, but three times.  Since cross-border travel for sports is still not allowed for pro sports the Canadian teams are at least starting the season in the U.S. and Vancouver is playing their home games in Sandy.  So our May trip "to Vancouver" is actually a trip to Salt Lake.  On top of that they get two of the three Rocky Mountain Cup matches at home.  We also go to Houston and KC twice.  Austin, Dallas, Minnesota, and Seattle we get twice at home.

The schedule has some gaps this year for international play.  The team has the first 3 weeks of June off for World Cup qualifying.  There's also a 10 day gap in mid July for the Gold Cup.  The Rapids have a long home stand around that with 4 home games in a row starting with the Sounders on the 4th of July and ending with Dallas on July 21st.  The Rapids follow that with their only 3 game road trip, going to Salt Lake, Austin, and Minnesota in 11 days.  They also have a 3 games in 10 days home stand in September.  Otherwise there's never more than 2 home or away games in a row.

Their toughest stretch is in mid August where they play in Houston on Saturday, in LA against the Galaxy on Tuesday, then come home for their only home Rocky Mountain Cup match on Saturday.  They also have a rough 5 games in two weeks right before the end of the season starting in Salt Lake for a RMC match, heading home for Seattle and Portland, then flying out to New England before heading back down to Houston for the 5th game.  Depth will be tested.  They get a week off after that before the season finale, facing LAFC at home on November 7th.  Snow Clasico IV?

Overall given the compressed schedule this works out pretty well.  The Rapids' youth and depth will server them well.  If you look at our 10 "extra" games after playing the 12 Western teams home and away we have the two worst teams in the West last year (both on the road), an expansion team, and the worst team in the East (also on the road).  New England finished 8th and wouldn't have made the playoffs if they hadn't been expanded.  So half of those games are against non-playoff teams going into 2021.  We also get 3 of the top 4 teams in the West last season and the second best team in the East, but all but one of those extra games (KC) are at home.  The last one is against Dallas, who finished right behind us, and is also at home.  Other than drawing KC on the road that's a pretty favorable mix.

The league announced on Monday that the Leagues Cup, which the Rapids qualified for, would be reduced this season and only 4, not 8, MLS teams will play in it.  Colorado no longer qualifies under the new rules but I think that's a good thing.  We don't need the fixture congestion.

Season Openers Announced!

Here we are, a week and a half after the weekend that hosted the openers last year, and we finally have at least a partial schedule.  Today MLS announced the home openers for every team.  The Rapids will start their season with a Texas two-step.  They'll head to Dallas for a rivalry match in the season opener on April 17th at 6pm.  Then they'll be back for their home opener a week later on the 24th against expansion Austin FC.  Kickoff will be the traditional home kickoff time of 7pm.  As of right now there is no word on if fans will be allowed in to the stadium or not.  If you haven't had your first dose of Moderna yet or you don't get your first Pfizer does by Saturday you won't be fully vaccinated by the opener, unless you can get a Johnson & Johnson vaccine by the end of next week.

The Rapids should expect to get 4, hopefully 6, pints from these first two games.  There's no excuse for not beating an expansion team at home in their second ever game.  Dallas is going through a bit of a transition right now and I think we're likely better than them, but opening up on the road is difficult and its hard to say it should be a win.  Still a draw is a reasonable expectation.

We're reportedly still a couple of weeks away from seeing the full schedule.  Less than a week until our first preseason action though!

Season Start Moved To April 17

As reported earlier this week the MLS season start has been delayed due to the length of the CBA negotiations.  The season will now start on April 17th.  Commissioner Garber said they hope to release the season schedule by early next month.  That will be the latest start in league history, just barely beating out the inaugural season.

This will hopefully allow more home games at the Dick to be open to fans as we get further and further into the vaccination program.  For now though,, the assumption is that no games will be open in the early season.

Season To Start April 3rd

MLS announced today that the regular season will start April 3rd and finish November 7th, with the playoffs running from November 19th to MLS Cup on Dec 11th.  This is the latest MLS has started since the mid-2000's and this is obviously a move to delay the start of the season as long as possible in order to play as many games as possible in front of fans.  The hope is by mid/late summer stadiums can have fans and Canadian teams will be able to cross the border.

Because of the late start teams won't start preseason camps until Feb. 22nd.  This also gives the league and the players union a month to come to an agreement on the modification to the CBA the league invoked with its exercising of force majeure clause.  Hopefully that will be enough to get the delayed season started on time.

I'm not sure how much news there will be in the next month for Colorado.  The Rapids don't seem like they're going to be making major moves.  I see rumors that an official deal for Yarbrough is almost done, but other than that it might be a quiet few weeks.