Rapids Stuck In 2022 To Start 2023

After repeated talk this offseason from Rapids coaches and players about how the team needed to stop giving up cheap goals on the road, the club kicked off 2023 by giving up multiple cheap goals on the road.  Losing 4-0 on opening day in a game that, with the exception of a few new faces, looked straight out of midseason 2022 doesn't suggest that any of the change we expected this year is coming any time soon.  In the postgame Fraser said all the expected things, taking part of the blame by being too aggressive with the tactics, but the reality is that very few of the players in burgundy last night looked ready for the opening match.  Real questions have to be asked about where this team's mentality is right now.

I'm going to break down all 4 Seattle goals here, because the failures in them really outline the whole game.  On the first when the Seattle attacker receives the ball in midfield the Rapids have the play pretty well locked down.  There's no direct pressure on the ball, but on Colorado's half of the field there are 7 defenders plus Yarbrough against just 4 attackers.  This shouldn't be a threat.  But then Gersbach makes a critical mistake.  He leaves Morris like he's going to put pressure on the ball, but then stops, then starts, then stops.  By the time he decides what he's going to do Morris has broken behind him and received the pass and its off to the races.  Maxsø starts to move over to cover and Gersbach tries to get back but neither get pressure on Morris before the cross.  Meanwhile Abubakar and Rosenberry both start to cover the same man, then Rosenberry backs off to mark empty space.  This allows Christian Roldan a free run from midfield to the 6-yrd box without any pressure where he gets a free header.  Yarbrough makes the initial save but the rebound goes right back to Roldan and he headed it home.

The second goal looked like a copy of the first.  Once again Gersbach was caught up field allowing Seattle to come down our left side.  Once again Maxsø tries to cover but can't get there before the cross.  This time Abubakar manages to head the initial cross away but not far enough.  The ball is crossed back in from the right where Rosenberry has lost Morris who slots it home.  Before he gets his touch though it goes by him and a flailing Yarbrough and bounces off Abubakar right back to Morris.

Third goal?  Gersbach upfield?  Check.  Maxsø tries to cover the empty space behind him Seattle played into? Check.  This time it started with a horrible pass to spave between two Rapids by Rosenberry.  After the cross there was a little more play in the center of the park before the ball popped out to the right side to be crossed back in.  Abubakar got in the way of the cross but could only stop it at the top of the 6-yard box where it became a tap in for Heber.

We finally saw something different on the 4th goal.  This one came off a corner kick where the defensive marking assignments made no sense to me.  The corner came in and a Seattle attacker got a head to it, but sent it directly into the head of another attacker and the rebound off of that player rebounded off of Wilson's head to the far post.  Waiting there was Jordan Morris, being marked by Cole Bassett of all people.  It was an easy header at that point for the fourth and final goal.

As you can see, with the exception of the final goal, pretty much all our problems developed from the wings.  I can't remember the last time I saw both Rapids outside backs (Rosenberry and Gersbach) play that poorly in the same game.  I don't know what they thought they were doing but it wasn't playing soccer.

Random Thoughts:

• Rubio was out due to a knee injury.  Today we found out he had arthroscopic surgery and will be out 2-5 weeks.
• Abubakar shows up in a lot of those goal breakdowns and he didn't have a great game, but I don't think it was as bad as some people are making it out to be.  On the second and third goals while he did get a touch in both cases they were uncontrolled touches while he was trying to clean up the mess.  Bad luck more than bad play, but that does seem to happen to him more often than average.
• Chris Sharpe is going to have to sit down and rethink our corner kick defense, or find out what we did wrong.  There's no world where marking Morris with Bassett alone makes sense, and it didn't look like there was another Rapid who Morris eluded or anything.
• Yarbrough looked awful on the second goal, and average the rest of the time.  Ilic will have a chance to get plying time sooner than later if that keeps up.
• Kevin Cabral started on the bench which was an interesting choice for our big DP acquisition of the offseason.
• He should start on Saturday in place of Barrios, who is clearly being hunted down by Father Time.  Based on last night he should be a super sub only this season.
• Nicholson hasn't improved since last season.
• Maxsø was the best of a bad set of defenders.  Largely he did fine on defense but his long passing was lacking.
• There were really only two players who brought positive play last night.  Connor Ronan looked good in midfield and created a few positive moves.  He faded out at times (as did most of the team) but certainly deserves to start on Saturday based on this match.
• One piece of good news for Saturday is SKC is playing right now in Portland, having had their game delayed 48 hours due to weather.  That will make them a little less rested com Saturday.

Man of the Match: Darren Yapi.  Pressed into a starting role by Rubio's absence Yapi got everyone's attention with a thundering shot off the bar in the first 90- seconds.  His play throughout the game had MLS writers questioning how he wasn't part of the recent U-20 camp and while he's no Rubio, he'll get  absence to show his stuff in March while Diego recovers from his surgery and maybe play his way onto the U-20 World Cup team.

Gentlemen, Start Your Oars

We'll miss these two on the call this year

Welcome to the 2023 regular season!  More importantly, welcome to the end of the Altitude blackout!  At 6pm tomorrow on FS1 and Apple TV the Rapids will start their campaign in Seattle, where rain and snow is expected at game time.  So its going to feel like Colorado but with noticeably more oxygen.  After a training camp spent in Mexico and Orlando it will be a bit of a shock for the Rapids.  Speaking of oars, Seattle is home to one of the best crew teams in the world, the University of Washington crew team.  Soon to be featured in the upcoming movie The Boys in the Boat, about the 1936 U.S. crew team that took down Hitler's top rowers at the Olympics (the U.S. team was the defending collegiate crew champions, the UW boat).

The first game of the season also means the first availability report and its...not great:

Availability Report:

OUT: GK Marko Ilic (waiting on visa), F Yaya Toure (knee), FW Diego Rubio (knee)

QUESTIONABLE: D Aboubacar Keita (knee), M Jonathan Lewis (knee), M Jack Price (back)

No surprise with Ilic and Toure and Keita are still coming back from their blown ACL's last season.  Lewis got 0 minutes in preseason so you had to know something was going on there.  The big two names are Diego Rubio and Jack Price, neither of which were expected.  The Rapids have said they will have more information on Rubio's injury next week but its not MCL/ACL related, so that's good.  My guess is that no matter how insignificant Price's injury is, he won't start and likely won't play.  Turf + snow is not a combination where you want to risk exacerbating an injury.

The midfield is a bit hard to predict given the injuries.  Bassett and Cabral will start, not sure about Ronan, Acosta, or Nicholson, but that seems to be where Fraser is leaning based on preseason.  Yapi feels like the only real choice up front without Rubio.

Prediction: 1-0 loss.  If we had Price and Rubio I can see us getting a point, or maybe even a win, but without them I don't see where the offense is going to come from.  With the ugly weather and our normal lack of success in Seattle I'm expecting we'll give up a sloppy goal and show no real ability to get back into the game,

2023 Season Preview and Predictions

I just got home from a week in Cabo to celebrate my parents 50th anniversary, so we're going to squeeze in a couple of posts between now and game time on Sunday to be ready to kickoff the season.  First up, my annual preview and predictions.  But before we get to that, one bit of news.  Defender Michael Edwards has been loaned to USL side San Antonio for the season, with the option to be recalled.  That will give him a higher level of competition than he would get with Rapids 2.

As we go into this year I see a team with, once again, lots of unproven-in-MLS potential  The only real addition we made this offseason that has already been successful in the league is the return of Cole Bassett from his loan in the Netherlands.  Otherwise its a collection of MLS players looking to find success with a new team or international signings new to the league.  That latter is notable as Padraig Smith has talked multiple times about players new to the league needing adjustment time, sometimes up to a full season.

Well, Colorado can't afford for the new guys to take a full year to get up to speed.  Arguably if more than one of Ilic, Gersbach, Ronan, or Maxsø fail to hit the ground running we are probably going to have a long season.  Certainly we need two of them to be ready to go starting in Seattle.  The good news is that we didn't look for our normal bargain deals in Europe.  They brought Maxsø in as a DP, and no DP should be given latitude to have a full season to get established in the league.  If you're taking up one of those spots you're expected to produce immediately.  Cabral was brought over from the Galaxy as a DP as well.  Ilic is here on loan but with an expected big number in his purchase option.  Gersbach is filling a big hole and needs to be ready to do that on day 1.  Only Ronan really has the flexibility to take some time settling in.

In the end, I think this season will come down to how well and how quickly the new parts mesh.  Its clear in this window that the Front Office recognized how badly they screwed up the last couple of windows (that's a discussion for another day) and has made moves to address our lack of depth and most of our holes.  That doesn't get them off the hook of creating the problem where we have a bunch of new parts that we're still unclear about less than 18 months after winning the West.  If we get to May and we're still figuring out our best XI and who works well with who its going to be another long season of one-and-done competitions and no playoffs.

With that, on to the predictions:

• 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
• 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
• We bring the Rocky Mountain Cup home by beating FSL on the last day of the season
• 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
• 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
• By midseason Ilic will be the clear #1 in net
• Diego Rubio wins the team Golden Boot with double-digit goals but less than 15
• 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
• Jack Price returns to being one of the most underrated players in the league
• Maxsø is the clear defensive player of the year and makes a push for the league's best XI
• Ronan and Max both struggle to claim the third starting spot in midfield, creating a rotation all season
• 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.
• Yapi shows he's a year away still, but really looks set for a big 2024

Will I be right?  Probably not.  But am I optimistic or pessimistic?

Rapids Finish Preseason With A Loss

Colorado played its final preseason match today, facing off against the Union in Orlando.  The starting XI

Yarbrough

Rosenberry - Abubakar - Maxsø - Gersbach

Priso

Ronan - Bassett

Nicholson - Yapi - Barrios

This group played a pretty close to first team starting XI from Philly to a draw at halftime.  At half Wilson came in for Maxsø  and Acosta came in for Yapi, so I'm guessing Ronan or Barrios were playing center forward at that point.  Right after half the Rapids conceded, and after 75 minutes full swaps were made:

Yarbrough

Anderson - Rosenberry - Bombito - Wilson - Beitashour

Max - Acosta

Galvan - Harris - Cabral

The 90 minutes ended at 1-0 Philly, but the teams had agreed to play 135 minutes total.  That turned into a bit of a mess with the final score being 4-1 Philly, the Rapids goal coming from Cabral with Acosta assisting.  The final lineup included Anderson coming in for Yarbrough and Markanich coming in for Rosenberry before the final 45.  Edwards was a late sub as well.

And with that, we enter game week.  The team will stay in Orlando before flying to Seattle for next Sunday's game.

Welcome Marko Ilic!

The Rapids made the loan for Serbian keeper Marko Ilic official today, announcing his joining of the team KV Kortrijk.  The official announcement says he's joining "throigh July 2023" with an option to buy.  The announcement from his Belgium side is a bit more specific, the loan is through July 5th.

Once again a Rapids player press release has misleading or incorrect information.  "Through July" would suggest until July 31st or at least close to that, not through 4 days of July.  I had heard word that the Rapids were working on improving these issues, but I guess not.

Only having him until July is a bit odd.  Yesterday we talked about how if he stayed until the window closed on or around September 1st he would be the obvious starter for the Leagues Cup matches.  Even staying until the end of July would get him the Leagues Cup group games.  Now the only time I'm sure he'll get is our opening U.S. Open Cup match, which given the team's track record in the competition is likely to be our only USOC match.  Otherwise Ilic is going to have to beat our Yarbrough for playing time or Fraser will have to decide that giving Marko time over Will is worth it for long-term strategy even if it reduces our chance of winning that game.  A hard place to be in when you only have him available for 22 league matches before having to make a decision.

With this move you have to figure Colorado is largely done for the offseason.  We could see a late trade involving an international slot or maybe a swap of non-starting XI players but I think our big moves are likely done at this point.