Oct 11, 2014; Carson, CA, USA; Colorado Rapids defender John Neeskens (16) celebrates with his team after he scores a goal against the Chivas USA during the first half at StubHub Center. Mandatory Credit: Kelvin Kuo-USA TODAY Sports
At one point it seemed the Colorado Rapids might actually be a playoff contender.
The team’s youthful core buoyed by veteran savvy seemed primed to ride the wave of
success they had last year.
A year ago, Colorado was on the up, making the playoffs one year only to fall to the bottom of the table a year later, there is going to be finger pointing.
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Honestly it’s hard to fault the Rapids front office or coach Pablo Mastroeni as they were put in an unenviable position when Oscar Pareja left to join FC Dallas and assistant head coach Wilmer Cabrera left for Chivas USA.
Yet, Colorado was hesitant to offer Mastroeni the full-time gig only removing the interim tag from his title on the verge of the season opener.
For a team that has made shrewd drafting choices in 2013, some of the team’s recent personnel moves are bewildering. The Rapids exchanged their first round draft pick–number five overall–to the Portland Timbers in exchange for Danny Mwanga, now of the New York Cosmos.
Clint Irwin was solid in goal but was inexplicably replaced by Joe Nasco whose talent seemed offset by nerves.
So where did things go wrong for Colorado?
In baseball there’s a statistic called BABIP(Batting Average of Balls In Play)–in a nutshell how well a player’s batting average is for the balls he puts in play. It’s essentially a barometer of luck: if a player has a high BABIP, it’s considered lucky and he’ll probably recede the next year and vice-versa.
Not a like-for-like exchange but in soccer I would argue that penalty kick goals are a similar beast. Any soccer fan will tell you how fickle referees can be about awarding penalty kicks. Through the first half of the season, no one had been awarded more pks than the Rapids (they would finish second on the year).
Whether they were legitimate calls or not is a subject for lengthy debate elsewhere. Will the Colorado get those calls next year? Possible, but very unlikely.
Aug 2, 2014; Commerce City, CO, USA; Real Salt Lake coach Jeff Cassar and midfielder Cole Grossman (12) celebrate following the win over the Colorado Rapids at Dicks Sporting Goods Park. Real Salt Lake defeated Colorado Rapids 1-0. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports
The calls overshadowed the fact that the team lacked depth, fire power, and grit. It all seemed to crescendo into madness as Colorado was unable to pull out it’s death spiral.
The team is hurting off the field as well. In April, the Rapids signed a multi-year, multi-million dollar deal to a have Ciao Telecom be the Rapid’s kit sponsor. No shorter than six months later, the Rapids are suing Ciao over missed payments. Oh, and this happened too.
Colorado hopes it has turned a corner signing Pádraig Smith as Sporting Director. Awash in European soccer, Smith is certainly a smart and reasonable man. Curiously his background is in a compliance environment, most recently serving as FIFA analyst overseeing Financial Fair Play. He’s an accomplished internal affairs person, it will be interesting to see how that translate to an executive position.
How the Irishman fares is anyone’s guess. The bright side in taking over a last place side is you have nowhere to go but up. The rehabilitation of Colorado is going to be a very curious study in this offseason. Here are three players to keep an eye on for 2015.