2014 had a rocky start for the Colorado Rapids and although the first half of the season looked promising 2014 would end up leaving on that same rocky foundation. While it looks like the situation in Colorado may be dire, things are seemingly starting to change. But to get a true grasp as to what is going on with the Rapids we need to start at the beginning.
At the end of 2013, rumors abound that Oscar Pareja was going to leave Colorado to return to FC Dallas. Pareja and the Rapids front office denied those rumors until Pareja stepped down on January 4th. This would leave the Rapids and their fan base spinning and struggling to think of who their next coach was going to be. It became clear by mid January that former Rapid captain Pablo Mastroeni was the front-runner to become coach.
On January 10th Mastroeni was initially named the Special Assistant to the Technical Director. Even though fans were a little confused as to what that title meant, Mastroeni hinted that there was more to his new position then the title made it sound. Pablo’s first statement was that he was excited to get started in his coaching career.
Rapids president Tim Hinchey would come out and say that they would be taking their time searching for their head coach. Pablo’s ascension to head coach would become even more evident once it was announced that he would be overseeing first team activities at the start of the preseason.
While this news was not a complete shock to Rapids fans, it did leave them scratching their heads. The big question was why would Colorado put their hopes in a guy with zero coach experience. Colorado would pull the trigger on naming Mastroeni head coach, but they would wait until a week before their first game on the season.
The Rapids would start the season winning games in somewhat odd fashion. Colorado would get 10 points out of their first five games, thanks in large part to earning four penalty kicks along the way. April and May would see the Rapids sit right in the middle of the pack in the West.
At the end of May however, Rapids fans started to express frustration with Mastroeni’s coaching and tactics. This frustration grew more evident the first week in June, when Colorado played three games in seven days. Mastroeni decided to make some big changes to the lineup for the second game (against the Chicago Fire). At this point the Fire were in a perfect position for the Rapids to take advantage and steal a win away from home.
Mastroeni play what many considered to be a reserve line-up against Chicago and instead focus on the weekends match up against Western Conference rival FC Dallas. Even though they came out of the game with a point, the fans were frustrated that the team would probably have had three if they had played a full squad instead.
Many fans look to this series of games as the point where they lost faith in Pablo’s ability to coach.
The Rapids, like every team, dealt with injuries all year. But, in July the Rapids were dealt a couple huge blows that lead to their defense being even more porous then before. The Rapids defense has struggled for a couple years, but after Shane O’neill, Drew Moor and Jared Watts, the top three options at center back, all went down with injuries, Colorado was forced to throw a mixed bag of center back options at opponents. Between Marvell Wynne, Thomas Piermayr and Zat Knight, who they acquired late in the season, the rapids defense struggled to keep leads and would lead to the team having a 14 game winless streak to end the season.
The 14 game winless streak took the Rapids from second in the West down to eighth, and caused fans to become more boisterous with their disapproval of the direction of the club. During the final home game of the season a fan, or group of fans, paid for an airplane to fly a banner over the stadium calling for team president Tim Hinchey and owner Kronke Sports Entertainment to be ousted. Fans have always been skeptical of Kronke as owner, but this is the first time that fans have been so vocal.
At one point this season things were looking up when the Rapids and Tim Hinchey were able to ink a deal with Ciao Telecom to become Colorado’s first jersey sponsor. Things looked good until the end of October when it was reported that Colorado had filed suit against Ciao for non-payment of their contract. This failure to adequately vet Ciao has been one of the sounding boards for fans disapproval of Hinchey.
With the loss of funds that the Ciao deal would have brought in the Rapids would have been able to go after some higher profile players. Even though the team has promised to sign a second designated player this off-season, losing the Ciao funds will surely hamper them in their search.
The Rapids have already started to make some changes to their line-up. With Chivas USA folding, NYCFC and Orlando City joining the league, the normal re-entry and super draft, and the transfer window Colorado will have ample opportunity to better themselves. The Rapids have already picked up former Chivas homegrown player Caleb Calvert via the dispersal draft. They were also able to trade for defender Michael Harrington and grab Bobby Burling in the post expansion draft waiver window. Both Harrington and Burling should be able to come in and compete with the current defenders.
Colorado was able to ditch some of their big contracts in these drafts as well. Marvell Wynne, one of the last members of the 2010 MLS cup championship team, is now playing for San Jose, and Danny Mwanga and Tony Cascio were selected by Orlando City in the expansion draft.
The Rapids have made a couple moves to help Pablo as a coach and the front office as well. In December they signed former player Claudio Lopez as director of soccer. Lopez said: "What I can do is support Pablo, and support the guys, and try to push the players to do better things in the field. I can help to change a few things, also, which may help to have a better season next year." One of the things that Pablo was missing last year was more help with the technical staff. Pablo will be looking to Lopez to aid the Rapids struggling group of strikers.
The Rapids welcomed in Padraig Smith as Sporting director to work alongside Paul Bravo. Smith spent the last three years working with UEFA and their financial analysis group. Smith will be looking at analytics to help in player acquisitions. Bravo said: “Having Pádraig join us will allow our technical staff to work much more efficiently and optimize performance, whether that is through scouting, preparation and planning for the first team week-in and week-out, or working with our operations in general.”
With all the changes this offseason, 2015 is looking like it could be another roller coaster season for the boys in burgundy. Whether that is a good roller coaster or not is yet to be seen. Mastroeni, Hinchey, and Bravo have their work cut out for them, but they seem confident that they are on the right track.