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When it comes to conversations about the most dysfunctional clubs in Major League Soccer, the New York Red Bulls often tend to dominate the conversations, but one club that needs to start being discussed is the Colorado Rapids.
The Rapids downright imploded in the final six weeks of the MLS season to miss out on the playoffs for a third straight year. They managed just four points from their final seven matches (and two of those points came courtesy of stoppage time penalties against the worst team in the West, San Jose) and for the second straight year the Rapids lost a match to arch-rival Real Salt Lake that helped RSL reach the playoffs.
In fact, there hasn't been much to smile about in Rapids land since opening Dick's Sporting Goods Park in 2007. In the three years since, Colorado has failed to reach the playoffs, has failed to land a shirt sponsor, has failed to sign a Designated Player and has failed to capture the imagination of the area's soccer fans despite opening a new stadium. All this while owner Stan Kroenke spends his time buying pieces of English powerhouse Arsenal.
If you're wondering why you haven't heard much about the Rapids it might be because there is virtually non-existent coverage of the team. With Denver losing one of its daily newspapers, the Rocky Mountain News, and the Denver Post all but ignoring the Rapids, there is really nowhere for anybody to find the criticism the club clearly deserves.
Will a third disappointing year lead to some heads rolling? You would think that Managing Director Jeff Plush would already be looking for a new job given his track record in charge, and Gary Smith may have already been on his way back to England if he were coaching some other MLS teams and let his team collapse the way he did.
It's a shame to see things remain the way they are in Colorado. The Rapids have a relatively new stadium and a nice nucleus of talent with Conor Casey, Omar Cummings, Pablo Mastroeni and Matt Pickens, but there is little reason to believe anything will change in 2010 (well, aside from Kroenke potentially being able to buy Arsenal).
That is a shame for the soccer fans in Colorado, where mediocrity continues to reign while the rest of the soccer-loving country doesn't even notice.
“Ballouchy encouraged to get involved in the offense”, By John Meyer, The Denver Post, 05/01/2009
“We look towards Mehdi, with all the talent, athleticism and creativity he’s got, to be somebody who’s supplying (assists) and also chipping in with some goals,” Smith said. “He’s worked ever so hard at the (defensive) side of his game, he’s very disciplined in his approach, he covers a lot of ground, moreso negatively — stopping opponents (from) being creative themselves — which is testimony to the lad’s attitude.” … “What we have to try and do is break some of those shackles so he can be a little more expressive,” Smith said. “If we can just get him in more advanced positions and more creative positions, I think we’ll see, with the quality he’s got, some reward for that.”
http://www.denverpost.com/rapids/ci_12266701
ballouchy assist totals:
2006 (RSL): 2
2007 (RSL): 0
2007 (CLO): 2
2008 (CLO): 4
2009 (CLO): 7
so smith wanted more assists out of ballouchy & got them, to the point that he tied for 9th leaguewide this season.
your point?
Hell, why not have the “US ARMY” as their sponsor? They are next to a big Army base and the Army sponsors alot of sporting events (NASCAR, High School Football East/West Showdown, etc.) Now seeing the US Army on the front of the shirt, nice recruiting tool 🙂
SHUT UP! Dont be pulling my leg now.
On the bright side, looks like Spacemen 3 might reunite.
Are you making some kind of argument here? Ballouchy was capable of tying for 9th in the league in assists before coming to Colorado?
lordy, the pain never seems to end for us Rapids fans. 3 seasons in a row ended by our bitter rival. More STH not renewing. Attendance’s on the runaway downward slope. No sponsor when it was clearly expected. Weather would not co-operate this year. Three injuries – one starter, one new guy and one utility man are being touted as the reason for no post season. Its the same baloney as always. The directive of this FO seems to be give away as many tickets to the under 17 crowd as possible. In fact, the only time I see the stadium even remotely full other than the 4th of July or a Beckham spotting is when the 24 fields around the Dick are used for MASSIVE youth tournaments and every participant is GIVEN free tickets. Even then, the games listed as “sold out” have huge swaths of empty seats as plenty of parents are too tired or broke or etc to go see the game after 7-10 hours watching their own kid play soccer. That is the reason for the worlds greatest soocer complex, KSE is betting everything on the family dollar. Get ’em in young, keep ’em coming back. Dont mind that they dont give two minutes of their attention to the game. Nearly ignore the die-hard soccer fan, (but getting better this season-I admit) and forget about the team on the field, Quick! Throw some more shwag into the stands! Add another Mascot! I thought this team was turning around a bit this year, still do, but some of the directions this club has followed leaves me, a die hard soccer fan, cold. This next season will be my last season ticket if things dont change. I am fully paid up and hopeful, but watching this club trip over its dick one more year will be something I can do from the Intranet and the crappiest TV broadcasts known to man. I have a really nice couch at home.
Ballouchy has blossomed? WOW
RSL fans ski in jeans….
Is that the Matt M that I know?!
I really disagree. If you look at a 3 year snapshot, 3 teams have not made the playoffs. Two of them expansion teams, one of them Colorado. And I don’t think fans in Toronto are saying, Oh it’s OK, teams can’t make the playoffs every year.
-Ben!
forgot omar cummings, who emerged as a legit MVP candidate (along w/casey) this year under smith. & casey now scoring vital goals for the USMNT.
plus it’s kind of unfair to say out of 1 side of your mouth that smith should be fired for finishing .500 & then say out of the other side that the ownership has not enabled him compete on even terms w/clubs that have ponied up for DPs. finishing .500 in a league where you’re being outspent by most of the other clubs is better than par.
I almost fell over when I saw an article on the Rapids, but we are pretty much bottom of the barrel right now and somebody need to be questioning it. My feeling is that the fans are behind Gary Smith (and Paul Bravo) and against management (Plush and Kroenke). I don’t think there is a single fan who wouldn’t buy the franchise to save if from Stan Kroenke if they could. He has the money to invest in the team. 90 shares of Arsenal would pay Freddie Ljungberg’s salary for the year. It is a clear lack of desire from the top that is killing the team.
Ben!, Rapids fan
great story. would be nice to have a hard hitting interview of the front office and ownership.
this is colorado’s 1st non-losing season in 4 years & they missed the playoffs on a tiebreaker. gary smith has done an objectively good job & deserves another year to continue his so far successful rebuilding of this team. i particularly like how he has collected a solid group of younger guys, & plenty of americans, w/no crazy salaries. it’s a stable model & the team has begun to build an identity under him. mehdi ballouchy has blossomed under him, though others had struggled to get productivity out of him. ditto for conor casey. nick labrocca has earned a USMNT camp callup & colin clark has earned his 1st cap under smith’s tutelage.
why disrupt upward momentum? this is what RBNY did w/arena & i’m sure they regret it now.
If anything the Rapids should be congratulated for their success in bringing along younger players–their reserves team was back to back champs, but then that got done away with by the league. But many of those players are going to have good careers (unfortunately some of them like Ward will be doing it at other MLS clubs).
As for Kroenke being cheap with the stadium, it could have been downtown… but I think the moves downtown have been a little more recent revelation in the MLS then when DSG was being planned.
Thanks for the space on the blog Ives….You hit the nail on the head with your article. The front office of the team is inept at best. They have made a few good moves, but for every good move there are three bad ones. The addition of Julian Baudet was a move in the right direction but Facundo Diz or “DIZZZZ NUTS!” was a step back. The Beckerman trade for Mehdi Ballouchy may haunt this club for years….for real…years. It is obvious to the fans (and anyone that wants to pay attention) that the Rapids suffer from an owner that doesn’t care about the team…and he never will. The Rocky Mountain Cup…Our cup by the way…(The RSL supporters group barely helped pay for it.) Hasn’t been in Colorado in 3 years….sickening. If things continue the way that they are going- Colorado won’t have a team…The team has a nice stadium, but they have never put a team in it. I am a fan of the team, but the fact is the the Colorado Rapids are bad for the league and without fan support eventually they will go away. Thanks for looking West Ives.
I stand corrected. The DEFENDING CHAMPS had a lot of players miss a FEW games and managed to keep being a good team.
I want to reform my opinion: The Rapids fell out of playoff competition because they had some freak injuries to three players who played the same role (set up the forwards from the outside midfielder role) in the span of a few weeks, the last of which happened right before the deadline when no moves could be made. Some blame surely can lie on the staff that was responsible for the short depth at outside mid… but how foreseeable was it?
Guys, are we forgetting that 7 out of fifteen teams will not make the playoffs? And more next year?
Colorodo missed out on the last three playoffs despite being around .500.
Last time I checked there was a loser for every winner and only one team can be champion.
Calling Colorodo dysfuncional for being in the middle of the pack is riduculous.
As for cheap? Underfunded? What the crap does that mean?
Last I checked Colorado had a great “privately-funded” park which is better than 2/3’s of the league. Was Kroenke “cheap” in building that?
As for their roster, are they UNDER the salary cap? Not to my knowledge.
Their only sin was not paying for a “designated player”. Last I checked that was not a crime. Most of them don’t pan out (remember Denilson? Or the other Mexican down in Dallas whose name I can’t remember). Big successed there.
A designatated player rarely brings in additional revenue, often adds nothing to the team’s efforts, takes up 1/6 of the salary cap regardless of how much he actually makes, and, worst of all, distracts the team from what they need to do:
Bring together 20+ good players into a functioning unit.
When fans are crying “just bring in some NAME! that wil solve everything!”, all it does is waste time and take attention away from where it needs to go.
It would be hard to work for the Rapids here in Kentucky, but I’d be up for it.
Excellent point about roster depth. Who does that fall on? Coach/GM/Kroenke?
But other then a DP, how could Kroenke spend more on the team? I’d like to see the GK situation cleared up by one solid starter (instead of the Bouna/Burpo then Pickens/Burpo mess of the last two years).
…one of the many reasons why I’m happy the CRapids aren’t in the playoffs.
“I don’t think anyone had the injuries/call ups like Colorado had.”
Marshall, Moreno, Hejduk, Rogers, Gaven, Padula, Carroll, Moffatt, Brunner, Gruenebaum, Hesmer and that MVP guy. All missed multiple games for injuries, illness, and/or call-ups.
Carroll has played the whole year with a separated shoulder.
Moreno has been hurt, and trying get Venezuela into the World Cup.
Marshall and Rogers played the entire Gold Cup, and then Marshall was out hurt. Several players fought off bad cases of the flu, and even played through them.
You know what happened when GBS and AM went down? Garey and Lenhart started and the Crew went 4-0.
Do players get hurt? Yep. That’s why you build depth into your roster.
I think it was just cuz of injuries ives they lost colin clark for a season when this was his season to shine. which he was! until he got hurt! than smith got hurt! the roster is good but the wings were injury prone this year. the only mistake was cutting terry cooke. If u ask me. Clark will be on a tear next year. they just need an attacking midfielder and some defensive help. gary Smith has done a great job too. so ya upper management is bad but it dont matter cuz Smith can pull this team together like Nicol has done for the Revs. u know whos worst? the red bulls end of story. and the earthquakes r around there as well
Wow, this is much more serious than I thought… No coverage for an original MLS team with a new stadium? There are plenty of fans out there. I may be spending some time in Boulder next spring and I’ve already gotten invitations to go to games.
Blaming Kroenke is interesting. The team spends pretty much what they are allowed under the cap. Really all they have left they could (should) have done is sign a DP. But by that standard there’s several “bad” owners in the MLS.
When you look at it, the Rapids didn’t make many moves in the offseason but got somewhat active in-season (Baudet, Fiz, Jamie Smith). I really wish they had kept Tim Ward who turned out to be real good in Chicago before being hurt.
In fact, the Rapids missed the playoffs by one point, and you could say the success of the expansion Sounders meant there was one less spot from last year availible. It’s not enough improvement nor is it what we want, but it was some improvement this year.
“except Dallas’ three ESPNDallas games sponsorship”
And oddly enough, if you go to ESPNDallas.com, there’s no link across the top for FCD like there is for their other major sports. In fact, good luck finding Hoops coverage at all on there.
“how are you so sure Coors wants to sponsor them?”
Because watching them play will make you want to drink more? 😉
Yeah but years from now nobody will be talking about the Rapids missing the playoffs, one day they will say: “Well Vancouver (or whoever) had the third worst season ever, only ever topped in futility by the 2009 Red Bulls and the Fusion’s worst year.”
Two different issues here.
1. The late-season collapse was due to injuries to Clark, Smith, and PEterson which killed our offense designed around wing play. Gary Smith deserves blame for only having three wingers on a roster that centers around wing play. Because of that the “We would have made it if not for injuries!” excuse is weak. We didn’t have teh depth we needed in a critical position. We essentially had no backup at left wing all season.
2. The Rapids organization as a whole has failed. No shirt sponsor, falling attendance, no DP, no playoffs for 3 years, and a weak mid-season friendly against Club America that I’m sure only happened because they had already arranged to play FSL 4 days earlier. This all points to a poorly run and funded organization which falls on Plush and Kroenke.
While I’m not pleased with Gary Smith’s roster construction I think he’ll get another year. Jeff Plush needs to go though and Kroenke needs to put somebody in who’s dedicated to making the Rapids a top soccer organization and back him up with money to spend. Until that happens I think the Rapids will be stuck in this same cycle for the foreseeable future.
At least they have kept their name (unlike Dallas for example) and haven’t had to be restarted (San Jose). Basically they’ve only changed their jersy colors a few times.
I do wonder how it would have worked if they had gone through with the Arsenal rebranding… and I wonder if that won’t happen once Kroenke hits the magical 30% mark of Arsenal (at that point he has to buy out the rest of the board members by British law).
I also think Arsenal’s plans involving Denver next summer might be the start of something good for the Rapids.
Well my point was that Colorado suffered more significant season ending injuries to nearly the same position/roll. In fact, all three happened in quick succession too (within a month or two). Colorado had the same kind of small (out a game or three) injuries in their back line as the Fire with Gibbs, Pagula, and Baudet missing time.
How many Fire players were called into national duty this year?(I honestly don’t know). I know the Rapids had Pablo/Casey/Clark (Gold Cup)/Cummings (Jamica-Gold cup)
The constantly changing brand identities for the team has been weird, too. But I really like the one they’ve got – they should totally stick with it, for good.
I feel like Kroenke and Kraft get a free pass (for the most part soccerwise) because of kraft financially helping soccer in the 90’s in US, and because that mustacioed man keeps buying into arsenal.
I wonder if Kraft hangs onto the Revs just to get USSF games which in turn might lead to more international matches.
Not sure if one leads to the next, but it couldn’t hurt.
And it kills me that Montreal didn’t get a team because they didn’t offer enough money. Montreal should have been looked at with visions of hte future, strong home crowd, stadium IN the city. Went up to Toronto to support the revs this year and would have gone to montreal, rather then going to the Razor.
As an RSL fans this is awesome.
We Raps fans are left pretty much out in the dark when it comes to coverage by the Post, which is understaffed, but still finds a way to send Woody Paige everywhere the Broncos go. I say stick Woody’s shtick on the Rapids, and watch how much everybody suddenly cares.
Gary Smith needs a couple more years. Early on in the season, he proved to be an effective tactician, and a decent manager of a team that was plagued by injuries and a front office that could not care less.
Plush has to go. 2 years ago, he blamed injuries for missing the playoffs. Last year, it was Clavijo. This year, it’s injuries again. Kronke is getting serious about footie, and it shows in how he is buying up Arsenal at a rapid (yes, pun intended) pace. Kronke is obviously biding his time with Plush at the helm, waiting for the right moment. One thing Kronke hates to be a is a loser. Even worse, though, is a loser that doesn’t make any money. That’s what the Rapids have been the last few years.
In the next two years, look for Kronke to increase his share with Arsenal even more, and when the time is right, pushing for majority ownership. When that happens, look for him to do the same thing with the Rapids that he did with the Nuggets – make a push for a championship by buying talent, and starting to care.
Until then, Rapids fans, you are wasting your time following them, and you’re wasting your money on season tickets.
Paul Bravo is at fault the guy does not know what he is doing at all! The guy is a fucken joke alomg with Jeff Agoos.
Jon Spencer will be the coach there one day, but based on this report sounds like he has no chance of succeeding.
When Chicago called they got the following message: “Sorry you rented out Blanco in the offseason then were suprised he couldn’t finish the season healthy, sorry your coach pissed off your best defender so he’d leave, sorry the tape that held Brian McBride together fell off… you sort of brought that on yourself.”
(SBI-Now you just sound irrational. The Fire had just as many injuries/call-ups as Colorado. That was the point.)
Damn Rory, Spin Much? If I were a betting man I’d be betting that you work for the Rapids. No real Rapids fan could spin that crap like you’re trying to.
There’s a world of difference in being the second worse team in league history and being a team that missed out on the playoffs by a point.
(SBI-Is there really? Both teams are home for the playoffs, and only one of those teams made it to MLS Cup last year. Red Bulls had made the playoffs six straight years before this year. Rapids haven’t made it since 2007. Just saying.)
how are you so sure Coors wants to sponsor them?
another good idea to write about is the Revolution and how Kraft has ignored that team. No talks of a new stadium, no DP, no shirt sponsor etc…
if it wasnt for Nichol pulling the strings that tea would be worse off
That blue and Maroon kit is the nicest in the MLS, maybe the nicest on the planet.
Yeah I think there’s not many companies willing to pay half a million (that’s the leagues requirement price, right?) in this economic climate to put their name on jerseys that might be seen by a million people on their three ESPN appearances this year. I don’t New England or Dallas got any offers this year either (except Dallas’ three ESPNDallas games sponsorship).
With the exception of ChivasUSA who somehow managed through a plague of injuries (and lets be honest, having Chivas Mexico send Padilla late in the year helped a bit) I don’t think anyone had the injuries/call ups like Colorado had.
(SBI-Chicago called, and said wake up. Seriously though, one year can be written off. Three years cannot, no matter how many excuses you can come up with.)
When they took “Rapids” and “Colorado” off of their primary and change jerseys, respectively, I thought it was a certain signal that a jersey sponsor was on the way (similar to when DC United removed the three stripes from the front of their jersey). Instead…nothing.
About the only thing I can say is I like their kits. Their situation does seem to be a case of an owner not caring at all though.
Okay, I call bullcrap. You know what happened in Colorado this year? The offense was set up to swing the ball in from the sides to take advantage of two awesome forwards and then outside Midfielders fell like flies. Colin Clark turned out to be the key player who was lost. The team foolishly cut Terry Cooke (who hadn’t been playing much anyway) when it was clear that Jamie Smith was the real deal on the outside. Then Smith got hurt. No problem… we’ll go to our third best option at setting up the offense… oh wait, Jacob Peterson got hurt too.
I think Smith or Peterson got hurt about three days before the roster deadline.
Check out the teams record before Clark’s injury and the record after Smith’s injury.
Pablo missed some early games this year with national team duty and Conor Casey missed a bunch of summer games for the Confed cup as well…
If MLS wasn’t so busy signing League-wide sponsors that limit which companies a team can sign with (e.g. Adidas, Budweiser, etc), Colorado could have looked in its backyard and signed with Coors Brewing Company…. that’s a no-brainer.
Oh- and if you want to know what people here think of Jeff Plush, read his “open letter to the Rapids fans”, and the responses of said fans…
http://rapidsundercurrent.blogspot.com/2009/10/open-letter-to-rapids-fans-from-jeff.html
Thanks for picking at this wound Ives- I was having a good Friday up until this.
I think Gary’s actually done well based on what he’s been given to work with. I place the blame solely on the shoulders of upper management, who has failed to invest in quality players and targeted its marketing to youth while ignoring the diehard soccer fans (it literally feels like a circus in the stadium on game day). Season pass holders are not renewing, and it doesn’t look like things will change any time soon. And Kroenke remains completely invisible when it comes to the Rapids…
(SBI-Sorry Tom, I was just hoping to shine the light on that mess.)
I guess I can take comfort in knowing that we red bulls are not alone in our disfunction (sarcasm)….thanks for highlighting…i was wondering about kroenke, why he isn’t spending all that money here….