photo by Derik Hamilton/USA Today Sports

By FRANCO PANIZO

Mired in a record-tying losing streak that carried over into this season, Pablo Mastroeni felt helpless last September. He had witnessed his Colorado Rapids get smashed, 6-1 and 5-0, in two of the three games they played in a span of two weeks, and none of the players on his relatively young squad was standing up and taking responsibility for the poor stretch of games.

The retired midfielder and Rapids head coach was so affected by it all that he considered doing something unthinkable to help the players out: Getting himself back on the field.

“Young players you’ve got to remember haven’t had to experience four of five losses in a row, six or seven losses in a row, getting beat up every game, taking a lead and then giving it up in the last minute as we did in a couple of occasions last year,” Mastroeni told SBI. “Only experienced players can then understand what it takes in these tough moments to kind of get through it. For me, the fact that I contemplated getting on the field to help the guys was something that stunned me as a coach because I’m saying, ‘Well, if you want to become a better coach then you have to figure out how to avoid these moments in the future.'”

These days, Mastroeni is feeling far from helpless and it’s not just because Colorado finally snapped that winless run at 18 games last Friday with an impressive 4-0 road win against FC Dallas.

The Rapids took steps in the offseason to add more veteran leadership to the roster, bringing on the likes of Marcelo Sarvas, Michael Harrington, James Riley and Sam Cronin to the mix. The thought was that sprinkling in some players who know how to manage MLS’s challenges on and off the field would add a much-needed punch to the club’s young and talented core.

Mastroeni, 38, also had a full offseason to plot things out. Whereas in 2014 he was serving as an interim head coach until given the job on a full-time basis a week before the season began, Mastroeni had this entire past winter to figure out how he wanted to approach his second campaign as a manager.

“I think last year I was kind of thrown into a position with not any experience, and I think when you don’t prepare a plan you’re destined for a shaky road,” said Mastroeni. “If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll never know when you get there type thing, and so for me it was like learning every single day. There was never like a sense of like, ‘This is what I can anticipate playing a game on Saturday and then another game on Wednesday and then a game on Saturday,’ and how do you manage that and then how do you make sure not only from a visual perspective but from a mental perspective the guys are in a good place.

“It was really tough, especially when the results weren’t going our way, but having an offseason to plan, just understanding what the rigors of a whole season and how quickly a roster can be depleted by the amount of travel that we do in this country and the amount of games that are played on turf. There’s so many different variables that a lot of other leagues in the world don’t have to deal with that become front and center in this league. That becomes a management issue as well, so there’s a lot of things that you can plan for and prepare for and bolster your roster in a way that can help you.”

Having veteran players with MLS experience like the aforementioned Sarvas and Harrington has helped, as they’ve stepped in and become examples for the younger players to follow. Still, the Rapids have had some hiccups during the opening weeks of the season, especially in front of goal.

Colorado entered its Week 6 bout with FC Dallas having failed to find the back of the net in any of its previous four games, but what was largely overshadowed by all the goal-less and winless chatter from those on the outside was the fact that the Rapids had already posted three shutouts in 2015.

Those numbers may not be overly impressive given Colorado’s woes on the attacking end, but they are also not 2014 terrible either. In fact, Mastroeni and others within the Rapids organization have taken a lot of good out of this season’s early results despite constantly hearing and reading how the sky is still falling.

“A lot of people try to talk about last year, but for me and the guys in here it feels like a completely new season with a completely new group of guys,” midfielder Dillon Powers told SBI. “I think we’ve played some good soccer and not close to our best but we’ve at least created a lot of chances in the games we were playing. We just couldn’t find the back of the net, and I really felt once we got one many more would come.”

Added Mastroeni: “Everyone likes a good story and everyone reads about a train wreck. No one really reads about a train that’s rolling smooth and gets from station to station. The media loves dwelling on negativity, which is a part of our culture and that’s understandable. What we’ve been able to do and what I’ve been preaching is control the controllables.”

Mastroeni himself had to learn how to do that after contemplating getting back on the field during 2014’s stretch of futility. The former U.S. Men’s National Team’s midfielder went through a rough year in charge of the Rapids, and it affected him so much that he tried a number of different things to try and improve as a head coach.

“I just immersed myself into watching countless games, endless games, traveling, reading books, coaching not only in soccer but coaching in different sports,” said Mastroeni. “Just because I was a leader on the field in the locker room doesn’t mean that it translates necessarily to being a leader as a coach. You almost have to have a paradigm shifted in going from a player to a coach and see the world differently. Instead of being in charge of one player and a few guys in the locker room, you’re in charge of the whole kit and caboodle.”

For Mastroeni and Rapids, everything now is about trying to improve the 1-1-3 record they currently boast. It will not be easy, of course, given that they play in the competitive Western Conference and that the next few weeks will see them go up against the Seattle Sounders, FC Dallas, New York Red Bulls and LA Galaxy.

Colorado is remaining optimistic, however. The club has shown during the opening weeks of the season that it is taking positive strides forward, and that’s thanks in part to the difficult experience Mastroeni and the players went through last season.

“For me, it was a tough year, but one that I think served me well in making sure that I don’t make the same mistakes as far as do we have enough players of experience, committed to the cause, and willing to really sacrifice for the better of the team,” said Mastroeni. “I think in the early stages of 2015, the guys on the field are a reflection of everything we want to be as an organization moving forward.”