Sorry Oscar. You seem like a nice guy, but you gotta go. For me, it is no longer too early to tell. Sack Pareja. I started really following the Rapids closely in '01 and I have never been this embarrassed for them. This team went from a respectable fringe contender to a complete joke in only half a season. Of course there are other factors in play (there always are) but when you're the boss, you get credit for success and blame for failure.
a FO staff told me at the beginning of the season that I would not recognize this team anymore now that OP was in charge.... I didn't know he meant it like this.
I'm still not that hot on canning Oscar. I'm not a huge fan either, but I don't want him canned yet. I do wonder what the off-season will be like if the Rapids do keep him. There are too many valuable players that aren't really performing under him. If he's to succeed several of them will need to go. But, that's the knot the team has tied. They'll get skewered for making the moves, or they'll get skewered for sticking with Pareja.
Actually the trade window is still open, will be interesting if Bravo does nothing again. We obviously need to at least shake things up if not flat out move some players.
Pareja will be the coach next year. KSE is too cheap to eat his contract, plus they don't care about the Rapids. That said it is a good thing in this case. Yeah the Rapids have sucked but it isn't unfixable and I think it will happen. Although it probably isn't going to do wonders for the STH count next year.
I'm already on that wagon. To be honest I don't mind OP, but I don't ever see him doing anything with Bravo in this organization. Bravo must be fired just based on what he did to the team this year.
Being passionate about winning doesn't mean you end up winning. I think this month is ample evidence of that.
And to be fair, you don't need to quote one single person to say that one person is more sensible than the fools on facebook, we are all more sensible!
Definitely, I am not giving up on Pareja, but, I would like to see him sit on the bench and calmly figure strategies, adjustments and tactics. Jumping around the touch line as he does is not awe inspiring. In Cabrera, he has a very savvy lieutenant with whom to consult, he should do so. With maturity Pareja will "get it" but this interim period is frustrating. Bravo is another story. He has a job because his jersey hangs in the Gallery of Honor. He doesn’t belong on the wall or in his job. His tenure with LA was mediocre and now he is less than that.
I just had the opportunity to spend a couple of hours tonight talking to Bravo, Hinchey, and Pareja along with 8 or so other press and bloggers. After talking to them its obvious they have a long-term plan for the club from the 8/9/10 year-olds all the way up to the first team. Pareja is committed to the style of play (which seems heavily influenced by his Colombian National Teams in the 90's) but admitted he had made some mistakes this season. He's tweaking the formation and players as he figures things out, but the underlying system is going to stay the same. As he put it "Jason, how can I tell Marv not to pass it back to the keeper now (using the debacle in Salt Lake as an example) after spending months telling him that's what I want him to do?" He says you're either using the system or you're not. I got the feeling he'd rather go down with his belief in his system then try to institute a new one. So the question of Pareja staying or going really comes down to the question of if you believe this system is the right one for the Rapids. If you do then Pareja is the guy you should go with. If you don't think this is the system the Rapids should be using then Pareja is absolutely the wrong coach.
The issue may come down to, we like the road we're on and the bus, while pretty good, could use a couple upgraded parts, but the driver has become the weak link.
In that case we'll probably have to replace the driver (Pareja), mechanic (Bravo), and dispatcher (Hinchey). They certainly seemed like they were all dedicated to this same system and focus for the club. (And I'm not saying we can't do that, just that what we're hearing about the team system is coming from more than just OP. This is clearly an organization-wide focus.)
I guess my analogy was crystal clear only in my head. Everyone in the organization is committed to the same system. That doesn't (shouldn't) mean, individual parts couldn't be replaced for upgrades. My example was OP could be replaced to improve the coaching. Or maybe Bravo gets replaced to bring in a better judge of talent, or Hinchey to get a better caliber of tweets
No, I got it. I just got the impression tonight that at least in the near future the three of them are somewhat linked. Maybe not Hinchey so much but I don't see Bravo or Pareja being OK with the other one being let go. If this group is still together by the end of next season or into 2014 then maybe you'll see some more separation between them.