Nations League, not Gold Cup. The last Gold Cup was 2023. It is usually held every two years. Problem is we had a Copa America held in the U.S. last summer and the Nations League every year (but on a Fall-Spring schedule) in non WC years. So we've had 3 Nations League finals, 2 Gold Cups, and a Copa America since Qatar 2022. Which is far too much.
When there are players that can't play in this championship (Gold Cup) because they're playing in that championship (CWC) and the schedules overlap, then you know that there's far too much. FIFA and the confederations are killing the players to make more $$$$$. Typical executive behavior.
I can't find a final Trinidad & Tobago Gold Cup roster for Frederick but KSB was not named to the 23 man roster for Canada's warm-up friendlies so I'm assuming he won't be on the Gold Cup roster.
Incoming call 📞🇺🇸Bryce Jamison has been called to @USYNT U-19 camp ahead of June friendlies 👏📰 » https://t.co/c9PHG2SlTi pic.twitter.com/EHKFjO0FLO— Colorado Rapids (@ColoradoRapids) May 30, 2025
For club and country 🇹🇹 Wayne Frederick has been called up to the Trinidad and Tobago Men’s Senior National Team for the upcoming 2026 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers. 📰» https://t.co/qYaa6RyWng#Rapids96 pic.twitter.com/qasGIVfArK— Colorado Rapids (@ColoradoRapids) June 3, 2025
Steffen is departing the USMNT camp after suffering a knee injury. He will be further evaluated by the Rapids medical staff. I know he was slightly injured coming into camp, so this may be precautionary and/or planned. Either way.... I hope the injury was not made worse by coming into camp.
Carlisle is reporting out 4-6 weeks. Which is about the same time frame as he would have missed had he made the Gold Cup roster and we made the finals. Sucks for Zack though.
🇮🇱🟣 Sources: Colorado Rapids finalizing deal to sign Israel international center back Stav Lemkin from Shakhtar Donetsk.$1.6m fee agreed for the 22-year-old defender. More on Lemkin + Rapids summer plans: https://t.co/jeb13PBuYA— Tom Bogert (@tombogert) June 9, 2025
I expect Maxso is leaving, at which point yes, we do need another CB. Not sure we need to spend 1.6M on a U-22 CB, but we need a CB.
Rapids have 2 wins in the last 9 games, over bad FSL and St. Louis teams at home. They've given up 2 goals in 7 of their last 10 games, including all 5 road matches in that window. This is not a good team.
That's true but I'm not sure that a team that has trouble scoring goals is fixing their problems by adding another defender. The Rapids forwards are probably the worst group in the league.
Putting these 2 together...Rapids are likely to concede at least twice, and the attack is weak enough that conceding twice means we won't win.
Yes, it is true that Maxso my be leaving and that our defense has gotten more porous as the season has gone on, but unless this young man can score goals he is not who we need. We need a forward or a midfielder who can pose a real threat and score 10-15 goals a season. Anything less is just the same ole, same ole.
80% of MLS needs one of these players. They don’t grow on trees. But our cheap ass owner won’t even explore a player like that. Their prevailing thought is he’ll cost too much. No shit, Sherlock. There’s a reason the price tag is high. You gotta pony up for a player of that ilk. Sigh… so frustrating.
Anyone else getting the feeling this season is slipping away? I think Armas is a pretty good coach, but the talent isn’t there. The players are okay—the Larraz’s and Atencio’s are okay—but every team has okay players. Thank gosh we have Mahailovic, but you really need two offensively skilled players to make some noise. Dang, I usually like to write this post in August rather than June.
Yes. I said in my preview of the FSL game that the season was over if we lost that game. We pulled out the win and followed it up with a win over St. Louis which suggested we had figured some things out. Turned out no, we hadn't, FSL and St. Louis are just really bad teams. Orlando is probably slightly better than us but they're on the road. After that we have 3 games against teams that on paper appear to be significantly worse than us, with two of the three at home. Anything short of 8 points in the next 4 games and you can mark this season as done. We may still be in the running looking at the standings, but if we can't get 8 points against these 4 teams it means we have no chance to stay in the playoff running.
It sure sounds like the same problem our last 3 coaches had. If the defense can't consistently play above average, we're basically screwed because the offense is generally not capable of meeting even a "below average" metric. You can count on one hand the number of seasons this club has had an offense that was genuinely threatening to the rest of the league. If we didn't have a useless fv<kup of a GM, our chances of having a more balanced roster would undoubtedly increase, as would our competitiveness. The KSE budget thing is mostly a cope because you could hand Padraig Manchester City's budget and he'd still only piece together a team that could barely make the playoffs.
I wouldn't worry about Armas. He knew what he was getting into. Everyone in the league knows this team is run on the cheap as Bottom Feeders. Being the coach while yet another Rapids team disintegrates is hardly a black mark on your record. In fact, it may be a prerequesite for getting a better job. Most ex-Rapids coaches seem to have done pretty well for themselves.
Ok, I was curious: Bobby Houghton - Chinese, Uzbek, and Indian national teams, numerous Chinese club teams Mooch Myernick - USA assistant and US U-23 coach Tim Hankinson - India, Jamaica, U.S. lower leagues, college Fernando Clavijo - Miami FC (USL), Dallas Technical Director Gary Smith - Stevenage, Atlanta, and Nashville Oscar Pareja - Dallas, Tijuana, Orlando Pablo Mastroeni - Houston assistant, FSL Anthony Hudson - Lots of jobs, not a lot of staying power Robin Fraser - Toronto I'm not sure they've done "pretty well" but they haven't been really hurt either.
In the past I've been willing to split the blame between Smith and KSE as KSE does handcuff the Rapids with a budget. But between spending on Navarro, Mihailovic, Vines, and Steffen last offseason and using the Bombito money on Awaziem & Murphy (GAM from the sale), Atencio, Ku-DiPietro, and this new Israeli CB, spending hasn't been the problem for the last 18 months. Spending it poorly has. That's on Smith and Fran Taylor.
Thats pretty much been the case forever under Padraig, even in our less splashy years. There's a pretty sizable boneyard of guys that were paid a lot and contributed little or nothing... Danny Wilson, Yannick Boli, Nicolas Benezet, Younes Namli (a DP), MAK, Max, Bryan Acosta, Gustavo Vallecilla (possibly the worst defender to ever wear a Rapids kit), Marko Ilić (lol), Ralph Priso, Jasper ROFLsend, and Kevin Cabral (another DP)... and thats some of the most egregious ones since 2020.
Sure, but I can recognize that when your budget is only $X, anyone you sign is going to be somewhere between just meh and bad unless you get incredibly lucky (like Jack Price). Anyone good costs more than $X. But when you have the money to buy better players and you still don't, well, that's even more of a black mark than when you're handcuffed.
Midpoint check-in (its not great) https://view-from-the-couch.blogspot.com/2025/06/midpoint-check-in.html