It’s fair to say no one quite anticipated the Colorado Rapids would be here, perched atop the Western Conference like a watchful hawk, as the 2016 MLS season hits its three-month mark.
Colorado started the 2015 season on a four-match winless streak, which extended its total winless mark to 18 games pulling back to the end of the 2014 season. That set the tone for a last-place season and a round of serious soul searching under embattled manager Pablo Mastroeni in the offseason.
What a difference a single offseason makes.
Since losing their fifth match of the season on April 9, the Rapids are a frankly astounding 5-0-2 in their last seven. Included in that run was a 3-1 win at home over the Sounders on April 23 that might’ve been their best 90 minutes of the season. Recent Designated Player signee Tim Howard hasn’t even played his first match for the club yet.
All the sudden, the Rapids have 24 points from their first 12 games. Not only can no team in MLS match that pace so far, but that total is just 13 points shy of the team’s total points output from all of 2015. And they have 22 games left.
The Sounders got an up-front look at Mastroeni’s startlingly successful reclamation project last month. They will have no illusions about the star-seeking Rapids team that invades CenturyLink Field this weekend (7 p.m. PT; JOEtv, Univision-Seattle, ROOT Sports; KIRO 97.3 FM, El Rey 1360AM).
"We don't want to get carried away with ourselves, quietly keep ourselves under the radar," Rapids forward Kevin Doyle said after the team’s 1-1 draw against Columbus last weekend. "Hopefully, everyone dismisses us for another six months and we can finish where we are now. Who cares what people think?"
That final parting shot was an appropriate microcosm for the Rapids’ season. In bucking convention and turning to Jermaine Jones as an unlikely creative spark, Mastroeni has largely abandoned any kind of methodical order and turned to the chaos theory. Anything that works is in bounds, and a lot of things have worked for the Rapids this season.
A return to the first meeting between these teams this year reveals some unsurprising trends. Seattle owned the possession battle in Commerce City, out-passed Colorado by more than 100 passes and got an enormous match out of Osvaldo Alonso, who handily led all players with 88 touches. And yet Colorado was significantly more ruthless in the box, where they harried Stefan Frei with 10 shots. Seattle had half that many from inside the 18.
Colorado’s preference is to run straight down the middle with Newcomer of the Year candidate Shkelzen Gashi providing the connective tissue between suddenly world-beating defensive midfielder Micheal Azira and Jones’ marauding runs. Colorado is nothing if not positionally disciplined and since leaving Seattle in the offseason, Azira has blossomed into one of the best holding mids in MLS.
Seattle struggled to cope with the Rapids’ opportunism in the first meeting. Colorado's first goal came through a missed assignment on a Jones header off a free kick. The second in the 52nd minute encompassed all of five touches and 60 yards on a quick break that snuck in behind Tyrone Mears and Chad Marshall. And the third was a quick-flash toe poke from Doyle off a cross during an attack that had lasted seconds.
This is how the Rapids operate. They are vultures in defense, constantly probing for fleshy defensive weak points even while pulling back to defend. Jones’ defensive work rate has been on the wane for years. Cut loose of many of those responsibilities, he’s been able to push higher and occupy defensive midfielders. He’s hardly an ideal creator - he takes about twice the number of shots as chances he creates - but it’s worked.
For their part, the Sounders are still tinkering with attacking options. Jordan Morris was moved back out wide during last week’s 2-0 loss to FC Dallas in Frisco, and the midfield trio of Erik Friberg, Cristian Roldan and Alonso played together in that capacity for the first time.
As captain Brad Evans laid out earlier this week, things always look a bit different on the road, especially for a tactical work in progress.
“Different tactics on the road,” Evans told reporters. “We played a little bit different, moved some guys around. We weren’t as fluid as in a home game.”
This Colorado match was supposed to be a last full-team bastion before the summer Copa America call-ins hit. But nothing’s been particularly easy on the injury front this season - the last two seasons, really - and both Nelson Valdez and Marshall are seemingly questionable. Valdez, who blossomed as a hold-up striker early in the season, tweaked a hamstring in practice last week and missed the FCD match. Marshall, meanwhile, pulled up lame on Wednesday and his status for Saturday is a going concern.
Valdez will soon decamp for the Copa America, injured or not. Some combination of Clint Dempsey, Morris and Evans will as well for at least the next two games. Meanwhile, the Sounders need to begin amassing points to begin the climb up the quality-choked Western Conference table.
Taking a win from the surprise No. 1 team in the conference would be a mighty fine place to start.
