Colorado Rapids: Where Will the Major League Soccer Champions Finish in 2011?
The 2010 Major League Soccer Champions, the Colorado Rapids, nabbed the seventh out of eight playoff spots and went on to win the silverware. Where will the champs finish this year?
In 2010, the Rapids finished 12-8-10, with 46 points—which included only two home losses—an impressive 7-2-5 at Dick's Sporting Goods Park and a more pedestrian 5-6-5 record on the road.
The Rapids Return Full Starting XI from MLS Cup
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The Colorado Rapids return the entire starting lineup that turned them into the 2010 MLS Cup Champions over FC Dallas 2-1.
Despite finishing seventh in the standings, the Rapids only lost three times to the six teams ahead of them in the standings, with a 5-3-6 record versus playoff teams. None of those teams swept them.
During the season, Colorado acquired three new starters, Marvell Wynne (center back), Anthony Wallace (left back), Brian Mullan (midfield), and backup striker Macoumba Kandji, who scored the winning goal in the MLS Cup.
By the end of the season, the starting eleven had gelled, culminating in their Cup run.
In addition, an MLS-high four Rapids players were called into the January USMNT camp, Wynne, Wallace, and Jeff Larentowicz (midfield), and Matt Pickens (goal). Star striker Omar Cummings also got a few weeks' training at Aston Villa, but not a full preseason loan as hoped.
Colorado is a team that came together at the right time to win the 2010 MLS Cup, and has all its starters coming back for the new season, with five of the starting eleven also getting significant offseason training.
Unlike most MLS clubs trying to integrate new personnel and systems, the Rapids will come into the 2011 season with much better form and continuity than most.
Goalie: Matt Pickens
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"Jesus Saves!"
That was the chant in Denver when Pickens was denying FC Dallas' desperation attempts in extra time in the MLS Cup.
Pickens backstopped the Rapids with a 1.12 goals against average, good enough for sixth best in the league, while playing 29 games, more than any goalie ahead of him. Pickens' reward, besides for the MLS Cup, was his fourth straight USMNT January camp call-up.
Most goalies hit their peak in their 30's, and at age 28, not only will Pickens come into the season in form and with good off-season work, he'll have an improved back line in front of him.
The Rapids' Back Line
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The Rapids return a back line that surrendered a league fifth-best 32 goals in 2010.
Not only that, two of the MLS Cup starters joined the team during the season, and one player made a position change to give coach Gary Smith the line he was looking for.
Anthony Wallace, the Rapids' naturally left-footed left back, and U.S. U-17, U-18, and U-22 player, didn't join the team until July 30. He's raw, but started in the MLS Cup, and has the three week USMNT January camp under his belt this off season. How many national teams would like to have a lefty at left back, much less a club team?
Marvell Wynne was acquired from Toronto FC on March 25. Wynne was initially a right back in MLS, due to his speed, but after joining the Rapids, he was switched to center back, and the speedy Kosuke Kimura was moved from right wing to right back. The results for the Rapids have been phenomenal. Kimura has both the speed to get forward and the skill to contribute to the attack, while Wynne has the speed to track back any player in MLS, a rarity in central defense.
Colorado's other central back, Drew Moor, has been one of the steadiest MLS center backs in recent years, playing every single minute of the 2010 campaign and being named Rapids Defender of the Year by the team.
The Rapids Central Midfielders Are Destroyers
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I would be remiss if I didn't mention the two guys that sit in front of the Rapids' back five, Pablo Mastroeni, and Jeff Larentowicz.
In Gary Smith's classic 4-4-2 scheme, Mastroeni and Larentowicz are the destroyers that sit in front of the back line to make sure the ball doesn't even get there and they're among the best in the league at their jobs.
Team Captain, Pablo Mastroeni, 34, was a U.S. starter in the 2002 World Cup,and has 65 national team caps.
Larentowicz, 27, is hitting the peak age for a field player, and was rewarded for his 2010 season with a call-up to the USMNT January squad and headlining the midfield defense for 90 minutes in the 1-0 win versus Chile.
These two guys provide the core of the Rapids defense and in their second full year together, the team will only improve from the continuity around them in goal, back line, wings,and strikers.
The Wings
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Scotsman Jaimie Smith led the club with eight assists, mostly to league-leading striking duo Conor Casey and Omar Cummings.
Brian Mullan was a key acquisition for the Rapids' 2010 MLS Championship run. He joined the team Sept. 15, and actually only started the 7 final regular season games, followed by all four playoff starts, and tallied one playoff assist.
A Littleton, Colorado native, Mullan has the distinction of being the only player to have won five MLS Cups.
Offense Wins Championships
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The Colorado Rapids were tied for second in MLS goals scored with 44.
Real Salt Lake 45
Colorado Rapids 44
Los Angeles Galaxy 44
FC Dallas 42
Columbus Crew 40
and it drops from there.
Not only were the Rapids second best in scoring, their strikers, Omar Cummings and Conor Casey combined for a league-high 27 goals, 14 for Cummings, and 13 for Casey.
Not only is this the best striker partnership in the league, it's locked up for the next two years.
Coaching: Gary Smith, MVP?
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The diminutive Gary Smith, an Arsenal scout and assistant coach joined Stan Kroenke's Rapids in 2008, and by the end of the season found himself as head coach.
Smith has smartly molded this small market team into an EPL-style 4-4-2 team Smith himself has said that Colorado is better than the English Championship League (the English 2nd Division).
http://www.coloradorapids.com/news/2010/12/smith-mls-better-eng-championship
Sheesh, that means we could be West Ham of 'Green Street Hooligans' fame.
Anyway...
Colorado Finishes in the Top Three
8 of 8Colorado has no weaknesses in 2011.
Stellar defense, stellar offense, did they overachieve in 2010? Probably. Sure, but, they won the MLS Cup.
Let's talk statistics.
In 2011, the Rapids enter the season, after a short layoff three and a half months during which not only do they return the full MLS Cup Starting XI, no less than four starters received extra national team training, and one got a shot at the EPL.
The MLS Cup Champions Colorado Rapids finished seventh in the league this year. Will they improve? Yes.
The Rapids were a terrific 7-2-5 at home. Will that improve? Yes. Dick's Sporting Goods Park will be a fortress in 2011. Altitude plus MLS Cup Champions.
The Rapids won 12 games out of 30 this year. Only three MLS teams won half (15) of their games in 2010 and those were the first three playoff teams.
In the last 10 years, no MLS team that has won half its games has finished worse than 3rd in the full table.
Will the Rapids win at least half their games? Yes.
A three game improvement over a fully-returning MLS Cup winning squad is easily believable.
Two more wins at home and a road win does it and an improved Rapids squad does it.
The Rapids win at least 17 games out of 34, and guarantee themselves a conference playoff spot, then make a deep playoff run, possibly culminating in a back-to-back MLS Cup.
