Earn the Right – Reviewing the Rapids Last Two Weeks

By Keith Richards

The last two weeks for Colorado Rapids fans have been a personification of their season: Emotionally driven. From excitement to disappointment to downright anger, the Rapids faithful have experienced it all. Interim Head Coach Chris Little says the team needs to get back to basics and earn the right to play.

From a fan perspective, what does that mean? What can the organization do to earn the right of fans? How can they earn back their trust? From a player’s perspective, what do they need to do to earn the right to be on the pitch?

Earn the Right to Protest

During the September 16th match against New England, Centennial 38 was true to its word as they left in protest after the 20th minute. After two unsatisfactory seasons of the Rapids, no one can argue the fans haven’t earned their right to protest. C38 made it clear what the organization has done (or not done) that has led them to earn the right to protest.

In its open letter to the organization, C38 stated, “The shortcomings go far beyond results on the field and extend to the facilities and infrastructure of the organization. It’s a culmination of years of underfunding and limited resources.”

They would go on to say, “It was apparent from what Padraig didn’t say, that quiet part was quite loud, that ownership is not going to meaningfully invest time, effort, or finances into our Colorado Rapids.” Did Centennial 38 earn the right to make such claims?

You’d be hard-pressed to say C38 did not earn the right to make such claims. The evidence speaks for itself. In my last piece, I talked about the frustration with fans on the video board at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park. It’s something that seems so simple, but it’s the simplicity that makes it frustrating.

An extremely liberal estimate to fix or replace the scoreboard would be $1 million. For Arsenal, KSE has spent over $200 million on players alone. Fixing the video board is a drop in the bucket for a man (Stan Kroenke) that runs an otherwise successful sports empire and is worth $14.6 billion.

Now that C38 has earned the right to protest, they are doing so loudly. In the first 20 minutes of the September 16th match, before the fans filed out, you could fans chanting “Fire Padraig” and “Kroenke out”. Centennial 38’s president stated that night, “Tonight is about voicing our frustration with ownership over the last few years. It is by no means a statement against the players on the field. It is a unified statement about the indifference of ownership towards the success of this club.”

The unspoken truth is that the players suffer from two angles. First, as C38 alludes to, they suffer from a lack of funding and limited resources. The facilities are insufficient and numerous injuries can be attributed to the quality of the pitch. Up until the last couple of weeks, the Player Availablity Report for Colorado has been extensive.

Second, the players suffer from missing the energy Centennial 38 provides if they’re there. It was a somber sight after the win on the 16th. After just their second home victory of the season, the players went to greet C38, but no one was home. Not that the fans didn’t earn the right to protest, but it was still a painful moment to witness for players.

After the New England match, I asked Coach Little what he would say to C38 if he could. Little stated, “You know, we’re frustrated and we take accountability for the season. And if there was a message to them, it’s hopefully you see tonight that we want to kind of try to rectify things. We’re disappointed. We feel as though we’ve let ourselves down as a staff, as players, and we’ve let the fans know. It’s not been a season we wanted.”

Chris would continue to say, “So, I hope you’ll see today that the players really care passionately about this club, and the performance levels and what they gave tonight and commitment. You know, hopefully, that can be a start.” Though Centennial 38 states their anger isn’t toward the players, there’s no question that the players still need to earn the right to play.

Earn the Right to Play

After the 2-1 loss to Seattle on Wednesday, Brendan Ploen of the Denver Post asked Coach Little what he meant when he said “earn the right to play.” Chris stated, “I think it’s for me, kind of a fundamental principle and a game you have to earn the right to play. You earn the right to play by, you know, competing for first balls and winning second balls. It’s kind of all the dirty work that sometimes goes unnoticed.”

In the past two matches, the Rapids have had dreadful first halves. The team looked flat and unenergetic. No player can claim that they did enough to earn the right to play. Regarding the first half against New England, Coach Little stated, “You can’t break any of the rhythm and momentum. You spend longer periods defending than you want to.” That can lead to the team being in a hole in the second, like with Seattle.

After another poor first half against Seattle, I asked Coach Little about the trend throughout the season of poor first halves for the Rapids and if it is an issue of preparation. Chris stated, “I prefer to look in the present than the past…. In tonight’s game, it was just disappointing to where we kind of, we didn’t expect it. You know, we had a positive result on the weekend. A good performance on the weekend to win confidence going into the game.”

Little would continue to say, “The pre-match messaging was all about being positive, playing positive. You know, playing with the right energy and intensity for our fans, and it wasn’t there. So, you know, we talked about that. We have to be accountable for that. We hold our hands up as the staff and the players. That wasn’t there and we’ll look at it.”

I asked Cole Bassett the same question. Bassett stated, “I don’t think that it’s preparedness. You know, I’ll talk about it in a little more depth. We’ve lost some key leaders this year and I think that could be a part of it.” What Cole says is true. Captain Jack Price went down early in the season to a torn Achilles. Diego Rubio, the heart of the Rapids attack, has missed significant time this season as well due to various injuries.

So, needless to say, it has been a struggle for the Rapids to find a leader on the pitch this season. That just leaves one question. Who is that leader? With very little season left, who is going to be that player to earn the right to say, “Look at me, I’m the captain now”?

Regarding the lack of leadership, Cole would continue to say, “We don’t have enough guys stepping up and doing their job and then asking for accountability from others. I think that’s kind of a problem. It was pretty silent in the first half. Nobody was really taking control and getting stuff going, and I’m to blame for that.”

To nail the point home, Bassett would finish by saying, “Right now with the guys that we have out, it’s really me, Maxso, and Connor are the guys that everybody looks to kind of get us going. So, we need to do a bit more of that. We need more leaders to step up and kind of take the game by the scruff of the neck and say, ‘Hey, alright, keep the ball.’ You need to demand more people, get after them, set the line, and stuff like that. When we don’t have Pricey and Diego on the field that are the guys that talk, and like to talk a lot, you can see it hurts us.”

To his credit, Cole Bassett has stepped up over the past two games. He’s scored a goal in two consecutive matches. More than that, playing a different role under Little, Cole has seemed to play less stressed and more freely. He can claim that he’s earned the right to play. Another player who has taken “Earn the Right to Play” to heart is Calvin Harris.

Harris scored his first goal for the Rapids last week against New England. It was a culmination of the hard work and effort he’s put in throughout the season. When asked about his celebration after the goal and his relationship with Wolde Harris, Calvin stated, “The celebration was about tonight. Wolde said before the game that I’m going to score. So, he called it [and] I shared my acknowledgments to him.”

Harris would continue to say, “Throughout the year, he showed a lot of trust in me and has been a person that I’ve always gone to and he’s been a great help to me.” The relationship between Wolde and Harris has now blossomed as Calvin continues to be an integral part of the Colorado attack.

“Earn the Right”. For the rest of this season, and going into next season, that has to be the mentality of the Rapids. The players have to earn the right to play on the pitch. Team ownership needs to earn the right of the trust of dedicated supporter groups like Centennial 38. The fans have already earned the right to have a good team to cheer on and quality product on the pitch. The question remains: Will the team reciprocate and earn the right?

Team NBS Media will be at Dick’s Wednesday at the Rapids take on Vancouver. Follow me on Twitter for live match updates. Follow Team NBS on YouTube, as well, for live shows about all the other sports we cover!