NFL
By Keith Richards
After a fast and furious 2024 Colorado Rapids offseason, the 2024 Colorado Rapids now gear up for Matchday 1. On Saturday, the Rapids, lovingly known this season as Something to Prove FC, kickoff their 2024 season against the Portland Timbers.
After so many changes after the 2023 season, the 2024 Colorado Rapids hopes to leave the dreadful 2023 season behind. With a new head coach and several new players in key positions, the 2024 Colorado Rapids will look to gel early and become serious playoff contenders by season’s end.
Today, we’ll take a look at the forwards, midfield, and defenders. We’ll finish by predicting how the 2024 Colorado Rapids will end their season. Is it comeback season? Or is it more of the same? Let’s find out!
Forwards – Jonathan Lewis (7), Calvin Harris (14), Darren Yapi (77), Kevin Cabral (91), Rafael Navarro (9)
To say the attacking front from the Rapids in 2023 was abysmal is an egregious understatement. There’s no other way to put it. The attack for the Colorado Rapids in 2023 sucked. Sucked with a capital S. Much of it was on themselves. Much of it was due to a lack of support from the midfield. No matter how you slice it, it was just bad.
If there is a position group for the 2024 Colorado Rapids that has the most to prove, it’s the forwards. They just might be the personification of Something to Prove FC. Sometimes, it’s hard to distinguish between qualitative and quantitative, but a look at the raw numbers of the Rapids’ forwards in 2023 gives a clear picture of both:
- Colorado tied last in MLS with 26 goals last season
- Of those 26 goals, only seven came from forwards (10 if you count Rubio as a forward)
- Jonathan Lewis took the most shots as a forward with 25
- Kevin Cabral had the most shots on target with 12
Let’s dig a little deeper into those last two stats. You won’t find Cabral and his 12 SOT until you filter to page four (filtered highest to lowest). Filtered highest to lowest, Jonathan Lewis and his 25 shots can be found on page six. The 2024 Colorado Rapids forwards are the personification of Something to Prove FC because they were Not Good Enough FC in 2023.
Michael Barrios took two of those goals with him to the LA Galaxy. So, between Navarro, Harris, Lewis, Cabral, and Lewis, that’s five goals from the remaining forwards of the 2024 Colorado Rapids. For you stats people, that’s an embarrassing 19.2% of the 26 goals scored in 2023.
So, if you’re an optimist, there’s nowhere to go but up for the forwards in 2024. There have already been promising signs with the preseason action. Harris, Navarro, and Lewis all had multiple goals in preseason matches. Cabral looks much sharper. The youngster Yapi looks sharper as well. How many goals with the 2024 Colorado Rapids forwards score? It’s hard to say, but it HAS TO BE more than five.
Midfielders – Djordje Mihailovic (10), Cole Bassett (23), Omir Fernandez (21), Ralph Priso (97), Oli Larraz (18), Connor Ronan (20), Sidnei Tavares, Remi Cabral (49, out on loan), Jasper Loffelsend, Lamine Diack
The midfield, especially the attacking midfield, is where there was the most turnover with the 2024 Colorado Rapids. Acosta, Price, Rubio, Max (physical discomfort), and Nicholson are all gone. It’s also the midfield, however, where the 2024 Colorado Rapids arguably made the most improvement over the offseason.
Players like Jack Price will be hard to replace. However, when you add Mihailovic, Fernandez, and Joffelsend, it’s a definite upgrade overall; at least it is on paper. Diack is kind of a wild card, but the quality that Loffelsend is capable of is evident. If Diack is the player that Armas and Smith believe he is, the 6 position is solid for the 2024 Colorado Rapids.
Colorado will be looking to Mihailovic and Fernandez to create (and complete) more chances from the midfield in 2024. Connor Ronan was among the league leaders in assists with 11 in 2023. Even with missing significant time, Cole Bassett led the team with six goals. However, you want your forwards to score most of the goals.
Djordje and Omir provide the bonus of being able to bury goals in their own right. Where they’re equally, if not more, important, though, is their ability to create for others. Navarro, Lewis, Yapi, Harris, Cabral, and even Bassett, will all be beneficiaries of the additions of Mihailovic and Fernandez.
How many goals the 2024 Colorado Rapids will score will be a direct result of the efficiency of the attacking (and defending) midfield. Head Coach Chris Armas looks to have an attacking, transition type of attack. It will be on the defensive midfield to spearhead the turnovers. The attacking midfield has to lead the charge of going from turnover to transition to creating chances. Then, it will fall on the forwards to bury those chances.
Defenders – Keegan Rosenberry (2), Sam Vines (3), Aboubacar Keita (30), Sebastian Anderson (27), Miguel Navarro (out on loan), Lalas Abubakar (6), Michael Edwards (34), Andreas Maxso (5), Daniel Chacon (out on loan, injured), Alex Gersbach (16), Moise Bombito (64)
The back line of Colorado saw some big departures leading into 2024. However, there is a big addition heading 2024. The biggest change in the overall defense is that Keegan Rosenberry now takes over the helm as captain with the departure of Jack Price. Also, Steven Beitashour and Danny Wilson would depart the team as well.
So, Rosenberry has a big role to fill not only as captain but as lead of the defense as well. Maxso is coming off a stellar season and Bombito saw significant progress, both of which will be helpful to the new captain. What will be most helpful, however, is the return of homegrown player Sam Vines.
Vines returns to the team from Europe and immediately improves the left-back position for the 2024 Colorado Rapids. Left-back, even with the arrival of Andrew Gutman, continued to be a sore spot for the Rapids throughout 2023. Gutman was serviceable, but he’s no longer with the team. Vines brings a quality to the LB position that Colorado hasn’t had since, well, since Sam Vines left the team.
While the attack did the defense no favors in 2023, the defense still conceded 54 goals. There were times when the defense looked brilliant in 2023. They were able to minimize the damage of the opposing attack. However, there were times when the defense looked terrible too.
There was a stretch in July and August of 2023 where the Rapids were outscored 13-2. No matter how you slice it, the defense will need to be better than that for the 2024 Colorado Rapids. If the attack significantly improves, and I think it will, a lot of the pressure should be taken off of the defense. While the attack will need to provide more than 26 goals, the defense will need to complement that by conceding less than 54.
Goalkeepers – Zack Steffen, Marko Ilic (1), Adam Beaudry
Ilic is the only keeper to return for the 2024 Colorado Rapids senior team. William Yarbrough and Abe Rodriguez are no longer with the team. While the team seemed ready to move forward with Marko Ilic, when a keeper with the potential quality of Zack Steffen becomes available you make the call.
As of now, it appears that the depth chart will be Steffen, Ilic, and Beaudry (in that order). The downside is that Steffen, while he looks ready, is coming off of injury. In addition, Beaudry, while he does show a lot of promise after a stellar season with Rapids 2, is still only 17 years old. If it comes down to Adam at season’s end, the Colorado Rapids will have problems. Steffen and/or Ilic must work.
What to Expect from the 2024 Colorado Rapids
It may sound like an outlandish thing to say, but I don’t think the 2023 Colorado Rapids were as bad as the statistics and record indicated. I’m not saying they were a championship-quality team, but they should have been better than what they ended up being. It was the perfect storm for the Rapids last season and they just could not escape it.
That said, the 2024 Colorado Rapids are a significantly better squad on paper. As we all know, matches are won on the pitch; not on paper. Still, Chris Armas and Padraig Smith had a killer off-season and have put this team in a great position to be miles better than they were last season.
The 2024 Colorado Rapids will need to gel expeditiously as they start the season with a brutal stretch. In order, they face Portland (away), Nashville (home), Salt Lake (away), Seattle (away), and Houston (home). That’s 15 potential points available. Will they get 15 points? I would be absolutely shocked if they did. However, it will say a lot about this team if they can manage between seven and nine points in this opening stretch.
I think it will be tough sailing to start the season, but I believe that the 2024 Colorado Rapids will be in the top six of the Western Conference and host a playoff game in 2024. Only time will tell, but you can bet that Team NBS will be there all season to see how things progress.
#Rapids96