Colorado Rapids vice president and managing director Jeff Plush is confident he and second-year coach Fernando Clavijo are on the same page when it comes to rebuilding and redirecting the Major League Soccer franchise.
So much so that the Rapids on Monday officially will add two years to Clavijo’s contract, extending his deal through the 2008 season.
It gives the former World Cup defender control of the team as it enters a new era in 2007 with the opening of its own stadium in Commerce City.
“We are pleased with the direction of this team, on the pitch and off,” Plush said Saturday.
Clavijo, 50, led the Rapids to the Western Conference final last season with a roster he gutted after replacing fired coach Tim Hankinson in December 2004.
The Rapids got off to one of their worst starts in franchise history last season but came together down the stretch, riding key personnel Clavijo had signed or traded for.
Colorado is 8-7-4 this season and in third place in the Western Conference.
Clavijo has said on several occasions he needed three seasons to rebuild a Rapids team with a history for lukewarm performances since advancing to the 1997 MLS Cup.
“This gives me the chance to not only finish what I’ve started, but see the benefits of the change,” Clavijo said of his new contract.
The extension is the first given by owner Kroenke Sports Enterprises since it purchased the Rapids in September 2003.
Clavijo said Saturday that in his short tenure he is most proud of assembling “a very talented roster” without what he called the benefits of a large market and payroll.
Clavijo added former Real Madrid defender Aitor Karanka this season and has had good returns on unknown international talents Terry Cooke, Dedi Ben-Dayan and Nicolas Hernandez, trade acquisitions Mike Petke, Eric Denton and Jovan Kirovski, and young players Fabrice Noel, Hunter Freeman, Bouna Coundoul, Dan Gargan and Jacob Peterson.
Clavijo immigrated to the United States from Uruguay and went on to become a star defender in the Major Indoor Soccer League. He became a U.S. citizen and played for the U.S. national team in the 1994 World Cup.
