COMMERCE CITY — The season began with such great promise. The Rapids christened Dick’s Sporting Goods Park in April with a convincing 2-1 victory over traditional MLS power D.C. United, and a jubilant sellout crowd of 18,086 didn’t even seem to mind the accompanying snow and sleet.
The team’s state of the art $71 million stadium won raves. A lineup with five new faces controlled the four-time league champions. Midfielder Herculez Gomez and defender Ugo Ihemelu looked like outstanding additions, and Bouna Coundoul was solid in his debut as the No. 1 goalkeeper.
“We wanted to come out here and make this place a tough place to play in,” Gomez said that bone-chilling day, “make it a fortress.”
It hasn’t been.
Gomez now watches from the press box because of a midseason knee injury, just one of the many setbacks that contributed to a disappointing season. With one game remaining, the Rapids are in jeopardy of missing the playoffs for the first time since 2001, and if they do, coach Fernando Clavijo’s job may be in peril.
“We will look at the whole season in its totality and we’ll look in the mirror,” Rapids managing director Jeff Plush said. “I wouldn’t say anyone is in trouble, I’d say we’ll evaluate whether or not we’re going in the direction we need to be going.”
The Rapids (9-12-8) can make the playoffs if they beat Real Salt Lake at home Saturday night and results in other games fall in their favor.
“I’m not concerned for my job whatsoever,” Clavijo said. “I feel comfortable that the decisions I have made are the right ones for what I have to work with.”
Plush doesn’t believe it should have come down to this.
“On balance, I’m disappointed,” Plush said. “I don’t think we played to our ability. That’s the big frustration. I think there’s enough talent here that the results could have been better.”
The team’s average home attendance of 14,747 is a healthy increase over the past two years, but Plush spent much of the season dealing with angry e-mails from team supporters.
“It’s not the way you draw it up,” Plush said. “Clearly you envision coming into a new stadium and having that be a springboard towards unseen successes. The reality is, there’s 11 guys on the other side of the ball, they want to win, too, and it’s a very competitive league.”
At the end of May, the Rapids were 4-3-3, but then they went on a 10-game winless streak, scoring only five goals. Since then they have gone 5-3-2, with impressive victories over Houston, New England and Chivas USA. Their win at Chivas last Sunday was the first home loss for the Western Conference leaders.
The Rapids had a run of injuries and national team call-ups in midseason that contributed to their troubles, but for Clavijo the team’s problems come down to simple math: They are fourth-best in the league in goals allowed, but second to last in goals scored.
“We need to have someone who can pretty much guarantee me a goal a game,” Clavijo said. “To be successful in the league, you have to have that player. You look around, it’s obvious – D.C. United, New England, New York, Kansas City – all those teams have that player.”
Those teams have strikers ranked in the top four in goal scoring. Conor Casey played well in that role for the Rapids when healthy, but that was for 10 games or less.
The MLS funds team payrolls out of a common pool, and the Rapids’ share was $2.1 million. When the league created the “designated player,” the so-called Beckham Rule allowing teams to spend their own money to sign top international stars such as David Beckham (Los Angeles) and Juan Pablo Angel (New York), the Rapids attempted to sign Mexican national team striker Jared Borguetti. He turned them down.
“We need to score more goals,” Plush said. “Whether that means we’re one player away, or it means the players on this roster working in unison get us more goals, really doesn’t matter. I would like to have seen where we’d be today if Conor Casey was healthy for 30 games … I have a lot of faith in Conor going forward.”
Clavijo had to juggle his lineup because of injuries, but also because of suspensions for red cards and accumulated yellow cards. That lack of discipline bothered midfielder Terry Cooke.
“Every week we’ve got a different team,” Cooke said. “People make silly mistakes, get stupid red cards, accumulate yellow cards, and it’s a shame because we never could put a certain 11 out. Then you wonder why performances are up and down. We’ve just got ourselves to blame.”
John Meyer: 303-954-1616 or jmeyer@denverpost.com
