COMMERCE CITY — Pablo Mastroeni knows exactly what is wrong with the Rapids this season. He just doesn’t know what to call it.
“We have good soccer players and we have great energy,” the veteran captain said. “We’re just missing those intangibles of sports you can’t define or put a finger on.”
Long on moxie but short on maturity, the Rapids (5-8-1) will reach the midpoint of their season tonight with a reel full of maddening mistakes that already have cost them dearly.
Call it a team in transition, as Mastroeni does, or a team ripe with unfinished products, as coach Fernando Clavijo does. Either way, it’s a team that must win tonight against the New York Red Bulls (5-4-5) at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park if it wants to get traction and avoid a second consecutive year of missing the playoffs.
Thanks to the mild, mild Western Conference, the Rapids are just two victories out of first place despite the second- worst winning percentage in MLS.
If this were any other soccer country, the Rapids would be fighting to avoid relegation to a lower league. They must figure out how to score first, dominate at home, get results on the road and not give up easy goals such as the game-winner last week against the host Columbus Crew, in which Emmanuel Ekpo parted the Rapids as Moses did the Red Sea.
“We need to go on a winning streak,” midfielder Terry Cooke said. “I’m not talking like just winning a couple games; we need a good five, six games in a row.”
Streaks like that are what the Rapids’ brass was thinking of when the team traded their designated-player roster spot to D.C. United in February for playmaker Christian Gomez, 33. Gomez (three goals, five assists) has shown flashes of brilliance while being the target of rough play from opponents keying on him rather than on Colorado’s anemic strikers.
Forwards Omar Cummings and Tom McManus have just three goals apiece. Conor Casey and Herculez Gomez have one goal each in limited minutes since offseason knee surgeries.
The lack of a go-to scorer is the biggest missing piece, Clavijo said. The only reinforcement he sees coming when the July 15 international transfer window opens is defensive midfielder Greg Dalby.
Clavijo, however, remains serene about the situation, because he believes what many of the players echo: Besides the disastrous 2-0 loss at home to San Jose on April 19, the team is fighting hard.
“They know they’re going to have to hit us with a hammer to beat us, because we keep coming back,” said Clavijo, whose contract expires at the end of the season. “The problem is, we are not mature enough to get the results. This is the biggest concern that I have.”
Racked with injuries at the start of the season and recent national team duty by Mastroeni, goalkeeper Bouna Coundoul and Ugo Ihemelu, unproven youngsters such as Cummings, Nick LaBrocca, John DiRaimondo, Kosuke Kimura, Jordan Harvey and Stephen Keel have been given copious first-team minutes. Some players have struggled, and others — such as LaBrocca, the only player to start in every game this season — have performed swimmingly.
With just three players who have been with the team at least since 2005 (Mastroeni, Cooke and the injured Mike Petke), Colorado’s emerging core remains very green. Coundoul, Ihemelu, Facundo Erpen and Colin Clark are all under age 27.
Clavijo’s constant formation and lineup changes have annoyed some, but dissenters will admit professionals should adapt.
This is the transition Mastroeni speaks of. This is why the team often lacks sync and fundamentals: moving without the ball, passing to the correct foot or into space — these basics don’t flow freely. Mastroeni also sees the Rapids’ potential that so many speak of.
“We’re real close to becoming something serious that could be good for a long time and not just this year,” he said.
The Rapids have 16 games left to prove that.
Numbers game
Statistics often lie, but the Rapids’ struggles are reflected pretty fairly in their numbers this season:
5-0-0 — Record when scoring first
0-8-0 — Record when allowing the first goal
2-6 — Record in one-goal games
9 — Number of defensive lineups used
2 — First-half goals scored this season
1 — Player who has started every game (Nick LaBrocca)
