COMMERCE CITY — Since arriving from Ireland 19 days ago, Kevin Doyle has been impressed by the beauty of downtown Denver, the quality of play in MLS and the “passion” of coach Pablo Mastroeni.
The new Rapids striker has been living in a downtown hotel while waiting for his wife and two small children to join him, and he has played in three games. The Rapids finally won a home game by beating Vancouver, only to suffer a road defeat against Western Conference power Seattle and play their worst half of the season last Saturday at home in a loss against Portland.
The two losses came four days apart, with the mid-week trip to Seattle disrupting the team’s normal training schedule.
“It’s been an interesting couple of weeks, getting a lot of firsts out of the way,” Doyle said. “It’s nice to have a long week now of training. Starting to feel settled in a bit — knowing everyone’s name, knowing the setup for training, the little things you need to know day in and day out are starting to feel more normal.”
He has found MLS to be “intense,” as he expected it to be.
“The standard is very good,” said Doyle, a veteran of the English Premier League and England’s second division, which is called the Championship. “It’s pretty physical as well. Plenty of tough challenges, plenty of physicality. It’s what I’ve been used to.”
The first half last Saturday was ugly for the Rapids, who fell behind 1-0, fought back in the second half and tied the game in the 89th minute, only to surrender a goal in stoppage time to suffer a 2-1 loss.
“We were 1-nil down, but it could have been more in the first half,” Doyle said. “We weren’t in the game. We didn’t create any chances, we didn’t look like creating chances, we didn’t look like keeping them (Portland) out.
“The second half was a lot better. I thought we were a bit more on the front foot. We were the better team in the second half. We got caught with a sucker punch, but it was an encouraging second half considering the first half.”
Doyle was brought in to score goals, as was the team’s other new striker, Luis Solignac of Argentina. Neither has scored. It usually takes time as strikers learn how their teammates play and vice versa.
“His mentality has been great, his work ethic has been great,” said Mastroeni. “He’s a great player, he’s played at a very high level. It’s not going to take long for him to acclimate. He’s got a great shot and he’s got a nose for goals. It’s just getting him in those positions where he can do his thing.”
Doyle can hardly wait for his family to arrive. They will get here in two weeks when a house in the Cherry Creek area is ready for them to move in.
“It won’t feel like home until I get my family over here and move into a house,” Doyle said. “I can’t wait for that, just to feel settled in and really a part of the community.”
John Meyer: jmeyer@denverpost.com or
Kevin Doyle
Position: Striker
Hometown: Adamstown, Ireland
Citizenship: Irish
Age: 31
Previous Clubs: St. Patrick’s Athletic and Cork City in Ireland; Reading, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Queens Park Rangers (loan), Crystal Palace (loan) in England.
Acquired: Signed on March 20 as the club’s third Designated Player. Originally due to join at the start of July, he agreed an early settlement of his Wolverhampton contract on May 6.
