COMMERCE CITY — Fans of the Colorado Rapids will hardly recognize their team when it takes the field Sunday for its Major League Soccer season opener at San Jose, but given the team’s abysmal record last season they may see that as a good thing.
Thirteen players who were on the opening-day roster in 2015 are gone, including two who were all-stars last season, goalkeeper Clint Irwin and defender Drew Moor. Twelve of those who were on the team at the outset of last season return from a season that ended with the second-worst record in MLS (9-15-10).
In the offseason, Rapids technical director Paul Bravo brought in seven new players, including high-priced “designated player” Shkelzen Gashi, a proven scorer in Switzerland who plays for the Albanian national team. Another new player expected to play a key role is Marco Pappa, a talented Guatemalan midfielder who previously was a standout for Chicago and Seattle.
The roster has been overhauled. Now the pressure is on head coach Pablo Mastroeni to get results.
“This is a very important year for the club,” said Mastroeni, 17-33-18 over his two seasons. “It may be the most important year for the club. The amount of money that we’re investing in players, the type of players we’re bringing in, the style of play we want to be front and center of everything we do, the culture in the locker room — it’s a make-or-break year for us.”
Team officials are hoping Gashi will mesh up front with the team’s other designated player, forward Kevin Doyle, an Irish international who joined the team last May. The Rapids were the only team in the league last year that averaged less than a goal per game, striking the target only 33 times in 34 games.
Mastroeni brought in former Rapids striker John Spencer as an assistant coach, and that may help. Spencer scored 37 goals in 88 games for the Rapids from 2002-04. Since then he was an assistant with Houston (2006-10) and head coach at Portland (2011-12). Last year he did commentary for MLS games shown in the United Kingdom on Sky TV.
“Tactically we were good last year,” said Spencer, one of five former Rapids players honored in the Gallery of Honor at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park. “Obviously I watched it from afar, but I felt it was a team that was creating chances and struggled to put the ball in the back of the net. When you struggle to do that consistently, you’re not going to win games. For us this year, I think it’s: Can we keep creating the same amount of chances but get a higher percent in the finishing?”
Mastroeni is encouraged by what he has seen in preseason.
“I’ve seen a noticeable difference in the way our shooting sessions go,” Mastroeni said. “It’s night and day.”
Mastroeni is trying to create a style that builds out of the back, that is patient but always probing. He wants his outside backs to be more involved in the attack. He wants his forwards to press higher when the other team wins the ball.
“I think it’s going to be a much more entertaining brand,” Mastroeni said.
The Rapids, MLS Cup champions six years ago, have made the playoffs only once in the past four seasons (2013), and Mastroeni is well aware that some of the team’s more ardent supporters are upset.
“I don’t think there is anyone (more) frustrated in this whole endeavor than myself,” Mastroeni said. “Being the only guy that has hoisted the (MLS Cup) trophy over my head as captain, knowing what it is to be on that side, and then leading the group, to not get even close to that level … I understand they’re frustrated, as they should be.”
Mastroeni said part of the problem stems from the club lacking identity because of coaching turnover. Gary Smith, who coached the team to its only MLS title in 2010, was let go after the 2011 season. Oscar Pareja coached Colorado for two seasons, then bolted for the top job at FC Dallas, the club for which he played. Mastroeni was named his successor a week before the season opener in 2014 despite having no coaching experience.
Mastroeni, like Spencer a former Rapids player who played with great intensity, concedes he had a lot to learn about coaching. Now he’s trying to build a “culture” within the team that relies heavily on player input and accountability.
“What we haven’t had the past six years in this clubhouse has been a culture that permeates throughout, a culture to help shape an identity on the field,” Mastroeni said. “In 2010 you could have said, ‘That Colorado Rapids team, it’s a hard team to play against. They’re very staunch defensively, they don’t give anything up and they’ll beat you up top with two guys that are very dynamic in the attack.’ Since then, year after year, it’s been really unidentifiable as far as a style of play.”
Mastroeni insists there is plenty of talent now, repeatedly saying there will be “no excuses” if things don’t turn out well.
“This will be the most competitive team I think this club will put together in the history of the club when we’re done,” Mastroeni said, adding that he wants fans to think of him as “a guy that’s committed to learning, committed to getting better and is a winner, will always be a winner and has to find a way this year to make it happen for himself, for the club, for the players, for the fans.”
John Meyer: jmeyer@denverpost.com or @johnmeyer
Moving on
Players on the Rapids’ opening-day roster a year ago who are now gone:
Clint Irwin, goalkeeper
Nick Labrocca, midfielder
Drew Moor, defender
Vicente Sanchez, forward
Gabe Torres, forward
Juan Ramirez, midfielder*
Charles Eloundou, forward
Lucas Pittinari, midfielder
Deshorn Brown, forward
Shane O’Neill, defender
Carlos Alvarez, midfielder
James Riley, defender
Ben Newnam, defender
*on loan to Spanish team
Still kicking
Players on the Rapids’ opening-day roster a year ago who remain with the team:
Marc Burch, defender
Sam Cronin, midfielder
Dillon Powers, midfielder
John Berner, goalkeeper
Dominique Badji, forward
Dillon Serna, midfielder
Zac MacMath, goalkeeper
Bobby Burling, defender
Caleb Calvert, forward
Jared Watts, midfielder
Marlon Hairston, defender
Axel Sjoberg, defender
Additional help
Players added during the 2015 season:
Kevin Doyle, forward
Joseph Greenspan, defender
Luis Solignac, forward
Sean St. Ledger, defender
Players added during the offseason:
Mekeil Williams, defender
Marco Pappa, midfielder
Shkelsen Gashi, forward
Conor Doyle, forward
Zach Pfeffer, midfielder
Micheal Azira, midfielder
Eric Miller, defender
