What does success look like in Matt Wells’ first year?

Kroenke Sports & Entertainment President of Team and Media Operations Kevin Demoff put it bluntly after the club missed the 2025 playoffs and parted ways with former coach Chris Armas in November: “This club should be competing for titles.”

The Rapids are likely far from that mark, but internal belief in first-time head coach Matt Wells has grown before even setting foot on the sideline at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park. That����ap in part because of his no-nonsense, detail-oriented coaching style and the way he has introduced his game model to the roster. This preseason, it took time for those ideas to take shape, but a 4-1 win over Orlando in the finale — a game of which the Rapids posted rare highlights — showed what����ap possible.

That may not be title contention in year one of the project, but if the team is as receptive to significant on-field changes as Wells has suggested, 2026 could bring along actual progress instead of another reset.

“I think our expectation is to compete for an MLS Cup, and a successful season is taking meaningful steps in that direction and being in that conversation,” Demoff said during a preseason press conference on Tuesday. “Nothing short of being competitive, playing attractive football, drawing people here and growing the brand is acceptable.”

One highlight from the Orlando match stood out: a possession started deep in the Rapids’ own corner to stretch Orlando’s defense, then Colorado found nine consecutive one- or two-touch passes to nine different players. In just 10 seconds, the move finished with a stunning service by Darren Yapi for a header into the net from Rafael Navarro.

That����ap the exciting brand of soccer Wells has promised from the day he was hired — and the kind of sequence that played out sporadically at best over the past two seasons.

Which players will define a new Rapids era?

Particularly with the departure of longtime star Homegrown Cole Bassett, no player carries the weight of expectation like Paxten Aaronson will this season. Now just 22, he was brought in late last season for a club-record transfer fee and locked into a five-year contract, which is longer than typical Rapids’ contracts.

Much of that expectation is rooted in the role he occupies and the freedom it demands, particularly now in Wells’ system.

“We play a positional game. It����ap important for players, in the first buildup, to hold their positions. They understand what movements to make, but the movements are all dictated by how the opponent presses,” Wells said. “We’ve still been far too precise (in the final third). I want to drop the precision there, and I want us to play with much more aggression, conviction, more bodies in the box. Constantly attacking, constantly trying to score goals, even if at risk for a counterattack.”

That vision fits what Aaronson does best: progressing the ball through traffic, accelerating attacks and serving as connective tissue in an offense designed to match his assertiveness. Even if he doesn’t score at a high clip, the Rapids expect him to be a central figure offensively and on the press.

Another player who could make the Rapids’ offense sing this year and beyond is winger Dante Sealy. Also 22, the Trinidad and Tobago international was Wells’ first target and acquisition as a head coach. His system required an inverted winger with an eye for goal, and the former CF Montréal star provided that.

He scored nine goals for a near-bottom Montréal team in 2025 and has already gotten praise from Wells this offseason. No Rapids winger in the past decade has hit that mark. The closest was Michael Barrios in 2021, who scored eight goals and provided five assists. Colorado finished atop the Western Conference that year.

Are the Rapids built to dictate games or react to them?

Perhaps the most infamous Rapids loss of the 2025 season was a 3-0 thrashing from the L.A. Galaxy. Without its star midfielder, and many starters resting for another competition, Los Angeles used almost exclusively young and inexperienced players, and still overwhelmed Colorado.

At the time, the Rapids were a reactive team — give up possession, spark a press, win it back and score in transition. The Galaxy punched them in the mouth early and often. That game set in motion a wave of disappointing results after another, which culminated in elimination from playoff contention on Decision Day.

In some ways, Colorado was wired to see itself as the underdog, which led to some unexpectedly good results at times but more often produced bad losses against bad teams.

Wells has used the preseason to hammer the opposite home. In a media availability after training on Thursday, he had the rasp of a coach who had spent the past two hours getting his message across.

“The training was so good, but then there were certain things we did in training in terms of our finishing where we didn’t show true belief and commitment and ruthlessness,” Wells said. “That����ap what I’m trying to create in this group: an edge and an aggression and a ruthlessness — a conviction behind what they do. … I’ll never stop going after that.”

The club is nearing a deal to send 24-year-old midfielder Cole Bassett to the Portland Timbers for a $2.65 million fee with an additional $1.05 million in conditional add-ons, a source confirmed to The Denver Post on Tuesday evening. The Rapids will retain a percentage of a transfer if Portland deals him in the future. .

The move is an intra-league cash trade, a new mechanism within MLS that no longer has a limit of two inbound and two outbound cash trades per season. The Rapids haven’t been too active in the winter transfer window so far, but have made two key signings and are now finalizing one imposing outbound move. If completed, the transfer will free up a U-22 slot on the roster.

Bassett became the model for what the club’s academy could produce. After spending much of his youth days at Colorado Rush, he joined the Rapids Academy at the U-16/17 level and immediately made an impact, even playing games with the U-23 team (now known as Rapids 2 in MLS NEXT Pro). He signed a first-team contract in 2018, just two weeks after turning 17, making the Littleton native the youngest signing in club history at the time.

Bassett spent seven seasons in Commerce City, made 155 regular-season appearances for the club (128 starts) and scored 31 goals to go with 22 assists.

He got some MLS Best XI buzz in 2024 in former coach Chris Armas’ first year in Colorado, when he played as a box-to-box defensive midfielder. He finished that campaign with career single-season highs of nine goals and seven assists while being in the league’s upper echelon in distance covered.

That same season, he was a late scratch from the 2024 U.S. Olympic squad in France. After being told he was on the roster, U.S. Olympic coach Marko Mitrović changed his mind days before the roster was announced. Bassett responded by recording three goals and three assists in his next four games.

Last season, though, his fit deteriorated and his production slipped. As the talent and system of the roster shifted, Bassett was forced into an uncomfortable position on the wing and couldn’t replicate his efficacy of the year prior. He finished with just three goals and four assists and was vocal all season about his discontent — but also willingness and desire to win — with playing out wide.

And with first-time head coach Matt Wells now at the helm, the change in philosophy may have suited Bassett even less this year than it did last year. One of the splashes the club made earlier this month was a $3 million transfer for pure ball-winning defensive midfielder Hamzat Ojediran.

That price tag alone signals a large role for the Nigerian, but it also indicates the club wants defensive reinforcement at the position, which isn’t naturally the best part of Bassett����ap game. The club also spent $2 million in general allocation money on a transfer for CF Montréal winger Dante Sealy, who should start in the season opener.

To put the money from Bassett����ap transfer to use, the Rapids still have a couple of holes in the roster to fill, just 25 days from the opener at the Seattle Sounders. Defensively, the roster is stacked with young center-back talent to pair with English veteran Rob Holding and experienced MLS center back Ian Murphy, but one more solid, proven piece could turn that group from good to great.

The same goes for both outside back positions, especially after late-2025 spark plug Rafael Santos’ 2026 option was declined and he signed with St. Louis CITY. Attacking-wise, the club could target a striker to complement Rafael Navarro and Darren Yapi and provide better depth and more tactical flexibility.

Bassett won’t wait long for his return to Colorado — the Rapids’ home opener is against the Timbers on Feb. 28.

The club is set to hire Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur assistant coach Matt Wells, 37, as its next head coach, sources confirmed to The Denver Post. The Athletic first reported the hire.

Wells was the Champions League club’s top assistant to Ange Postecoglou last season, when the Spurs finished 17th in the Premier League but defeated Manchester United in the Europa League final to clinch a CL berth. His other assistant coaching stops include Fulham, AFC Bournemouth and Club Brugge.

Wells grew up in the Tottenham academy system and has family pedigree in football — his grandfather, Cliff Jones, is a Tottenham legend from the 1960s and played for Wales in the 1958 World Cup. Injuries derailed Wells’ path toward a potential debut with the first team, so he turned to coaching and earned a UEFA B coaching license at just 20.

Tottenham is a top rival to Kroenke Sports & Entertainment-owned Arsenal, but there is proven precedent to Premier League assistants succeeding in their first head-coaching roles in MLS. Current Minnesota United coach Eric Ramsay went from being an assistant at Manchester United to leading his first team in Minnesota in 2024. The Loons have steadily climbed from an 11th place finish before Ramsay joined to fourth place and a Western Conference semifinal appearance this season.

Ramsay, who was 32 when he joined Minnesota, was the youngest-ever head coach in MLS. Wells will be one of the youngest in the league immediately.

Sources added that Wells will travel to Colorado early next week and join the team. Tottenham plays against Nottingham Forest on Sunday, but it����ap unclear whether Wells will be on the bench for that match.

Wells will have an exciting, but somewhat disjointed roster to work with in 2026. A talented young spine of Paxten Aaronson, Cole Bassett, Rafael Navarro and Josh Atencio, along with seasoned veterans like Zack Steffen and former Arsenal defender Rob Holding, gives Wells options and the potential to be good from the start of next season. That talent was there at the end of 2025, but was used in a suboptimal way and given too little time to mesh as the Rapids plummeted in the west standings.

Tottenham plays in a 4-2-3-1 system just like the Rapids (mostly) have for the past two years under former coach Chris Armas. Right now, that����ap what seems to suit the current roster best, but free agency began this week in MLS and the transfer window will begin in January.

After Armas was hired ahead of the 2024 season, the Rapids brought in Steffen and spent a club-record transfer fee on Djordje Mihailovic. KSE President of Team and Media Operations Kevin Demoff was coy on committing to spend big on the roster during a press conference in October, but that could change with experience and credentials as demanding as someone like Wells, despite this being his first head-coaching stint.

At the surface, it felt like any other end-of-season debrief, but Demoff’s presence boded a future that looks different, for better or worse. Smith’s front office will soon make the fourth head coaching hire of his 11-year tenure as a Rapids executive. With only a handful of playoff appearances and even fewer playoff wins, it was hard to ignore the sense that a cycle was starting over again.

And yet the high-ranking KSE executive sitting next to Smith at Thursday’s news conference expressed an expectation for the franchise that ran counter to that reality.

“This club should be competing for titles, full stop,” Demoff told reporters during a rare public appearance in Commerce City. “I think that is the goal, that is the challenge and that is what we wake up every day doing. It should be no different from any teams in our system, and this club is no different.”

Last month, the Rapids crashed out of a playoff position and failed to make the postseason in consecutive campaigns. With just one more point from a woeful final stretch of matches, they’d have done so for just the second time since winning the MLS Cup in 2010.

Speaking on the future of the club, Smith and Demoff didn’t offer a revolutionary vision for a turnaround and asked more open-ended questions about how to get to the MLS mountaintop than they answered. The goal under Armas was to become a perennial playoff team. But despite the down year, the coach leaving, and the numerous player contract decisions that loom, the ambition increased on Thursday.

“This club should be competing for the MLS Cup year in and year out, and I don’t think anybody in this organization will stop competing until we get to that point,” Demoff said. “That, to me, is what our fans should expect. That����ap what ownership expects from us. That����ap what I expect of this club.”

The Rapids are the only KSE team without a trophy this decade, and they haven’t captured one since that 2010 season in any competition not named the Rocky Mountain Cup. The closest they came was a conference final loss in 2016.

So what does a title push look like for this iteration of the Rapids? Item No. 1 is a head coach. The uncertainty around Armas’ future, followed by his eventual departure, has created an expedited feeling this time around. Nine players are awaiting club options for 2026 by the Nov. 26 deadline, all decisions a coach would presumably play a role in.

After that, it����ap the roster build. The Rapids have a solid core of exciting young prospects and experienced journeymen, with the future centered around Paxten Aaronson, who inked a five-year deal in August for a club-record $7 million transfer fee. He’s on a $2 million base salary, another outlier for Colorado.

Fans have long criticized the club for trying to ball on a budget. The cash flow is starting to trend higher, with two record incoming transfers and two record outgoing transfers in the past two years, but the Rapids routinely spend below league average in salary. This year, the Rapids slightly overperformed their spending (23rd in MLS) by finishing 21st. Still, Demoff brushed aside the notion that the club doesn’t spend enough to win.

“There’s no correlation between spending and winning in the MLS. … It����ap not about spending for spending’s sake,” he said. “It is truly about building a philosophy and identity, a core competency that no one else has, and continuing to invest in that model to drive forward.”

While it’s true that money does not automatically equate to wins, there is a correlation between spending (salary-wise, at least) and winning in MLS.

Demoff pointed to examples from this season, like the Philadelphia Union (dead-last in salary, but first place in the league) and Atlanta United (fourth in spending, 26th-place finish), while making his point. But those are the exceptions, not the rule.

A leaguewide comparison of salary data and final MLS regular-season standings showed that teams in the top half of spending finished 13th on average, while those spending in the bottom half averaged an 18th-place finish. Without the aforementioned outliers, the margins grow to 12th and 20th, respectively.

That means, on average, spending in the top half of the league in salary is the difference between potentially avoiding a play-in game and missing the playoffs entirely. Aside from just writing big checks, the next step is clear: building a roster and culture rooted in accountability and organization-wide collaboration.

Since taking his role in March of 2024, Demoff has been present for the Rapids in a way KSE hasn’t in some time. On multiple occasions, Smith has praised Demoff’s involvement and ideas toward building a better club. After multiple big signings since then, Demoff has been one of the first on Smith’s thank-you list.

That said, Demoff’s presence at Thursday’s news conference loomed over Smith’s hold on the top front office job with the Rapids. Smith’s contract is up after the 2026 season, and when asked if Demoff would normally allow one front office to make a fourth head coaching hire, he said no.

Demoff signaled this coaching search — the first he and Smith will partner on — will mark a new era of the club. That phrase has been tossed around plenty of times, but a period that promises better cooperation between the club and KSE is cause for cautious optimism.

According to Demoff and Smith, their partnership includes better sharing of “best practices and resources” between the Rapids and all KSE teams, and making that “interconnectivity” better.

“I think first and foremost our job right now is, ‘How do we build the best roster in the short term and the long term?’” Demoff said. “This is going to be one of the best clubs year in and year out. That is the only goal that we should have for the Rapids.

“I have full confidence in Pádraig to partner with us to do that, but it is up to us to both A) develop that model together, B) give the support and then hold accountable. I think from here, we are all accountable for the results that this club has. It����ap not about 2014 through 2025. This is about 2025 moving forward, and are we doing the best job for our club, for our fans and for our city?”

The Colorado Rapids announced that the club and coach mutually agreed to part ways on Monday. Armas, whose contract expired at the end of this season, finished with a 26-29-13 record in the MLS regular season since joining ahead of the 2024 campaign. In 2025, the Rapids were on track to make the playoffs for the second straight year but had their season end dramatically on Decision Day after a poor run in the season’s home stretch.

A search for a new coach is underway, effective immediately.

After a dismal 2023 season that ended as the worst in club history and included the firing of coach Robin Fraser, Armas brought life back to Dick’s Sporting Goods Park with a fast-paced style and strong personality. During his time in Colorado, Armas worked to build bonds with players, staff and fans and helped shift the club’s culture in short order.

“We’re grateful to Chris for the professionalism and passion he brought to the club,” Rapids President Pádraig Smith said in a statement. “He helped our group take meaningful steps forward over the past two seasons and leaves behind a strong culture that will serve us well as we begin this next chapter.”

While there were low points in his short tenure, Armas led the club to notable heights, namely an improbable run to third place in the 2024 Leagues Cup competition, which included four straight victories against clubs and an upset of Club América in the quarterfinals. He also led the Rapids to back-to-back Rocky Mountain Cups against rival Real Salt Lake, a feat the club hadn’t accomplished since 2005-06 — the cup’s inaugural two-year stretch.

“I’m incredibly proud of the work we’ve done here and the progress the team has made,” Armas said in a statement. “I want to thank the Kroenke family, Kevin Demoff and Pádraig, along with the players, staff, and the Rapids community, for their trust and support. This is a special club with passionate fans, and I’ll always be grateful for my time in Colorado.”

As much as Armas’ time was stamped by culture improvement and a high-energy playstyle, it was also marked by sustained roster turnover. Both of his years started far better than they finished, which can be at least partially attributed to system-breaking moves in the summer transfer window.

In 2024, the MLS-record sale of center back Moïse Bombito left the team without a speedy last-ditch defender to cover the team when they sent numbers into the attack. This year, star midfielder Djordje Mihailovic, who had broken club goal contribution records in 2024, demanded a trade to Fraser’s Toronto FC. In both seasons, marked decline in performances after the moves left the team near the bottom or out of the playoff picture entirely.

Conversely, the Rapids completed some record inbound transfers during his tenure, including the completion of Rafael Navarro’s $3.5 million transfer in 2024 and nabbing Paxten Aaronson from Eintracht Frankfurt for a club-record $7 million this August.

Smith said on multiple occasions this year that the club planned on extending Armas’ third head-coaching stint. Armas told reporters near the end of the season that offers were made and an agreement was “close,” but it never got over the line.

There are multiple openings across the league, including in Armas’ hometown of New York with the Red Bulls, who also mutually parted ways with their head coach on Monday. Other vacancies include the New England Revolution, CF Montréal, St. Louis CITY, Sporting Kansas City and Atlanta United.

The majority of the coaching staff outside of Armas also had their contracts expire at the end of this year. Decisions on the future of those coaches will be made this offseason, with a large input coming from the next head coach. That head coach, the club said, will be identified and chosen with a focus on “building on the foundation established over the past two seasons,” according to the club’s statement.

A few minutes later, their season was over — done in by an awkward bounce and rebound that allowed red-hot LAFC to equalize in the 90th minute and dash the Rapids’ hopes of qualifying for the wild card round of the MLS Cup Playoffs.

With Real Salt Lake choking away a lead of its own against St. Louis, Colorado would have sealed the No. 9 seed in the west had it held on at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park.

Instead, the 2-all draw kept the Rapids (11-15-8) out of the postseason for the third time in four years and sent them into an offseason filled with uncertainty.

“(It����ap) pretty much just the highest highs and the lowest lows,” said forward Darren Yapi, whose 87th-minute header put the Rapids ahead, 2-1. “Scoring that goal, I felt like we were through (to the playoffs) and that we were good, and then, you know, they responded. I can’t even process it right now.”

LAFC substitute Andrew Moran tied the game up in the 90th minute after a shot ricocheted off the post straight to his boot. Son Heung-Min opened the scoring with a rocket in the first half, then Paxten Aaronson opened his Rapids account to equalize in the 62nd minute.

No team has found a solution to Son and Denis Bouanga’s reign of terror since the South Korean icon’s arrival for a league-record transfer fee 10 games ago. But to the Rapids’ credit, both were relatively neutralized aside from Son’s stunner. They’ve done that to plenty of striking powers, especially at DSGP, but it didn’t protect them from the final few minutes, when the mood of the team swung as much as it possibly could have.

That����ap been a theme of the 2025 Rapids. Coach Chris Armas and numerous players preached their rule of thumb that mentally, they don’t get too high or too low. According to Cole Bassett, that gets difficult when it seems like peaks and valleys are all that exist.

“It hits a little bit more once the season is over and you know you’re probably not playing a game for three months. That����ap tough for all of us to process, and we didn’t want to go out this way,” Bassett said. “I think throughout the season, you definitely need to stay even-keeled, but there’s definitely things we can work on from what (Armas) has said throughout the year, because maybe we did get too high or too low in moments and that cost us games.”

Another core principle of this season has been uncertainty and turbulence, which is now carrying through to the offseason.

Just this summer, Chidozie Awaziem requested a transfer to France for personal reasons, then the club’s talisman, Djordje Mihailovic, demanded a trade to Toronto near the end of the window. Replacements came in for both, but their efficacy in those roles is still to be determined with just a few games under their belt.

The biggest question, though, is whether Armas will be at the helm to see that through.

The head coach didn’t directly respond when asked about his future with the club, but club president Pádraig Smith said multiple times this season that an extension was on the way. As recently as a few weeks ago, Armas said he wanted to stay in Colorado, and after Saturday’s match, he spoke about the team’s future while implying he’d be a part of it.

“It’s fresh, the season just ended,” Armas said. “We’ll have discussions with leadership and continue some discussions. That’s all I can say for now.”

Given the Rapids players’ admiration of Armas and the simultaneous freefall out of the playoff picture, it����ap tough to decipher which direction the club will take.

Even with a 1-0 loss, the Rapids retained the Cup since they won it outright in three 2024 matchups and won 1-0 at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park earlier this year. Though the Rapids took the Cup home for the second straight year on aggregate, their reactions on the field were telling.

The broadcast showed heads down and blank stares from the Rapids while RSL celebrated like it had already won a play-in game. But that����ap what this match felt like: A right of passage to the next stage of the season.

RSL, with multiple counterattack chances to double its lead and take the Cup in the final 20 minutes, opted to play it back and keep possession. That way, it wouldn’t be vulnerable to a dangerous Rapids counter if it stretched too thin. The way the dice rolled, RSL lost the Rocky Mountain Cup but jumped Colorado in the standings.

Still with a game in hand, that will surely do for RSL, which appeared just about out of the playoff picture a month or two ago. It now finds itself in ninth with two games to go, good for a play-in game spot, while the Rapids have dropped to 10th, out of the picture and close to out of contention.

The one consolation for Colorado: This marked the first time since the first two years of the Rocky Mountain Cup (2005-06) that the Rapids won it two years in a row.

“One of the things we’ve done here in a year and nine months is change the expectations internally, externally, of what we’re all about,” Rapids coach Chris Armas said. “We expect to win on the road, at home. We expect to make the playoffs, and when we fall short of that, there’s no faking it.

“The Cup comes back on the plane with us. We’ll take that and we’re proud to take it back home, but for our fans and for ourselves, we want more. We’re not satisfied with that.”

Just two days after being left off the USMNT October camp roster, Zack Steffen made the two best plays of the game through the first 38 minutes. One was a full-stretch save in the 25th minute, then a full sprint to break up a low cross on a counterattack, which would have resulted in a sure goal.

Diogo Gonçalves one-upped the keeper in the 39th minute on what was clearly a planned play by RSL. Rwan Cruz received the ball just within the box on the byline left of the goal. Then, without looking, he played an inch-perfect ball to the top middle of the box. Gonçalves got on the end of it with a sweet, guided strike to the top left corner.

The Rapids had four golden opportunities to tie the game in the final 20 minutes plus stoppage time: a wide-open header over the crossbar by Andreas Maxsø, a shot off the post by substitute Ted Ku-DiPietro, a backheel flick by sub Darren Yapi and a spectacularly saved shot by Cole Bassett.

With the loss, Armas’ second year in charge of the Rapids is ending eerily similar to his first. This time, the consequences may be much larger — in a contract year, no less.

For the second straight season, the Rapids fell off a cliff after Leagues Cup and have found themselves in a much lower table position than before the mid-season tournament. They held onto seventh to avoid a play-in game last year, but now have dropped to 10th with Goliath LAFC to play in their final game in two weeks.

“I think last season was a little bit different — we went through a lot of games in the Leagues Cup and it was really hard,” Maxsø said. “This season, we had the chances to get the points, but we didn’t grab it. We can only look at ourselves in the mirror, but it����ap obviously a disappointment. … We still believe we can reach the playoffs, but of course it����ap difficult.”

Colorado could be mathematically eliminated before getting the chance against LAFC if RSL and FC Dallas both win their next games against Seattle and L.A. Galaxy, respectively, next Saturday.

Entering the final two-game stretch of the MLS regular season, the Colorado Rapids are looking over their shoulder as they hit the straightaway of a marathon that began back in February.

Closing in behind them is Real Salt Lake, which hosts the Rapids at 7:30 p.m. Saturday for the Rocky Mountain Cup finale in Sandy, Utah. Two weeks later, the Rapids close the season at home against the league’s current best attacking duo in Denis Bouanga and Son Heung-Min, who have scored LAFC’s last 18 goals in the eight games since Son joined the club.

RSL, currently just three points back from the Rapids in 11th place in the Western Conference, has two things going for it: Momentum with a 3-1 win over sixth-place Austin last Saturday, and a knack for burying the Rapids at America First Field. Not to mention Colorado’s dismal road form as of late.

A positive: The Rapids have beaten RSL this year already. That was back in May, when Djordje Mihailovic struck in the 70th minute for the game’s only tally. They had also been on a bad run of form away from home leading up to that match, going 0-3-1 in their previous four games.

A little extra motivation: The Rapids could walk away with their second straight Rocky Mountain Cup with a win, draw or one-goal loss. The trophy, however inconsequential in the big picture, is taken seriously by the club.

“It����ap a two-for-one. I mean, it����ap got all the reasons to win the game. The Rocky Mountain Cup is for our fans, so for us it����ap one of the most important things,” Rapids coach Chris Armas said. “Every time there’s a trophy on the line, we want to be playing for that and put ourselves in that spot. You win that game, it puts you three points closer to the playoffs, gets us the Rocky Mountain Cup. It����ap 100 out of 100 important to make the playoffs; same time, lifting that trophy would be huge for our fans.”

The Rapids looked good post-Leagues Cup after Mihailovic forced his way out of Dick’s Sporting Goods Park in August, nabbing three points on the road against a top-3 Western Conference team in Minnesota United. Since then, they’ve collected seven points in six games, a stretch that could have yielded at least 10 points, and arguably more.

That said, the Rapids do still have an ounce of control left in regard to securing an MLS playoff spot, mostly thanks to the West����ap middle of the pack cannibalizing itself week after week. Mathematically, Colorado gets in with two wins.

But when asked if the Rapids are up for that sort of mental challenge, goalkeeper Zack Steffen didn’t offer much certainty.

“I have no idea. We’ll see come Saturday,” Steffen said after training on Tuesday. “All we can do is push every day in training, and when the game comes, give it our best.”

Over the past month and a half, Colorado’s best has been beating Houston via a last-minute own goal and grinding out a draw against Minnesota, both at home. It’s been much worse on the road, where the Rapids have been outscored 10-3 in three straight multi-goal losses to teams still below them in the standings.

“We’re one of the teams in MLS that scores first more than (most teams) on the road, which seems like a positive, but maybe that doesn’t help us,” Armas said. “I think from set pieces to concentration, to the way we start games and finish games, substitutions, it����ap really not one thing, I promise you. But I know the team steps on the pitch with a good mentality. Otherwise, we’re not getting lucky on the road with leads.”

Two wins and a lot of help could place them as high as sixth, but they could easily tumble out of the playoff picture entirely. But all likelihood suggests they’ll stay in that 8-9 play-in game spot.

That rests on getting at least a draw in Utah. If LAFC has a higher seed to play for on Decision Day, Bouanga and Son may slam the playoff door shut.

Even worse, the Galaxy played the kids in a 3-0 win over the Rapids. L.A. rotated its squad heavily with a Leagues Cup semifinal to prepare for, leaving only a few regular starters on the field for the Galaxy for most of the game.

“From the start of the game and all the way through, we just didn’t bring our good stuff on the night, which is disappointing, but you learn from it,” Rapids coach Chris Armas said. “The performance wasn’t good enough at all the things that make us good. … In order to win in this league, you’ve got to bring your good stuff.”

Two of those goals came from an 18- and a 22-year-old who combined for just 17 games of MLS experience. The former, Harbor Miller, struck early with a textbook finish in the seventh minute, then Elijah Wynder doubled the lead in the 55th — both assisted by right back Miki Yamame. Gabriel Pec, a substitute, put the game to bed in the 75th on a counterattack.

Colorado’s record-breaking newest signing in a slew of incoming transfers, Paxten Aaronson, subbed on in the 59th minute. A pair of other Rapids also played their first minutes with the club in left back Rafael Santos and midfielder Daouda Amadou.

There were moments, like hitting the post in the final minutes of the game, that made it evident why the Rapids spent $7 million on Aaronson. But there were others where he looked shaky. That����ap not entirely surprising, given his first training session was on Friday and he’s entering the fray having only done preseason ramp-up in Germany.

Curiously, Armas went away from the 3-4-3 formation that has netted the Rapids two straight wins since the departure of Djordje Mihailovic. Instead, it was a 4-4-2 that leaked wide attacks from the Galaxy that allowed for at least two, if not all three, of L.A.’s goals.

“(The 4-4-2) gives us an extra attacker on the pitch to go after the L.A. Galaxy (on the press). We can change formations, we have tactical flexibility to do that,” Armas said. “But tonight was more about the way we played, more than the structure. It was the basics: being sharper with the ball, decision-making, box defending, intensity. That����ap what it����ap always about; those are principles, the DNA of this team.”

Austin FC, a point behind the Rapids in the standings but with two games in hand, lost to another one of the league’s worst teams in CF Montréal. The Portland Timbers, now one spot and two points above Colorado with one game in hand, drew with San Diego FC.

The Rapids produced only one shot on goal against a team that now only has four wins in 27 games. Next up is a road trip to Sporting Kansas City, another team far below the Rapids in the standings, but one they lost to at home earlier this season.

“This team is still headed in the right direction. Next week, we’ve got a big game against SKC,” defender Reggie Cannon said. “All these points matter at this point. With only six games left, it����ap going to be really important with this run to get every point. I’m really proud of the way the guys showed their effort. … I think we’ve just got to improve the quality in the final third defensively and be more solid in the back next week.”

The newest Rapid, officially announced as a record-breaking inbound transfer on Thursday, had an introductory news conference in Denver alongside club president Pádraig Smith and coach Chris Armas. The 21-year-old attacking midfielder was acquired from Eintracht Frankfurt in the Bundesliga for a Rapids record $7 million and an additional $1.5 million in conditional add-ons.

The original plan was to allocate a record $8 million fee for Djordje Mihailovic modestly into multiple players, but in the past two weeks, an opportunity arose that the Rapids couldn’t pass up.

Aaronson, a bright prospect who could grow into a regular feature for the U.S. Men’s National Team, wanted to move on from Frankfurt and had options in England at the EFL Championship level. The Rapids had their eyes on him passively, but it got real when Aaronson expressed interest in Colorado as a home and a place to nurture his talent.

“I think it����ap a unique time in my career. … I think it’ll challenge me as a young player to come into a team, to fight for trophies and get better in roles and aspects maybe Europe can’t give me,” Aaronson said. “That����ap the main thing that attracted me to it, coming to a team, being a presence to try to win trophies. I want to make myself better and also everybody around me.”

Many of the players he’ll surround himself with have connections with him already through his academy days at the Philadelphia Union, as well as at youth national team camps and competitions. Those include Darren Yapi, Cole Bassett, Josh Atencio, Zack Steffen and Keegan Rosenberry.

In some ways, the Rapids have deliberately built a squad of up-and-coming national teamers or fringe players trying to push their way back into the USMNT fray. Aaronson wanted in on that.

Now, he could become one of the faces of a franchise that recently lost one in Mihailovic. Aaronson will likely play a similar position and wear the same number: No. 10, a historical marker of leadership and excellence. During his time with the Rapids, Mihailovic represented it well, but the club thinks Aaronson can take it further.

“We’re thrilled with this (transfer) window. … (Aaronson) was icing on the cake,” Smith said. “What happened with Djordje happened. We had to take a real deep look at that and say, ‘How do we get better here?’ We found a way to get better and ultimately brought in a player who I think will take us to another level because he’s able to affect the game on both sides of the ball.”

While officially at Frankfurt, Aaronson spent two years on loans at two different clubs in the Dutch Eredivisie. Last season, he was a finalist for the league’s Young Player of the Year award for a 12-goal contribution season at FC Utrecht. Now, Aaronson gets stability with a five-year contract in Colorado, where his father has an office for his work.

“I was constantly on the move,” Aaronson said. “The loans, they couldn’t have gone better. I enjoyed every moment in the Netherlands, but I hadn’t really been able to settle down somewhere and call it home. I think that really intrigued me about here, building that foundation of a family, being close to my family … and going into a locker room with a bunch of American guys and familiar faces makes it easier.”

Armas didn’t specify how he’ll use Aaronson on the field, but it seems he’ll occupy a central role. A return to Armas’s 4-2-3-1 with Aaronson as the 10 or keeping with the 3-4-3 with him as a No. 8 remains to be seen, but all three pointed out a willingness to press and win the ball back with consistency.

Armas, a players’ coach obsessed with culture, was especially impressed by Aaronson’s mentality and mindset in various meetings before the signing.

“We’re very selective in who we bring in, who we want in, and allow into our circle. It����ap a special group we have going,” Armas said. “For me, all the things that make great athletes great and good people good, this is what we have (in Aaronson), so it����ap a perfect fit. I think his play will do the talking of what a real player is: a team player who plays for the joy of the game, which sometimes gets lost these days.”

Pending medical evaluations, Aaronson could debut as soon as the Rapids’ away match at the L.A. Galaxy this Saturday. So could Rob Holding, a center back signing from nearly three weeks ago who received his P-1 Visa and is eligible to play. New arrival Rafael Santos made the bench last week against Atlanta United, but did not feature.

With seven games to go in the regular season, Aaronson doesn’t have a ton of time to establish his base, but perhaps a foundation in a more comfortable place with just enough challenge and responsibility to mold his young career.