by Mark Asher Goodman

There's losing. There's total disaster. And then, five layers below that, is the utter shitshow that transpired Saturday night at DSGP as the Colorado Rapids went down a man, then two, and were completely eviscerated by hated rivals Real Salt Lake by the unbelievable score of 6-0.

There's not a lot to say about this game. I could debate whether either of the two red cards was justified, but what the hell for? They were certainly infractions. A head butt, even a mild one, is uncalled for, and the referee is well within the rules to send Jackson off. And Boateng sticking out his leg at his man's shin is unbelievably dumb; even if he didn't really intend to cause injury, what he did was  dangerous. But moreover, both plays resulted in red cards. We can arbitrate them ex post facto till the cows come home, but until someone invents a time machine, nothing will change.

I could analyze the defense - the team was behind by two goals when Boateng was sent off. The defense certainly could have - should have - done better 9 v 11 to salvage some dignity. A 3-0 defeat would've been disappointing but understandable. And in hindsight, even 4-0 would've been nice. But still, I'd be quibbling over 'the degree of the loss', and nothing more. After the second goal went in and Boateng was red-carded, the added goals RSL scored were humiliating, but they didn't change the result. It was 3 points and the cup to Salt Lake whether we lost 1-0 or 6-0.

I don't know that there is much to analyze, anyway. The defense was terrible, start to finish. Every single player defending made bad plays, missed tackles, got out of shape, watched when he should have been reacting, or all of the above. There's not a player in the starting XI who didn't screw up to a significant degree; even the usually reliable Edgar Castillo was off- check the sixth goal. The back four looked atrocious, but that's certainly because the midfield in front of them was as easy to get through as a waterslide slathered in Crisco.

After going down a man, then two men, the defense was absolutely taken apart. Even BEFORE going down a man, the defense wasn't adequate, as the team conceded a goal in just the fifth minute on some really poor defending.

Rewatching all the goals conceded, there were so many things wrong. 

- On the first two goals, the central midfield was disorganized and slow to react.

- On the first two goals, the center backs weren't aggressive enough.

- After going to nine men, Anthony Hudson continued with  a three-man backline, which was easily exploited for goals three through six. I said the back four looked atrocious. They were even worse as a back three.

I've run out of  synonyms that could adequately surpass the word atrocious.

There really weren't any players that didn't have a bad day, except maybe Deklan Wynne, who came on late enough that it didn't matter.

And as a result, it was all very humiliating. RSL came in like a bunch of unruly over-caffeinated eighth graders  pouncing on a lone junior chess club member. They kicked us in the nuts, stole our wallet, de-pantsed us, tied our shoes together, dumped a pizza on our heads and then deposited us in a big green dumpster filled with rancid milk. At the school dance. In full view of the girl we had a crush on.

Sure, that's an overwrought metaphor, but let me unpack it a little. The Rapids had little to play for other than this game, the only 'cup' left that could serve to lift the moods of the fans. This game was the last one of the year that mattered. This was our last school dance. And we got humiliated. 

Fans are furious - this loss is really the cherry on top of a terrible season. Speaking from experience, the really unfortunate thing about this defeat is that it will be remembered as the signature moment of 2018. In 2017, it was the Watts backpass-own-goal game. In 2016, it was the playoff shootout win at home against LA Galaxy. 2015 is a tougher choice for memorable match. I guess it was losing 2-1 to RSL at home, but winning the Rocky Mountain Cup in the process. Although I have strong memories of the April 4-0 victory on the road to Dallas that snapped an 18 game winless streak. 2014's memorable match is most definitely the game against LA Galaxy in which Joe Nasco received a red card in the first minute. That resulted in a 6-0 drubbing.

Now, with the implosion against RSL Saturday, we have our memorable match of 2018. We can only hope that our signature match of 2019 will provide us with a memory that is warm and fuzzy instead of horrendous and icky. This season will always be remembered by this game, and the feelings of nausea, frustration, and hopelessness that accompanied it.

Memphis? Now?

On the MLS schedule, Colorado has a bye week. But the club travels Saturday to Memphis for an exhibition match with the USL's Tulsa Roughnecks. After losing this last one in such a disastrous manner, this upcoming game against Memphis seems really poorly timed. I think it's great for Tim Howard to have a chance to do a solid for a new team in Memphis with which he will be affiliated, and in general I'm in favor of spreading the gospel of pro soccer.

I'm also relatively neutral on midseason friendlies, although I know that many folks would disagree with me. A lot of people see a match like this as either a crass cash grab by a club, or a massive distraction for a team that should focus on meaningful league matches - or possibly both. The Rapids aren't doing the grabbing of the cash - they're helping Memphis generate excitement for joining the pro soccer world, and there isn't anything from which to be distracted, since the team is essentially done for the season and all the matches from here on out take the same relevance as exhibition matches.

But. The timing on this one is obviously terrible. If the Rapids win, fans will be upset that they could turn in a good effort the week after turning in a terrible effort. If they lose or draw, it will only reiterate how lousy the club is this season.

Tulsa sit dead last in the USL Western Conference with a 2-12-10 record. Even if the team starts a bunch of benchwarmers and Charlotte loanees, as expected, they need to win 3-0 or better to just register an eye-roll from the fans. Any result weaker than that and I'll probably feel like dry-heaving in despair.
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I think other fans might feel the same way, but I'm even more concerned for another possibility at this juncture: that nobody even cares. Rapids fans may not be paying attention to anything the team does, exhibition or league-match, until next February. At this point, that seems like an eminently prudent decision.

By Mark Asher Goodman

Midway (OK, technically a third of the way) through a 1,456 mile odyssey across America to relocate myself and my car to Pittsburgh (the family, wisely, took a plane), I found myself in Kansas City, Kansas on a Saturday night. This gave me the privilege of attending a Sporting Kansas City match. And as much as I’m emotionally bonded to Dick’s Sporting Goods Park and the Colorado Rapids, I have to admit, it was pretty great. 

It was only the fourth MLS stadium I have ever been to: Colorado’s Dick’s Sporting Goods Park (duh), Seattle’s CenturyLink Park (for the 2016 Western Conference Finals, leg 1), LAFC’s Banc of California Park (this year while visiting family) and now Children’s Mercy Park.

I chose to spend the game in the stands, knee-to-sweaty-knee with the hoi polloi in the regular ol’ stands, instead of getting a media pass. The game was sold out, and not in a DSGP ‘sold out’ kind of way, where there are 18,000 tickets distributed but a fair sprinkling of open spots. No, this game was packed to the gills. Every seat was occupied. This is, of course, at least partially due to SKC’s successful 2018 season: the baby blue Wizards sit second in the Western Conference table, and on this night faced fourth place Portland Timbers.

​The atmosphere was loud. The members of the KC Cauldron supporters group at the north and south end kept the noise up all game, but also the other sections to the west and east rose and cheered and chanted and were engaged to a degree I haven’t seen elsewhere. The Cauldron was packed with maybe 2,000 fans on the more active north end, and had an ‘auxiliary’ on the south of another 100 active noisemakers.

The stadium itself is great. It was built around the same time as DSGP, and with essentially the same Soccer Specific Stadium footprint as Dick’s or FC Dallas’ Toyota Park, with seating for 18,467 fans. There’s a little more space for suites I think. The exterior is quite nice. 

​Children's Mercy also has a much expanded pre and post-game space, akin to DSGP's 1876, but called the Budweiser Brew House. It's maybe ten times larger, though, and has three food stands, at least four bar or tap options, a gathering space for supporters to march and drum and rumpus, standing tables, an outdoor patio, a scarf wall, and perhaps a dozen large screen tvs, mostly tuned to other MLS games. It's 1876 but much, much better. I was super jealous, if you can't tell.

In short, Sporting Kansas City really has it all together.

How did they get there? How has SKC, an MLS original team in a ‘football’ town in the midwest, built a fan culture and experience that is far exceeds that of DSGP? Both the Colorado Rapids and Sporting Kansas City were, once upon a time, struggling franchises playing soccer in cavernous throwball stadiums with gridiron lines with seating for nearly ten times as many fans as were present. Kansas City began life as ‘the Wiz’, a name only a urologist could love. In 1997 they rebranded as the Wizards, and in 2011 they rebranded again as ‘Sporting Kansas City’ - being to my knowledge the only sports team in the US to stay in the same city and yet go through two separate rebrands. 

​I got to hang out post-game with Sam Pierron, former Kansas City Wizards employee, former supporters group president, and season ticket holder since the team’s very first year in 1996. I asked Sam if the team’s remarkable success could be attributed to fielding winning teams, or the supporters group having success, or the new stadium coming online in 2011, or being in a city with only football and baseball to compete against. Sam thought it was a little of all three, but definitely felt that the building of DSGP occured a little *before* the big MLS boom, while Children’s Mercy came in at the exact right moment to capture the national soccer zeitgeist. 

On-field success, though, cannot be overstated as a factor. Colorado built DSGP in 2007. In 11 seasons, the Rapids failed to qualify for the MLS Cup playoffs 7 times, and won just 1 trophy, the 2010 MLS Cup. They were the last team in Major League Soccer to sign a designated player. Meanwhile, Sporting Kansas City have been gangbusters since moving to their new digs and changing their name. They made the playoffs every single year since 2011; won the US Open Cup in 2012, 2015, and 2017; and won MLS Cup in 2013.
Everybody loves a champion, and KC residents love Sporting. They buy tickets, they show up, they make noise.
 
And they don’t even have a downtown stadium. 

​A familiar refrain of Rapids fans is the belief that ‘if only the stadium was closer to downtown’, younger, more engaged millennials would turn up, the team would sell out, and we’d have a more engaged fan base. And perhaps that’s true. But SKC didn’t build a downtown stadium - far from it. They built their new stadium far to the west of downtown Kansas City, just north of a NASCAR speedway and surrounded on all sides by unattractive, soulless big-box stores in a suburban commercial sprawl that stretches virtually as far as the eye can see in any direction. The upside is that there’s plenty of parking, I guess, but the downside is that you ain’t walking to the game from your downtown hipster loft apartment.

Doesn’t matter. SKC games are vibrant and loud and fun. 

There is certainly a chicken-and-egg challenge to boosting ticket sales and fan involvement at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park. For the team to win, it needs the financial wherewithal that comes from big time ticket sales, merchandise, and tv ad revenues. For fans to see a Colorado Rapids game as a desirable ticket, there needs to be the buzz that comes from a raucous supporters section and regular appearances in the playoffs.

The point of all this is not to say ‘SKC is a better soccer experience than seeing the Colorado Rapids’. It’s not better, just different. But it certainly has advantages. The point is really to show that there was a divergent point for both of these two MLS originals back in the mid-2000s. Both teams were perennial mid-table clubs in midwestern flyover cities playing soccer in NFL stadiums.* Both teams built a soccer specific stadium that changed their teams fortunes - the Rapids fortunes improved modestly, and Kansas City’s improved dramatically.

Colorado is not so far off from KC in any aspect. It has infinite potential for a more robust and intense soccer experience. Perhaps all it needs is a few sustained years of winning. It’s not unattainable. It’s not so far. We can get there from here.

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​* The Kansas City Wizards also played in a minor league baseball stadium from 2008-2010.