If you're like me, you didn't watch a single minute of the midweek competition between MLS clubs Chicago Fire, RSL, LA Galaxy, and Houston, and their Liga MX counterparts Cruz Azul, Tigres UANL, Club America,  and Tijuana. And why would you? If an American soccer fan wanted to watch meaningless exhibition football matches between impressive global brands trotting out second-rate lineups, they had more than enough opportunity this week with the ICC competitions involving Atletico Madrid, Juventus, Man United, and Real Madrid (among others).

But while I may not have watched the games this time around, I definitely have an interest in where this all might lead.

MLS is growing each and every year. League-wide attendance is on-pace to break 8,000,000 for the third year in a row. With ESPN+, ESPN, Univision, and Fox Sports signed on as broadcasters, there are more games on tv and available to stream than ever before. Not to mention there are billionaires lined up for the chance to buy their way into the league to the tune of $200 million. It's that JJ Evans/Jimmy Walker life for Don Garber these days: good times.

And still, the league knows they have yet to truly succeed. That's because MLS TV ratings are still dwarfed by the volume of eyeballs that tune into English Premier League and Liga MX matches. The most-watched club soccer match on earth in 2018 was the UEFA Champions League final, with 3.02 million viewers. The second, third, and fourth most watched games were all Liga MX matches (two Cruz Azul-Club America matches and a Chivas-America game) that each pulled between 2.3 million and 2.5 million viewers. By comparison, the MLS Cup Final had 1.76 million viewers. 

You get a better snapshot of the situation by looking at the television viewership numbers from one two-week stretch in which all three leagues: MLS, EPL, and Liga MX were in full swing, like April 16 to 29, 2018. Here's the deets, c/o Worldsoccertalk.com.

There's seven Liga MX matches that had more viewers than the highest rated MLS match. And the third-highest rated MLS match, FC Dallas vs San Jose, did so well because it was the thing that people put on TV while they popped the popcorn for the Chivas Guadalajara-Club Leon match.

In other words, Liga MX games have four to ten times the TV ratings of MLS games. Right now, MLS owners may be satisfied turning a modest profit on their product. But if they can figure out a way to harness the interest of US-based Liga MX fans, that flow of cash will suddenly increase from a trickle to a firehose.

For a long time, MLS has tried to nibble at the edges of the other more popular leagues , Liga MX and EPL, by importing stars from those leagues to MLS like Wayne Rooney, Giovani Dos Santos, Steven Gerrard, Carlos Vela, and of course the OG MLS game-changer, David Beckham. And while all those additions increased the profile of MLS, the gains were typically constrained to in-stadium attendance when a team like the LA Galaxy appeared in your town. However successful MLS has become since Becks and Posh Spice came to LA in 2007, the EPL and Liga MX have stayed far, far more successful.

This is how we arrived to this point - the point where MLS is playing Liga MX in a strange little half-baked midseason tournament that the league has dropped like an anvil into the middle of the 2019 season. The four MLS teams that participated this year, Chicago, Los Angeles, Houston and Salt Lake, all have huge Latinx fanbases. The four Liga MX teams are among the leagues most popular teams and have 34 league championships between them collectively. (Although, to be fair, Chivas has twelve and America has thirteen. Xolos Tijuana has just one.)

In other words, MLS is tired of waiting for the slow conversion, fan by fan, of Mexican-Americans to MLS. They're cutting to the quick and giving Mexican league fans the chance to see their favorite team, right here in the US, while handing over their dough to MLS for the priveledge.

I can see two good things and three bad things about this arrangement. First, the good. 

If MLS and Liga MX promote it right, and frame the competition with adequate seriousness, it will be a financial boondoggle for the league. It will fill stadiums and increase TV viewership in ways that will position the league well for a boffo TV deal with ESPN or another cable and streaming suitor the next time the contract comes up, it will ultimately improve the viability of the league, increase salaries for players, and attract better players that will make for better football. An increased connection between MLS and Liga MX might ultimately pave the way for a bold new future for both leagues. Mexican teams know there's big money to be made in the United States: that's why El Tri regularly plays just as many exhibitions each year in the the US as it does in Mexico, selling out 80,000 seat stadiums along the way. MLS knows that the potential fanbase increases exponentially when your Saturday match is between Orlando City and Monterrey, instead of Orlando City and Colorado Rapids. The bold new future might be an expanded Leagues Cup that both countries really take seriously, or even an eventual merger of the two leagues. A merged league would be so large - with more than 40 teams - that it would almost certainly necessitate two tiers of participation. In other words, the best path towards promotion and relegation, a dream for many MLS supporters, probably runs through a merger with Liga MX.

There are some serious concerns too. Firstly, there's the problem we saw this past week of of MLS fans being outnumbered in their own stadia. We had ageless wonder DaMarcus Beasley equalizing against Club America last Thursday, running to the corner flag, and celebrating to a shower of boos *in his home stadium* in Houston. It was a bad look. As USMNT fans who have gone to the Rose Bowl when the Yanks play Mexico can attest, being an "away" fan in your own country kinda sucks.

Then, there's the question of whether MLS teams can even manage to put out a decent XI for these additional matches. Nobody wants to see a bunch of mediocre USL loanees and reserves scrapping in contest against Mexican youth players in senior team kits that have just been called up for the trip north. And we saw a little bit of that last week, as the LA Galaxy went with a Zlatan-and-Dos-Santos-less lineup against Xolos Tijuana, and the 11th place Chicago Fire, who effectively have nothing to play for, still put 7 regular starters on their bench against Cruz Azul. If Leagues Cup takes on the aura of a crappy third-rate tournament that nobody takes seriously, it's not gonna work.

MLS teams might need to get a little larger and a little deeper in order to rotate their squads for multiple competitions. If Leagues Cup is going to become a thing, MLS should consider adding a fourth DP slot, increasing the amount of TAM to increase the number of key role players on each team,  and expanding official rosters to 32 players from their current limit of 30.

The last problem is the suggested format of the tournament itself, which is kinda nonsensical.

I get it. MLS wants the big Mexican teams to come to the US in 2020, and they want to spread the love of an increased attendance windfall to the clubs that didn't qualify for the Concacaf Champions League. But then, what the hell is this tournament? It's a second-tier competition for MLS teams but only eligible to the top Liga MX teams? How does that make any sense? MLS and Liga MX would be smarter if they simply found a way to elevate CCL, perhaps by moving the games from the quarterfinals onward to the weekend, and making the Leagues Cup available to Liga MX that don't qualify for CCL. The surest way to kill this competition in its infancy is to make sure it lacks integrity and relevance right out of the gate.

Increased competition for MLS and Liga MX is inevitable and smart and will certainly be profitable. But it remains to be seen whether Leagues Cup will ultimately turn out to be a critical stepping stone on the way to a brighter future for both leagues, or, like the old Superliga that was dumped in 2010, just another false start of unfulfilled expectations.

by Mark Asher Goodman

The 2018 Colorado Rapids are done. Only the memories, mostly painful, remain.
If you are looking for a wonderful end-of-season superlatives article, my friend Matt Pollard at Last Word on Soccer did a good one. He called it "a peanut gallery rebuttal" to A Burgundy Affair, which is absolutely perfect. There were contributions from all around the Rapids press corps.

I'll do a simple month-by-month recap, either for posterity, or because I'm a lunatic. 

After that, stick around to hear the future of the Backpass column. 

Rapids Month By Month Recap

January - 
The Rapids unveil new head coach Anthony Hudson with much ballyhoo at a DSGP Press conference.
Colorado adds Edgar Castillo, Jack Price, Danny Wilson, and Tommy Smith to the team. Most pundits had concerns that the key additions were not at striker or attacking midfield - positions the Rapids have needed to reinforce for nearly a decade.

Colorado also makes five picks in the MLS draft. Ultimately, only striker Niki Jackson would remain with the team, but he will turn out to be a diamond in the rough. They also sign 18-year-old Sam Vines, a left back, to a homegrown contract, and ship him to Charlotte along with Andrew Dykstra and Caleb Calvert.

February - 

Rapids record: 0-1-1

Colorado opens the season with two CCL games to Toronto, with a 2-0 home loss in -7 degree Fahrenheit weather and a 0-0 draw in Canada. The 'Pids are out, and fast. Coach Hudson unveils the 5-3-2 attack, and it shows some attacking promise.

Hudson also refers to the two games as "essentially, like pre-season for us." I think he meant his comments to say 'we're not as sharp as we will be in another three months.' But unfortunately, he didn't say it that way, and the national media have a bit of a field day with it.

March - 
Rapids record for the month: 1-1-1; overall 1-2-2

The MLS regular season begins. Colorado loses to New England in the 90th minute, but Niki Jackson scores on his debut. 

The team gets Joe Mason, a bench-piece striker with a few goals here and there to his credit, on loan from Wolverhampton.

Colorado coughs up a 2-0 home lead in the second half to SKC to yield a 2-2 result, showing the first signs that there might be defensive problems afoot. 

In the third match of the year, the Philadelphia Union forget how to defend in transition and Dominique Badji scores a hat trick on them. Stefan Aigner subs on for 11 minutes, his first minutes of the season. Late in the game he streaks back post, wide open, but Dominique Badji takes the shot and scores himself. Aigner looks visibly frustrated.

Colorado sends dust-gathering centerback Jared Watts to Houston for $100K in TAM. Watts had been the CB of choice for Pablo Mastroeni in 2016 when the club was defensively unstoppable.

April -
Rapids record for the month: 1-2-1; overall 2-4-3

Colorado draws Dallas and beats Toronto's 'B' team, although Jack Price hits a stunner of a goal. Tim Howard gets a red at Rio Tinto as the Rapids get spanked 3-0 in the first leg of the Rocky Mountain Cup. We all thought that was going to be the worst game of the season. Little did we know, friends.

Colorado ends the month with a loss to Orlando City SC, getting torched in the second half.

Right back Marlon Hairston is out with an injury, forcing the Rapids to try Kip Colvey, Dillon Serna, Nana Boateng, and Deklan Wynne at the position. None of them look good there.

Stefan Aigner spends April sitting on the bench, or not making the 18-man gameday roster at all. Late in the month he has a shouting match at training with coach Anthony Hudson and storms off DSGP Field 23.

May - 
Rapids record for the month: 0-4-0; overall 2-8-3

Colorado sends Eric Miller to Minnesota United for winger Sam Nicholson.I was kind of sad about it.
The team loses every game of the month; 1-0 to SKC, 2-1 to NYRB, 4-0 to NYCFC, and 3-2 to Portland. They aren't even close in 3 of those 4 matches, as the Red Bull and Portland matches featured garbage time goals from Jack McBean and Yannick Boli. Also, it feels like Coach Hudson prefers new players to old players, even in the midst of the skid.

Nana Boateng looks particularly bad, especially in a midfield performance against Portland.
The press get wind of Aigner-gate and start asking questions. The stock answer from Hudson is that he wasn't yet match fit, but "he knows what he needs to do to get into the team."

After the team's sixth-straight loss to end the month, I asked Coach  Hudson if the team needed some kind of serious change. He said no; the club just needed "little tweaks". The 5-3-2, which has some nice attacking flexibility but is also opening the club up to be ruthlessly exploited on the counter-attack, will stay.

June - 
Rapids record for the month: 1-3-1; overall 3-11-4
(includes defeat in fourth round of US Open Cup to Nashville SC)

Although they ultimately break the duck, June will be remembered as the month the Rapids set a club record for consecutive losses with 9, including a midweek defeat in US Open Cup.

The month opens with Colorado's defense getting torn limb from limb by Vancouver Whitecaps, as Christian Techera and Jordy Reyna score goals in transition against the Rapids backline that leave them looking silly.
 
The Rapids add to that defeat with the loss to Nashville SC. The club debut a 4-4-2 diamond for the first time, but ultimately get played off the pitch by a USL team in just their first year of existence. It hurts all the more that Colorado loses to Gary Smith, Kosuke Kimura, and Matt Pickens; the coach and two of the key players from the 2010 MLS Cup-winning Rapids squad.

Three days later a tired and tattered Rapids play a listless defeat at Houston. Entering the month with only 8 points, the teams two losses essentially eliminate them from the playoffs, dropping their already 8% odds down to 4%, and it's only mid June.

They "stop the bleeding" on June 13 with a draw at home against Chicago Fire, who will go on to finish last in the Eastern Conference. They follow that up with an exciting 3-2 win against Minnesota United at home on June 23, proving that although the team totally sucks, at least they aren't boring.

Aigner-gate reaches its inevitable conclusion, as the disgruntled winger/bench-dweller is given his release. The club reports it as a 'termination by mutual consent', but for roster purposes, the move is akin to taking $850,000 of money that is committed to the 2018 salary cap, dumping it in he DSGP parking lot, and lighting it on fire. Think of the nice McMansion in Highlands Ranch you could have bought with that money, kids. Stefan Aigner returns to Germany to sign for KFC Uerdigen in the German 3rd division, where as of this writing, he is third in the league with 6 goals and his team is in 4th place.

July -
Rapids record for the month: 1-3-2; overall 4-14-6

Colorado grinds out a 1-0 victory on the road to start the month at BC Place.
The team had experienced airplane delays departing Canada for a midweek July 4 game at home against Seattle and they lose at home. Another airplane mechanical challenge hurts them as they roll into Montreal a day behind schedule and lose, but most fans assume that a fully-rested Rapids squad wouldn't have fared much better.

They follow that up with a dull 0-0 draw at home against Houston, and an exciting 2-2 draw against  RSL. That result at least gives a shred of hope that the team can still find a way to win back the Rocky Mountain Cup later in the year.

The month ends away to DC, as they concede a goal to Wayne Rooney, (eight seconds of total breakdown) , then snatch defeat from the jaws of a draw when Niki Jackson has an own-goal in stoppage time.

The big story of the month though comes on July 23 during the MLS summer transfer window, as the team's leading scorer Dominique Badji is traded to FC Dallas in exchange for USMNT midfielder Kellyn Acosta, who was unhappy with his playing time for Oscar Pareja. The move is a win-win for both sides, although it looks likely that Acosta is using the Rapids as a pit-stop on the way to somewhere else in 2019 or 2020. Can you blame him?

August - 
Rapids record for the month: 2-2-1; overall 6-16-7

Colorado beat the LA Galaxy and San Jose at home to start the month. It was a great display of the potential of both Kellyn Acosta and the 4-4-2 diamond. But also, it was against a Galaxy team with a lackluster defense and the San Jose Earthquakes, the worst team in the league. (The SJ game was my last as a Coloradan. *sniff*)

Colorado's road match against the Galaxy is a pretty great one. Niki Jackson scored a shocking equalizer to give the team a 2-2 draw. Tim Howard has a nice first-half save off the line, Castillo scores a banger, and David Bingham biffs a relatively easy save on Niki's goal. 

The club stays in LA for four more days and lost to high-octane LAFC.

They close out the month with what might be considered the worst defeat in club history. Facing RSL in the scratch game of the Rocky Mountain Cup, they surrender the early lead to a Damir Kreilach goal. Shortly thereafter, Niki Jackson head butts an RSL player and draw a straight red card. Colorado concedes again. Nana Boateng kicks another RSL player - another straight red. Four goals later, Colorado limps off the pitch to a smattering of boos. It would have been louder, but most of the fans had already left. 

September -
Rapids record for the month: 0-4-0; overall 6-20-7

Colorado hits the skids hard, losing to Portland, Atlanta, Columbus, and Seattle by a combined score of 11 to 1. A back injury to Sam Nicholson keeps him sidelined. The only bright spot here was that Rapids homegrown Cole Bassett gets his first minutes for the club in the Portland and Atlanta games.

But that's just an interesting footnote. In reality, Colorado play 360 minutes of terrible, soul-sucking football, pounding the life out of their few morose fans.

October -
Rapids record for the month: 2-1-1; overall 8-21-8 (8-19-7 in MLS play).

Colorado finished the 2018 MLS season with 31 points; 21st out of 23  teams in the league. 

Colorado begins by welcoming LAFC to Colorado for the first time, and Carlos Vela and Adama Diomande absolutely molly-wallop the team, 3-0.

The Rapids get a win against Minnesota on the road 2-0, and the game is marred by some shoving at the end due to Tommy Smith flexing in front of the Loons bench. Cole Bassett gets his first start.

Colorado goes to Avaya Stadium and grinds out a decent 0-0 draw - both teams get looks but neither can finish. Colorado starts Cole Bassett, Kortne Ford, and Dillon Serna, and subs on Sam Vines at the half - it is the first game in club history that features four homegrowns on the field at the same time. (Snarky comment - considering how bad the Rapids international signings are this year, maybe we should focus on domestics from now on.)

The end-of-season match back home on decision day has a bit of revenge in it, as they play FC Dallas, who stole their coach (Pareja) took their striker (Badji) and twice knocked them out of the Open Cup (2017 and 2016). Colorado win, dropping FC Dallas from second in the Western Conference to fourth, forcing them into a knockout match they will lose to Portland. Cole Bassett scores his first career goal. 

There was some mild controversy too, as a C38 supporter was cited for throwing smoke in the parking lot, and the fans left section 117 for the terrace in protest. I'm sick of the Commerce City Fire Department too, you guys. No Fun Police is what those guys are. Uncle Stan should buy those guys a lap dance and make them look the other way every Saturday, in my humble opinion.

...
That is the sad story of the 2018 Colorado Rapids. They stumbled a little off the bat, suffered through an early season controversy, had trouble scoring, were knocked out of Open Cup by a USL team, and endured 9 and 7 game losing streaks. Many of their signings were over-priced for what they produced. And as we end the year, both of the club's DPs, Tim Howard and Shkelzen Gashi, will still be on the books for 2019. Meanwhile we still don't know what will become of their best player, Edgar Castillo, who is on loan from Monterrey. There's money to improve this club, but there aren't dollars or roster spots available for a full teardown and rebuild. 2019 will require some really lucky signings as well as the improvement of a number of 2018 disappointments like Tommy Smith, Danny Wilson, Johan Blomberg, and Nana Boateng. 


Signing off from Backpass, maybe for good

A short note follows this article regarding the unfortunate demise of Around MLS. It was a good idea, but it didn't have the legs.

I don't know what lies in store for me as a Rapids writer. They're still my favorite MLS team, and I'd love to cover them, but it's harder from two time zones away, and it's less interesting when you don't have the access and the practices and the press box and the witty banter with Marcelo Balboa at the half. 

I also no longer have an outlet to write for - I'm a free agent. I had some great professional writing success this year, getting pieces published at big sites like The Athletic and the Washington Post. I haven't let it get to my head - I'm not quitting my day job as a part-time rabbi. But I also really don't have a home base to write for, and my weird little portfolio of stats, tactics, and goofy pop-culture inflected snark doesn't really fit neatly into anyone's box. As of right now, I plan to be a contributor at PittsburghSoccerNow, and see if anything else catches my fancy. I might migrate Backpass over there and switch it to USL coverage, or bring it back with another outlet in the Spring and stick with the Rapids. 
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Or this might be the final Backpass in history of any sort. It was a good run. It'd be sad, but all things, including another underwhelming Colorado Rapids soccer season, must end.