RAPIDS STARTING THEIR 23RD SEASON
With a new head coach and an abundance of new faces, the Colorado Rapids open their 23rd MLS season Saturday at New England, another team with a new coach.
Anthony Hudson, a Seattle native whose father, Alan, played for Chelsea, Stoke City, Arsenal and the Seattle Sounders of the old North American Soccer League, promises to bring a “positive and aggressive” style of soccer featuring dual strikers and a three-man back line. Hudson coached New Zealand’s national team the past three years.
Coming off a horrendous season that saw them finish with the third-worst record in the league (9-19-6), there is a strong likelihood that more than half the Rapids’ starters on Saturday will be players who were added in the offseason.
“It’s been a really good preseason,” Hudson said. “There’s been so many changes and new players and faces and staff, trying to establish something new. To now get to the first game, really excited. Finally the games are here, and we’re all looking forward to it.”
Hudson concedes it will take time for his team to evolve into the form he is trying to build, but doesn’t want that to be an excuse for struggling early in the season.
“What’s important right now is getting results,” Hudson said. “That’s the main focus. The actual performance side, and how we’re going to look as a team, the style of play and that type of thing, that obviously is a work in progress. That will just keep improving and evolving.”
Two major new components are center back Tommy Smith, who spent most of his career with Ipswich Town in England, and Jack Price, a defensive midfielder who came to Colorado from Wolverhampton Wanderers. Hudson prizes Price for the way he reads the game and distributes the ball when it is won. That was shown in his onetouch passes in a pair of Champions League games against Toronto FC last month.
“Not only is he very comfortable on the ball when he can get the ball, from anywhere on the pitch he’s sort of the connector,” Hudson said. “He connects back to front, left to right. Also his temperament, he’s just a really good character and he’s got a little bit of steel, a little bit of fight in him as well, which is what we need. He’s a good leader in the middle of the pitch.”
New England already has played a league game — a 2-0 loss last week at Philadelphia — under new coach Brad Friedel, a former U.S. national team goalkeeper. Both starting center backs for New England were sent off for red cards and will be suspended for this game.
“It’s dangerous for us to think that because they’ve had two center backs suspended, that they’re going to be a far weaker team,” Hudson said. “Plus, it’s their first game at home. We have to expect that we’re going to get a big performance from them, and it’s going to be a tough game.”
The Rapids will be missing center back Kortne Ford, who sprained a knee ligament in a scrimmage this week after starting both games against Toronto.