Rapids Needs going into the 2025 Season: Pt. 1
How's the roster looking? Decent. Could it be better? For sure? We look at GK, FB, and CB for starters.
It’s motherf***ing hot stove season people! This is, to be honest, my favorite time of year. Fans the league over are either convinced that *this* is going to be the year – except maybe NYRB fans, who probably feel like Charlie Brown kicking Lucy’s football after their blowing another MLS Cup final opportunity.1 But also, there’s often another vibe that emerges as the player addition process stretches from January through March; that maybe your team isn’t doing enough. Or anything.
Historically, the Rapids have been at both ends. They’ve had years where they made no changes; other years, they’ve made early changes; and sometimes they’ve even made a flurry of changes a week into pre-season. You just really never know.
The MLS transfer window officially opens on February 10 and closes on May 4. Functionallymost MLS teams make all their moves between early February and the middle of March. MLS opening day is February 22nd – Colorado actually opens with a CCL match on February 18 – and you don’t want to introduce an exciting star player five or six games into the season. Additionally, most European transfer windows close between January 31 and February 15, so if a team hopes to earn a fee for a player under contract, that’s the deadline for when a deal needs to be made.
Colorado had a significant number of players already going into 2025. But what spots are still open? At which positions does the team need to kick it up a notch? And if that all happens, what are reasonable expectations for 2025?
Here’s the roster as of January 8, 2025.2
Of the 30 roster slots on an MLS team, Colorado has (maybe) 4 open Senior roster slots and 3 open reserve minimum slots. They also have around $5.7 million in GAM/TAM to spend on transfer fees and salary for those 4 Senior spots (Supplemental and Reserve spots are not charged). And with that much TAM and with the TAM player limit set at $1.68 million, Colorado also could hypothetically move a DP over to being a TAM player to make space for a new third DP.3
I don’t expect Colorado to go and get a DP, but they do have a lot of room to make some upgrades.
We’re gonna rate the level need using a four-color rating. Green ( 🟩 ) is ‘we’re good here’; Yellow ( 🟨 ) is ‘upgrade would be nice.’ Orange ( 🟧 )means ‘we kind of need help’. Red ( 🟥 ) is ‘uh-oh, we can’t start the season this way.’4
Goalkeepers:
Zack Steffen, 3364 minutes, +1.29 G-xG; Adam Beaudry, 102 minutes, +0.85 G-xG
Level of Need: Yellow? 🟨
I wasn’t enamored of Zack’s performance in 2024, and although I’m not convinced he’s going to suddenly rebound into a top five MLS keeper this year, I do think he’ll likely relax and settle in for a better season in 2025. More importantly much like in the Tim Howard era (2016-2019), he’s a big name, he’s the starting GK, and there’s really no point in debating hypotheticals.
Homegrown stud Adam Beaudry is the presumptive backup. Last year’s third keeper, Ethan Bandré, was released to end 2024. So Colorado needs a third keeper.
There two immediate in-house options.
First, Academy/Rapids 2 keeper Zackory Campagnolo is only 17 years old, but maybe he’s the presumptive guy, since he can play for Rapids 2 and take a call up if need be. Second, Rapids 2 announced today that they have signed Nicolas Defreitas-Hansen, formerly of Houston Dynamo 2, to an MLS Next Pro Contract.
However, neither of these guys seems like a strong option in the event that both Zack Steffen and Adam Beaudry get hurt or go out on extended international duty. For Zack, the Concacaf Gold Cup takes place from June 16 to July 6 this year. Beaudry has also been called up for U23 matches. So maybe Colorado needs to get a veteran bench guy.
There are a couple of out of contract MLS keepers I think that might go for a deal with Colorado at $100k. Austin Pack and Kyle Morton both played in Pittsburgh while I’ve lived here and are solid guys - they’d make very capable third-keeper options at a bargain price. Joe Bendik and Matt Bersano are veteran MLS guys that can do the job, too. Ben Martino is still young (he’s 22) - he might still become something in this league, so maybe buy low on a guy with potential. Tim Melia is also available: but he really deserves to be someplace he can challenge to be the starter, like in Chicago, DC, or San Diego. And (craziest idea that I kind of love) … Clint Irwin is available. I’d love to have him come back and be our salty veteran presence.5
Fullbacks:
Keegan Rosenberry, 2957 minutes, -0.66 G+; Sam Vines, 2451 min +0.12 G+;
Reggie Cannon, 379 min, +0.02 G+; Jackson Travis, 539 min -0.17 G+
Level of Need: Yellow. But maybe a relatively light shade of yellow. 🟨
This is kind of a weird offseason for the Rapids at fullback. I had to go back in memory to 2015 to remember the last time we weren’t sure who would be starting most of the season at the two fullback spots for the team; that year the season started with former Galaxy man James Riley on the right and Marc Burch on the left. Burch went down with injury; Riley was mostly terrible. Michael Harrington, Jared Watts, and Maynor Figueroa all came in to try and help the team. But the fullbacks were just one of many problems that year as the team finished 9-10-15 (WTL) and in last place in the Western Conference.6
This season is similar but different. Similar in that the team has one spot filled by an experienced veteran who may be in the beginning of a decline. Burch was 30 in 2015. He was hurt much of the season. But! He recovered in 2016 and started 27 matches for a team that went all the way to the Western Conference Finals. And then in 2017 he was traded, and that year was his last as a regular MLS starter. Right back Keegan Rosenberry starts this season at 31 years old. I mentioned a few weeks ago that I have concerns about his ability to defend at the highest level every week. So I don’t know if he’s our regular right fullback.
Sam Vines was not great to start the year but rounded into form by season’s end. In 2020 and 2021 he was electric, and Sam was on the USMNT radar going into Qatar before a series of injuries derailed him. It’s been up and down since, so we really don’t know whether Sam Vines is ‘top five FB’ Sam like he was four years ago or ‘league average’ Sam like he was this year. And thus Pádraig went out and got Reggie Cannon, former USMNT fullback, who had been underutilized at QPR in the English Championship. Reggie’s only 26, and he was fantastic in his younger days with FC Dallas in 2018 and 2019. Maybe he gets back to that?
Jackson Travis is your ‘off the bench, maybe gets 1000 minutes’ guy. He’s only 19, and he’s very capable and the physical tools are there. It’s all about confidence and decision-making for him now, though. The team let go of homegrown Sebastian Anderson at season’s end, so there’s potentially a deep-bench fullback spot open on the team too.
Overall, I’m concerned at this spot. I think there’s a real possibility that Cannon, Vines, and Rosenberry are all league-average or below in key metrics. And maybe that’s enough if you have players at five or six other spots that are exceptional. But Colorado isn’t likely to have superstar best-in-show guys at multiples spots. So personally, although every other fan and pundit I’ve heard from thinks this is not an area to upgrade, I think it would be smart to go out and get one more guy here that can compete - maybe a U22 initiative guy who’s true arrival date is in 2026, but in a pinch could be given a starting job this year.
Centerbacks:
Andreas Maxsø: 3466 minutes, 0.0 G+; Chidozie Awadiem: 533 min, +0.34 G+;
Ian Murphy: 2625 minutes, -0.76 G+; Nate Jones: 0 minutes, NA G+
Level of Need: Orange 🟧
During the 2024 season, Colorado sold Moïse Bombito. In the offseason, Colorado sold Lalas Abubakar. So for starters this offseason, that was 3207 minutes at CB Colorado needed to replace.
Thus, Colorado made a deal with FC Cincinnati to buy two center backs: Chidozie Awadiem and Ian Murphy.
The assumption is that newly acquired CB Chidozie Awadiem will step in and win the starting job. He certainly has big-league experience, with recent seasons in Portugal, Turkey, and Spain’s La Liga. Meanwhile the in-house guy, Andreas Maxsø, has sort of turned out to be sorta mid. He’s like the base model of a Lexus ES; he cost a lot, but if you look hard enough, you realize that what you have is effectively a very expensive version of a Toyota Camry. He’s been with Colorado two years; he earned around $1.3 million each year. He had a 0.0 G+ this year – meaning he was dead-on league average. Very Toyota Camry. He also turns 31 this year and is in the final year of his contract.
Ian Murphy will likely challenge for a starting job in camp, but anecdotal advice from FCC fans as well as his G+ numbers indicate that maybe he was ‘the other guy’ in this trade, and not the main guy. Maybe he proves us all wrong. Murphy, for now, is assumed to be taking a bench role with Colorado, as well as (perhaps) Nate Jones, a 2024 MLS Superdraft pick from the University of Washington who played 1987 minutes for Rapids 2 last year but zero minutes in MLS.
This is most definitely incomplete – there needs to be another experienced veteran here to fill in when needed, and another young developmental guy that could blossom, too. I think perhaps Colorado has that young guy: they drafted Matthew Senanou from Xavier, and I have to say, his scouting tape is pretty spectacular. He’s a pocket-passing, deep lying CB with size and physicality, and he’s an offensive threat on set pieces when he’s posting up – shades of both Moïse Bombito and Austin Trusty. Odds are he sees 500 minutes or fewer though this year.
Colorado will bring in one, maybe two players at this spot. One of them will need to be pretty good. There’s a world where they go get an MLS veteran who is league average and costs like $400k - a guy who could do just fine for 2500 minutes but you’d really prefer to use for just 800. In other words, Lalas Abubakar circa 2022. Xavier Arreaga, Nick Hagglund, and Tim Parker are all available, but none of those names excites me. Arreaga is probably a good choice but he earned $775,000 in 2024. I don’t see him coming down below $600,000, despite the fact that he anchored New England’s relatively terrible defense.
The Rapids should either bet big on Senanou, or use their U22 initiative slot to sign a young player from abroad. Or! My favorite suggestion would be to slide Keegan Rosenberry inside to challenge for a starting spot with Awadiem and Murphy, but ideally play 1000 minutes here as an option in relief. My guess is they get a vet and sign Senanou to an MLS deal: that’s the affordable play.
…
We’ll cover the Rapids needs at midfield in our next article in a few weeks. But before that, three quick notes:
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The MetroBulls have won the Eastern Conference six times (2000, 2010, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2018) and played in MLS Cup twice now (2008, 2024). They do have the impressive hardware of three Supporters Shields, though. Colorado has never won that trophy.
2024 Rapids 2 player Daouda Amadou will be added to this roster at the next update; he was apparently guaranteed a spot for 2025 as a condition of his signing in 2024. The rabbi’s spreadsheet is, perpetually, a work in progress. Aren’t we all…
Rafael Navarro earned $1.45 million in 2024, so as long as his 2025 salary isn’t a big jump from that, he could become a TAM player. Djordje Mihailovic earned $1.675 million in 2024; I have a feeling his 2025 salary makes him immovable to a TAM slot. Kevin Cabrál cannot be moved to a TAM player, as he mades $1.95 million in 2025. The LA Galaxy cover 50% of his salary, but for league cap rules, he’s still treated as a DP.
Historically the proper depth measure for the Rapids *at midseason* is the Palguta Depth Meter. In preseason, however, it is not customary to invoke Scott Palguta, praised be his name, now and forever, amen. [Shoutout to Burgundy Wave Founder, Chris White, inventor of the Palguta Depth Meter.]
For newer Rapids fans, Clint has already done two tours of duty for the Rapids; from 2013 to 2015 and again from 2019 to 2021. Why not a third, I say?
Our leading scorer, striker Kevin Doyle, had 5 goals that season (!). Every player the team brought in as the big star player was kind of a train wreck. Gaby Torres, the teams first-ever DP, underwhelmed in every way from the day he was acquired. Luis Solignac and Juan Ramirez, the big South American gets of the transfer window, were lousy. D-mid Marcelo Sarvas turned into pumpkin after a Cinderella season with LA Galaxy in 2014. It was just a terrible year all around.
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