The Rapids head to Vancouver for a matchup against the West-leading Whitecaps on Saturday. In the broadcast booth will be former MLS player turned color commentator, Heath Pearce. In his seven seasons in MLS, the defender made 129 appearances with over 10,000 minutes logged. Pearce will call the match alongside Mark Rogondino on the English broadcast for Apple TV and MLS Season Pass this weekend.
Colorado is coming off an impressive win over a top team in MLS, what are your thoughts on that performance and what can they take into Saturday against Vancouver?
I think the performance was a strong one in terms of making a statement. I think you know, for me, Colorado is a unique market. I personally love it, but also hate it because we [FC Dallas] lost to Colorado in the 2010 MLS Cup Final. Having said that, though, looking at this particular season, I think the Rapids are a unique team. Colorado always has to have a chip on their shoulder in terms of earning respect across the league, and last year, they did that consistently. This year, similarly, they're going to have to continue to make and create big results to drive the attention that I think this Colorado squad and coaching staff deserves. When I look at the win against Charlotte, it's a statement win. With Colorado being the home team against Charlotte, they really put some pressure on in the second half and we're able to get a huge result thanks to two big moments from Mihailovic. In terms of a statement, it's hard early on in a season when you look at those inter-conference games, but it does give a lot respect that I think Colorado has demanded. More importantly, to have that type of result as a bounce back against the result they had against Portland, I think really speaks volumes to the team not scrapping their identity and buying even more in to what it's going to take to get results. We're seeing a team continue to get better week over week.
Vancouver will go into Saturday having just played a Champions Cup match on Wednesday. As a former player, did you approach matches any differently if you knew the opponent had played a midweek match?
You definitely want to play into that, because they've had to use a number of players to play a lot of minutes. Sebastian Berhalter, as an example, is a player that's probably played way too many minutes. Even though he's young, for this time of year where you would have liked to have seen more rotation, the team just hasn't had the ability to rotate as much as they want. Similar to Colorado, theyāre dealing with injuries, rotating players, international breaks and those types of things. So, you could say āHey, they're going to come in off of two days rest, and we're going to try to come out with that intensity and energy to force mistakes and really force them to be uncomfortable.ā So, you definitely play into that a little bit. It's more so something that Chris Armas can mention right in the locker room as a motivator for this team. The flip side, though, for Vancouver, they've been on a tear to start the season. So, when you're playing for results, and you get a 1-1 result against a LigaMX side, despite being at home and probably not the best result that you want, you have the thought that youāre in form right now and can compete with anybody. That's the momentum that they have. So, when you're in a run of form, you don't want to train, you just want to say āBring on the next team. Let's go.ā So, it's a little bit of a two-sided coin in that, you can use it as a motivator for the away team, but then for the home team, they're just trying to stack up those results because they are in form.
Colorado has now posted three clean sheets through their first six matches, good for second in the league. What have your thoughts been on their defensive play so far?
When you go back to last year, replacing MoĆÆse Bombito was always going to be a huge task. Now, you've got a back line that's finding some consistency. Although Colorado is still missing Sam Vines, Reggie Cannon has had to be in and out, Rosenberry has been on the left and right side, and theyāre not completely settled in - to get three clean sheets is amazing. I do think that the evolution of Zack Steffen this year has been fantastic in terms of the role that he's playing. Little details that Chris Armas has talked about in terms of how the team is stepping out and creating better opportunities for Steffen to make saves that are a toss-up. I think it is a testament to take last season and improve on it into this season, that's going to make the Rapids a more difficult team to beat. Yes, Colorado is still giving up shots, but I think you're starting to see a little bit more of that consistency, and that comes in terms of results. When you think about goals against, itās probably not the ideal number that Colorado wants to be at, but the fact that they are getting results, keeping a clean sheet, and grinding out those moments, whether that's a 1-0 win against Austin or a 2-0 result against Charlotte. I think that speaks to the DNA of what the team wants to have, and the way in which they want to be difficult to beat. When you think about clean sheets over a season and when you start to add those up, even if there's all kinds of data points that might suggest otherwise, for the players themselves, a clean sheet is a huge result. That data is for me to look at. You can say, āHey, we're facing 40 shots, but Zack Steffen is making the saves, we're making those shots difficult, we're making big plays in the last moments. Maybe we could handle or manage moments of games better, but we're still getting clean sheets.ā That builds confidence and a belief that you're in every match, you can defend against anything, and you can survive difficult moments.
Are there any key Rapids defenders that you believe will have added impact against Vancouver?
For the team, theyāre going to have to have a top level performance from their center backs. Vancouver is going to throw a lot at the Colorado back line, and they will be occupying a striker in Brian White that is comfortable running for 90 minutes, putting them under pressure defensively and in transition, and getting in the box any the time that he can. The other part is the transitional game. I wouldn't say there's one player more important than the other, but the way Vancouver play is that they'll build up with three and they'll defend with four. When that happens, that means there's constantly an overload in certain spots of the field. In the case that we've seen most recently, you have [Ćdier] Ocampo that steps more into the midfield, so that means that Colorado has to be able to to shift to counter against the right-hand side. For whoever is playing in that left-back role, you have to be able to deal with those things. Vancouver also does have a lot of strengths in wide areas, depending on who they go with. They can transition well, they can counter, well, they they'll chase things long. They have a number of players that will fight to get into the box and transition. So when they send numbers where, I think Colorado can be exposed at times is in that clear possession, one bad turnover, and they left themselves exposed. And so more than I think it is about Colorado and where they defend in the mid to high block, and the preference there and how they press collectively, it's more about Colorado likes to have the ball, maybe not as much as they haven't had as much as they'd like, but when they do have the ball, can you prevent that bad turnover? That's one so like, kind of that proactive defending and then the rest defense. So as the team is building up into shape, what is it that your center backs are doing to make sure you have one in front of Brian White one behind you have your holding midfielder that's sitting back to make sure that you can prevent these counter attacks from happening. And quite frankly, that's sort of looking at Atencio col, Basset, Ollie the rise, and saying, you know, each one of you might have to get a yellow card in this game to prevent transitions, right? So it's about being smart in those moments where the teams exposed so that it doesn't allow Vancouver to get out and transition. Because once they do, they they'll send a bunch of numbers forward. They'll attack you from white areas. They put in really good crosses. That's a very clear picture as to how they want to score goals. And they get into the box a lot.
How do you see Saturdayās match playing out?
This is a really good matchup. I think looking at it through the lens of Colorado, this is a great test--taking on a top in the west team in Vancouver that has added a new manager, that has improved with that new manager, and has continued to create opportunities. Most of their goals are coming from all areas of the field and they haven't really gotten Brian White into the form that they want or have gotten their best team on the field consistently. For Colorado, this will be a discipline game in all moments and they will try to get Vancouver exposed. Overall, I think this is going to be a great test for Colorado to see how they stack up against a team that has some creative ways in which they can open you up in possession, but they aren't perfect by any means. Vancouver should believe that they should be able to get a result against Colorado. Alternatively, Colorado should look at Vancouver and say, āIf we are who we say we are and we want to be who we want to be this season, this is a game we have to be able to go away from home and leave with something.ā