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New Colorado Rapids coach Chris Armas at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park on November 30, 2023. (Photo by Andy Cross/The Denver Post)
Chris Armas was using an elliptical machine in his New York basement last September when he started watching Colorado Rapids press conferences following Robin Fraser’s firing.
A few months removed from his Premier League stint with Manchester United and Leeds United, the 51-year-old is cautiously eyeing opportunities to continue coaching.
There were several head coaching jobs in MLS, but none were as intriguing as the head coaching job in Colorado, at least based on what Armas heard from Rapids president Padraig Smith at the podium that day. .
When Smith talked about establishing an identity on the field based on a stifling press and a quick attack that took advantage of Colorado’s elevation, Armas found himself echoing the same sentiments. In fact, he watched the hour-long press conference again, and it was as if he was asking why he wasn’t calling.
No one came. And shortly thereafter, he held his own press conference in Commerce City.
Armas’ time in Europe is over. But from the highs, coaching players like Cristiano Ronaldo and having long conversations with legendary United manager Sir Alex Ferguson, to the lows, when he earned the nickname ‘Ted Lasso’. Until then, all the lessons learned from his overseas assignments were brought back to America. Things didn’t go well.
“You have to go to work every day. People aren’t there to judge you, but you’re always being judged and you have to know that,” Armas said. said. “But you realize that what matters most is your daily work, and that’s how you earn respect. You have to carry a lot of your own weight.”
Now back in MLS, he’s looking to instill that attitude into the culture of his new club.
For Armas, it helps to have new members on the team with similar experiences. Like Armas, players like Djordje Mihajlovic, Zach Steffen and Sam Vines all started in MLS (Vines was a native of the United States and played for the Rapids from 2018 to 2021), all of whom moved overseas and overcame adversity. I went through a lot and ended up in Colorado.
Stefan suffered a knee injury while on loan at Middlesbrough from Manchester City. Armas was Man United’s assistant at the most inopportune time, as the club navigated managerial issues during the 2021-22 season. Mihailovic alluded to “external events” that forced him to return to the United States. Vines was excluded from the UEFA Champions League due to a clerical error.
It’s up to them to make the most of this new opportunity to rebuild the Rapids.
bring heat
Mihailovic, the Rapids’ new No. 10 and the most expensive transfer player in club history, will do whatever it takes to spark a turnaround. His main contribution is intensity.
The 25-year-old, formerly of Dutch side AZ Alkmaar, is drawing on what he saw in Europe. Training is a battleground to earn playing time there, with giants like West Ham, Lazio and Aston Villa doing everything they can to get the three points. — and applied it to Rapids.
That fire has been on display not only in training, but also in the team’s six preseason games in Mexico and Florida.
“We are here to win the title,” Mihailovic said. “And I know it’s weird for me to say that, considering the last few seasons in Colorado. When I say that all the time, people look at me like, ‘Are you serious?’ Masu. Yes, I’m serious. I think we’re slowly starting to understand that we’re playing this game to win and the locker room is a good opportunity to set a baseline of competitiveness and winning mentality.
“I’m a person who gets very frustrated when we don’t win, and I think my teammates could already feel that in the few practice games we had in Mexico. If I wasn’t on the winning team, there would be chaos.” Let’s go.”
He knows better than anyone that it’s a process. At media day in January, he said it would be “foolish” to think things would be perfect right away. No matter how you look at it, the production situation on site is still far from perfect.
On a side note, the Rapids have shown this preseason that they can find the back of the net at a rate not seen at any point last year. Through six unofficial matches (some lasting over 90 minutes), they scored 21 goals.
“It’s not a straight line to MLS Cup. There will be a lot of ups and downs,” Mihailovic said. “I’m very confident and we have multiple competitions like the Open Cup, League Cup and MLS. I know MLS very well in that you never know what can happen if you make it to the playoffs. .”
That was then, this is now
Vines’ European experience ended somewhat abruptly, due in part to a clerical error made by his former team, Royal Antwerp of Belgium. The mistake resulted in him being left off the team sheet for this year’s Champions League group stage.
The left-back is no stranger to the frenzy that is common in European football. He said, for lack of a better word, having to adapt to different cultures, both living and playing football in Europe, helped him grow.
“Everything behind me is the past, but it’s all experiences, good and bad, that you can learn from,” Vines said. “For me, I’m just looking forward to the season and hoping to get off to a good start.”
Vines was a key player for the Rapids in 2021, coming into the game against Belgium after leading the Western Conference in the regular season.
Although he was not with the club last year, longtime friends and teammates such as Cole Bassett and Keegan Rosenberry have told him some of the dark details of the club’s quick fall to the bottom of MLS in two years. exposed. Still, Vines said he can only imagine what it really felt like, especially with a coaching change after a bad run.
Now reunited, he says the buzz is similar to what was felt around the club before he left.
“You can feel the heat behind the team,” Vines said. “Talking to (Bassett and Rosenberry), they’re excited. They speak highly of the coaches and are excited about the new players coming in. Overall, I think this is a really good environment for all of us.”
cultural change
From the moment he was hired, Armas has done everything right.
Focusing on the club’s overall goal of winning trophies and laying the foundations for a revamped culture will be the means to hoisting MLS Cup. On day one, the team set that goal, but Armas understands that saying it and doing it are two different things. His philosophy is: Forget about purpose. If you do the right thing every day, the results will follow.
So far, so good.
“He’s passionate. He’s committed to everything,” Vines said. “You can feel his passion, and it rubs off on all of us.”
It was a rare occurrence towards the end of 2023, but ever since Armas took over, players have become accustomed to joking with each other during practice.
The preseason has so far given the team more reason to be optimistic than it was four months ago when the 2023 season ended, but the team is acutely aware of the need to produce actual results to back it up. . During practice, when the warm-up ends and the tactical work begins, there is a shift in the entire team, bringing the focus to a single point.
The current target is the season opener at Portland, which kicks off Saturday at 8:30 p.m.
“(Getting everyone to buy in) is the goal, whether I believe in it or not,” Armas said. “I tell my players this is their team. What’s the end goal, MLS Cup? Obviously, let’s not joke. There’s a lot of work to do. To the top. The path of is never easy and you can’t skip any stage. It’s a reality to some extent, but it’s exciting for men, there are a lot of guys like them, but there are some additions, and suddenly , it makes you feel like, “Oh, I made something real.” There’s an opportunity here. ”
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