Published 2025-07-28
tag(s): #fútbol #pic #coloradorapids #vélezsarsfield
I just realized I have a tag for Suzie and not for my family. 🤣
In any case, I need to revisit the tagging...and maybe finally implement tag navigation... >_>
This weekend Colorado Rapids visited Philadelphia Union, as part of the MLS regular season. So we took the chance to go see them, and Maria joined us.
To start the day though, we left our place and headed to
the Mütter Museum, which we had visited way back when
we lived in northern Delaware and Juan was just a baby. It is great, and unless you are a very
impressionable person, I totally recommend it. It has a very unusual collection of organs,
skeletons, wax models and old medical equipment.
There's a newish series of tags around the museum talking about medical consent, the history
of the things on display, etc. that wasn't present before and I found interesting too.
Last year, we saw the Pids beat NYCFC 0-2 at Citi Field, and tie but win in penalties the 3rd
place match of Leagues Cup against Philly Union.
This year, we visited DC for a loss, and now another defeat against Philly. 2025 is being less
kind with us :)
NOTE: Reminder that I am a complete newbie, corrections to my observations welcomed.
I think the start of the year was a bit worse, from a tactical point of view, but by now I can see Armas (our coach) has figured out how he wants the team to play: a 4231 that pressures slightly above the midfield, and defends in a narrow shape. In possession, the wingbacks move up and we end up with 3 and eventually 2 at the back, in an inverted pyramid.
The problems we have seem to change every week though, which makes me think we need to adjust better to our opponents. Sometimes we are terrible at defending counters (OK, this one is a pretty recurring problem). We had a string of games were we dominated the match but couldn't finish our chances. A few times we weren't aggressive enough progressing the ball, keeping possession without generating any danger, because we couldn't break the other team's defense.
Earlier in the year we played a more aggressive 4222 shape, pressuring higher up the field,
and I really liked that, but I have to recognize that our defense is too slow to risk
that much pressure. And now we lost one of our starting center backs (Chido Awazeim) and it
showed this Saturday.
(The other alternative tried was playing with 3 at the back and putting more numbers in
midfield, which was something we did last year in our second match against LAG in
playoffs...)
This week, Leagues Cup starts. I don't expect us to repeat our excellent performance from last
year...except that last year's run was completely unexpected, too. We did waaaay better than
anyone thought. And that got us into CCC. It also completely derailed our season.
I don't know what I would prefer. Qualify to CCC again? Get rest to make a push in the final
games of the season, to make sure we enter playoffs?
Well, winning the thing would be nice, but being realistic...[1]
The same night, but in Argentina, Vélez tied with Instituto for the Clausura tournament
(second half of the season). Not a great result. The season has just started, but Vélez is
playing Fortaleza (Brazil) for Copa Libertadores in a few days, and the way the team has been
playing in league lately, doesn't give me a lot of confidence.
Although, I didn't get to watch this match, so maybe the actual game was better than the
highlights suggest.
There's some worry on the tournament side too, because we ended almost last on Apertura, and
despite winning in 2024, the year prior we almost face relegation. So our average points over
the last few years aren't great, and that's the other mechanism to get relegated.
So we can't do well in Libertadores (IF we do well...) without keeping an eye on the local
tournament too.
(The relegation year is how I discovered that my true allegiance was with Vélez, but that's a story for another day).