Assistant Coaches Chris Little and Neil Emblen: “You can see the improvement.”

COMMERCE CITY – Take it from a couple of guys who have been around and seen the highs, lows, and everything in between from the Rapids: 2024 has a different feel and air of excitement in Commerce City! Chris Little and Neil Emblen have seen enough transition years, as well as those when things seem to be clicking, to recognize a really good pattern developing in Colorado.

“A lot of credit goes to (Head Coach) Chris (Armas) and how he’s come in and the culture he‘s created with the team, creating a spirit, a feeling, and you can see at training players like to be there, they like to be around each other, like to work, and that comes from leadership,” says top Assistant Little.

“Credit to Chris that he’s done a really good job of that. A lot of times when you bring a lot of new pieces together it can take time, but it’s been great.”

“It snowballed,” admits Assistant Coach Emblen. “(Sam) Vines comes back, Djordje (Mihailović) comes in – you’ve got a younger, point-to-prove players not coming back just to settle. Every day they’re pushing themselves well within the group. They see the opportunity. Chris Armas is good for that – he gives everybody real belief, he gives players real confidence.”

Those who have joined this Rapids side during the latest rebuilding of the roster with unique experiences, skillsets, and reputations are the interesting part which both men feel contribute so well to the team-dynamic.

“It’s a good vibe, everybody is working, and it’s hard to say but there’s been a little bit of addition by subtraction,” admits Emblen, who always develops a good relationship with players given his experience and (he won’t admit it but I will say it) legend status within the UK and Wolverhampton Wanderers. “It’s hard to say because every player has their own qualities and values, but I think if you look around, it’s a very team-based mentality rather than it being, ‘as long as I’m doing ok’.”

“Yes there’s cohesion and stability but at the right age,” Little further explains of the combination of both.

“Now there’s a real core group of players that are coming into their prime, with the experience of (Andreas) Maxsø, Keegan (Rosenberry), Lalas (Abubukar), some older guys that are sprinkled around it. These guys have a good level of experience as well. The composition of the roster, in addition to the talent, I thought was really exciting.”

“The quality of the players coming in, but also what was exciting for me a little bit was the age dynamic of the team,” Emblen tells us in explaining what the entire staff echoes as well.

“If you look now, we’ve got a real core of the team that are coming into their peak at key ages, 23-25. Sam Vines, Djordje (Mihailović), Cole (Bassett), Moïse (Bombito), Connor (Ronan), you’ve got Ollie (Larraz), a real core and spine of the team that are all settled, contracted to a club for a period of time, and that’s huge.”

Emblen notes that players like the US International goalkeeper Zack Steffen really started that building of belief in the off-season. “Zack for me was a major signing. When the headlines came out, it was a “wow?!” I’m close to (Goalkeeper Coach Chris) Sharpie, and Sharpie had the intel on it, had spoken to him. Zack very much saw a situation to work with someone he’d heard of through Tim Howard and people that Sharpie is really good at his job.”

“The best thing though was then meeting him. I loved (former Rapids keeper) Will Yarbrough as well. I thought he was an excellent professional and I think Zack coming in at a prime age that’s what really raised the eyebrows that this is the start of something really good. When you meet somebody that’s been in the Manchester City changing room for a few years, and he’s played at Gold Cups and International level, the players know there’s a real leadership-type person in there.”

To that point, returning players feeding off that change and a raised level of expectation or standards are paying dividends, according to Little, who has the unique perspective on this team after taking the reins to finish off 2023. “I look already at the kind of saves Zack Steffan has made and that save goals and goals change games. Djordje has come in with key goals that change the (LAFC) game and wins us the game. You have the guys who have come back who are really growing and developed – Cole’s goals so far, he’s been highly influential in each game. Moïse is establishing himself now as a really good center back in the league. Ollie’s come in and established himself as a starter in this league.” 

“Now we’ve got competition in the squad,” Little also explains going through the lines on the pitch. “Lamine (Diack) is a great player who’s not been able to break into the team yet. (Darren) Yapi competing with Rafa (Navarro), we’ve got Kévin (Cabral), Omir (Fernandez), Calvin (Harris), lots of competition in those attacking roles. You’ve got Lalas (Abubukar) competing at center-back, Micheal Edwards at center-back, Seb’s (Anderson) competing with Keegan (Rosenberry), which is really important over a long season.”

Emblen sees the change reflected on the pitch so far in 2024, not just in points, but also from the eye-test of watching this Rapids side battle for 90+ minutes. “When you’ve got a selective group on the same page and willing to do the work, their work rate, and how the team are working for each other from back to front, it’s positive.”

“We bring good players in, with good mentality, and are good people as well it gives you a chance. People still look at our squad and say it’s by no means the most talented squad in the league, but if you’ve got a together group that are working collectively hard, you see when we lose the ball now how our forwards run back, how our wingers tuck in and get into a position of upkeep, it’s being ready to go again.”

“Everybody has times when you lose or not getting results and you’re sort of looking around and you’ve got your personal deflectors on trying to make out it’s not me, it’s everybody else. When you get results that doesn’t happen, you just flow along,” Neil tells Burgundy Wave.

“Results are so important because the feeling is better when you’re getting results. It feels better when you’re winning, you’re getting away points. We’ve played some big-market teams already this year and we’ve gotten positive results against them. If you get results and you’re running along, a difference between in the past may have been a little bit of the rub of the green, a small-margin things going your way, not going your way.”

“Another positive with this group is you can see the improvement. It’s been nice because we’ve said we can get a lot better than we are now. It’s nice to be improving while you’re getting results. If you’re learning while getting results or getting better while getting results, then that’s real progress.”

Not every match has produced points nor been perfect, however the Rapids sit in a healthy 6th in the table with 15 points and a good record of 2-2-2 away from DICK’s Sporting Goods Park. Progress is definitely what Colorado has been showing, given their initial run of matches, most of which have been on the road in some hostile, tough-to-play stadiums. “It is just a start, and we don’t want to get carried away, but we’ve been in a really tough stretch against quality teams. Traveling away (Seattle, Portland, Salt Lake, Miami) those are tough places. I think that circles back to spirit, character, late goals, a team that won’t quit – that’s where it’s manifesting itself,” Little says with pride.

“The spirit would be a big thing, the culture, the dynamic of the team is in a really good place. When you’ve got a group of players that are going to put the team first, it’s going to really help win football games.”

“When I first came here in ’21 that was one of the things that stood out to me – you had senior players that had that cohesion and that team had been together for a period of time. From 21-23 there was a lot of turnover in the roster, and in addition to that, there were key injuries to influential players so you’re trying to build cohesion and that’s difficult. I think there’s kind of been a reset now. It’s allowing the character of the players, at the age of the players, the quality of the players, there’s some consistency.”

Emblen agrees with Little in that this next cycle can sustain itself for multiple seasons, which is what Rapids fans are hoping for. “The start-again this year has been refreshing, Chris has been refreshing to work for and everybody’s learning,” Neil says. “The ebbs and flows throughout this 6 years we’ve been going through a transition period and it’s been really difficult. Then we had the signings in 2019, and all of a sudden we picked up until 2021, then obviously ’21 was the pinnacle. Then we started not particularly well in 2022 and it becomes a struggle again. We lose a few players and you have to recreate the team.”

The process hasn’t produced the desired consistency in results the past seasons, but it feels like this group has the vision and desire to certainly do so. “I think there’s commitment to an identity and a plan that’s running through the club that this is who we are, so there’s a recruitment profile for that. Let’s be honest, we’ve improved but so has everybody else?” Little reminds fans.

“Everywhere’s going to keep improving but we really like the steps we’ve taken so far, and I know everyone’s hungry to keep developing the squad. That can be in two ways – developing the players you have and continuing to make them better. I look at Moïse’s growth and development the last 2 years, it’s been fantastic, look at an Ollie Larraz? We’re making players better, we feel. Also can we add players through recruitment. When those things come together it’s a really good synergy.”

Photo Credit: John Babiak

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