By every metric, the Rapids are worse with Tim Howard

I didn't relent in my hatred of the transfer at any point and I got some stick for it, especially early in the season when it looked like the Rapids weren't going to blossom into one of the better teams in the league. But I maintained my position.

It's like the post by Kevin McCauley linked in the previous paragraph said:

In my opinion, it's completely fair to nitpick and harp on every minute detail of Howard's play, because his outrageous paycheck — remember, eight times more than the next-highest paid GK in MLS — is one of the most ridiculous contracts in MLS history, and it was given out by a team that had needs desperately more pressing than goalkeeper. If Tim Howard is making that level of bank at the expense of a DP slot that could have been used to boost one of the more anemic MLS attacks, he deserves every single smidge of scrutiny thrown his way. Unfortunately, it isn't just the play of Howard himself that is concerning.

Here's the thing: By pretty much every single metric, the Rapids have been a worse team since Howard was brought in. A sample of the easy metrics to follow:

Players making millions in MLS are brought in to make their teams better all on their own. The exact opposite has happened with Timmy.

Before Howard was in — and by the way, I was told more times that I can count that even if MacMath was doing well, he wasn't half the "back line leader" that Howard was — the Rapids' defense was possibly the tightest in MLS, helping Zac to achieve his ridiculously good numbers. Since Howard's arrival, the defense has cratered. MacMath was facing a ridiculously low 3.4 shots per game — 54 in his 16 appearances — while Howard has had to face 4.7 shots per game — 43 in nine appearances — since his arrival. The team had not given up a single penalty kick with MacMath between the sticks; in the past nine matches, they've now given up four. (And leave it to Tim Howard to get a Team of the Week mention for saving a penalty in a game where he'd already let two in!)

The goals against number for the team has nearly doubled from .69 to 1.20. That's still a perfectly respectable number, but it puts just that tiny bit more onus on the offense and, well…

Yeah, even though Jermaine Jones' absence has obviously hurt the team on the other end, even the offense has gotten worse since Howard's arrival. Don't think that you can put any blame on Howard for the offense slowing down once he arrives? For $2.5 million you bet your ass I can put the onus on him to catch up and outplay the slowed attack. Shame the team doesn't have a spare few million lying around to buy someone that can actually score some goals.

The team was playing unbelievably well, over their heads in fact, with MacMath in goal. The team decided to destroy a working camaraderie in the name of ticket sales, and they are paying the price.

The caveat, of course, is that it has only been nine games. For $2.5 million, you can't afford to be mediocre through nine, though. But hey, maybe they'll turn things around, win their next seven straight, and level the playing field on all those statistics above. If the team manages to pull itself up and rally around their new star GK to the tune of a strong finish to the season and perhaps even a playoff run, I'll never have been happier for having been wrong. Unfortunately, this is the Rapids, and we rarely get to have nice things. I won't be betting the farm on that MLS Cup run.