Red Flag or Lessons Learned: Breaking Down the Chris Armas ECF Tactical Missteps

COMMERCE CITY – Chris Armas has been the head coach of the Colorado Rapids for over six months now. He’s mostly winning over the Rapids Community. He gets the fanbase, he’s saying the right things, and the culture around the first team has been restored.

That said, there’s still some underlying concerns about his past and how he’s coached so far this year. The team’s a work in progress. His second half changes have been strange at times. They haven’t worked out the last few weeks.

In some ways, he’s living under the shadow of that 2018 Eastern Conference Final against Atlanta United. He was in his first year as head coach with New York Red Bulls. Jesse Marsch had left that summer for Europe. They won the Supporters’ Shield. Armas went conservative and defensive in the first leg at Atlanta. The Five Stripes won that game 3-0 and advanced to win MLS Cup 3-1 on aggregate.

RBNY fans will always hold this against Armas. But given his iterative tactical learning, what has he learned six years later?

Why the Approach Made Sense:

“It’s important to know what happened in the previous game. We beat Columbus 3-0 at home. It was Berhalter’s last game in charge in MLS. We were down 1-0 in the series. We host the second leg. We had a plan to sit off a little bit to invite them. This was at home. It surprised them. We thought if we went after them too much, it would be a long ball affair. We wanted to control things differently. It worked, 3-0,” Armas told Burgundy Wave.

RBNY ended up winning that series 3-1 on aggregate. A Daniel Royer brace in the second half of the leg at Red Bull Arena was the difference.

“Going into Atlanta, we watched their previous game. They got pressed. They played the long ball game. If I could do that one over, I would have just gone after them. I would have stayed aggressive. I would have shifted from what got us to that game. Conference Championship, first leg, knowing if we can make some noise there, we can get that second leg.”

Atlanta made easy work of New York City FC. They won the first leg 1-0 and the second leg 3-1. Josef Martínez and Miguel Almirón were a fantastic pair in transition. Tata Martino had Atlanta playing direct for months. They were solid on the ball and press resistant against NYCFC. Albeit, the blue side of New York was not as good a pressing team as the red side.

“We took that same approach into Atlanta and it was 1-0 at halftime. It’s tight. We score a goal in the match. It gets called back. It was VAR. (Brad) Guzan’s never preventing the goal from a Wright-Philips shot. But because someone’s in an offside position, shielded him. It could have changed the entire complexion of things,” said Armas.

Atlanta did what they wanted that day. Outshot the visitors 13-6 (5-1 on goal). A stoppage time goal to make it 3-0 was the backbreaker. That made the second leg so much easier. To say nothing of the fact that Armas put RBNY in an uncomfortable situation, as they deviated heavily from their identity that had been building for years.

“When you know the outcome of how the game went, how can you not say you’d try some different things.”

Blunt RBNY Retrospective:

From a RBNY perspective, Mark Fishkin of Seeing Red said that Armas believed in the tactical approach and owned up to that failure. As shown above, Armas has since deconstructed the approach, the logic behind it, and the 20/20 hindsight he did not have. That shows growth.

Armas finished with “We were the best pressing team in the league. If I could do it over, I would have said (expletive) it, go after them.”

Is it enough for RBNY fans to forgive him? Probably not. Time heals wounds and allows wisdom to flourish. At New York, there was a very clear tactical identity that had been built years prior. He’s still implementing his ideas in Colorado. Maybe he hasn’t decided on what that ethereal final product is. He’s trying stuff right now to see what works. That shows flexibility. Maybe something that works today will be a secondary game plan for the right situation come playoff time.

Is all this enough for Armas to progress the Rapids to a more finished product? Will he get the game plan right in a road playoff game against a good team, whether it’s Plan A or Plan B? Only time will tell.

Photo Credit: John Babiak

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