COMMERCE CITY, CO - AUGUST 14 : Marcelo Balboa poses for a portrait at Dick's Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City, Colorado on Thursday, August 14, 2025. (Photo by Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post)
Hello Colorado Rapids fans. This weekend the club will be retiring Marcelo Balboa’s #17 jersey. It’s just the fifth jersey number retirement in MLS history and the second one for Colorado (Pablo Mastroeni’s #25 was retired July 4, 2021).
Shortly after the end of the 2022 MLS season, we interviewed Celo. This was after the Altitude TV contract had expired. MLS was in the middle of setting up MLS Season Pass on Apple TV. Teams were saying goodbye to their local broadcast partners. Celo was in limbo. He was happy and at peace, amid the uncertainty.
Here’s that interview again. We discuss him growing up in Southern California and transitioning from college soccer to the fledgling semi-professional game in America. The Colorado Foxes come up. We talk bicycle kicks, his rehab to make the USMNT for the 1994 World Cup, and that wild Copa America. He gets real about his struggles academically, with injuries, and in his personal life. He’s got some good stories about his time at Club Leon (Marcelo Balboa Clasico Champions, you’ll never sing that!).
Then we discuss his legendary Colorado Rapids moments: That phone call with Phil Anschutz, the first goal in Rapids history, the 1997 MLS Cup Final, the 1999 U.S. Open Cup Final, getting traded to the MetroStars, and more.
We touch on what he’s done since retiring, working with the Rapids Academy, doing soccer media in English y Espanol, y mas!
Congratulations Celo. Thank you for everything. Legend, now and always.
About the hosts:
Matt Pollard is the Managing Editor of Burgundy Wave, having overseen the site’s move to being independent in April 2023. He moved to Denver in 2015 and has covered the Rapids since 2016. An engineer and environmentalist by day, when he’s not watching or writing about soccer, he’s hiking or skiing in the mountains. He also writes for Last Word on Sports, covering the USMNT.
Mark Goodman, known as Rapids Rabbi or Soccer Rabbi, lived in Colorado from 2011-2018. He became an MLS Sicko after seeing Lee Nguyen of the New England Revolution pull off some silky moves at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park. He’s a professional rabbi during the day and the author of the well regarded Backpass series, which started at Burgundy Wave. He watches the Pids from a far, having moved to Pittsburgh. He also covers the Pittsburgh Riverhounds of the USL Championship for Pittsburgh Soccer Now.
Photo Credit: Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post via Getty Images
Thank you for reading Burgundy Wave. Support us via our Patreon starting at $5/month. We’re always looking for new talent. Let us know if you’re interested in covering Colorado Soccer.
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Spencer Baldwin 