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This week, we're going to be taking a look back at the Ten Keys to 2013 series I put out prior to the season. Number 5 on the list was draws.

As stupid as it may seem, the Western Conference (past the top three) was so god-awful in 2012 that the Rapids were actually in the playoff picture until the very end of the season despite having one of the absolute worst seasons defensively in team history. In fact, they would have probably snuck into the last spot instead of Vancouver had they not been so darn good at dropping points at every single chance because of Oscar Pareja's 'never say die' mentality on the attack. They ended that year with only 4 draws, which is a startlingly low number.

Lo and behold, Oscar Pareja came into 2013 with some much smarter tactics, along with a re-tooled defense, and managed to pull five more draws out of his hat en route to a playoff spot, and a spot that left them a stone's throw away from the top spot in the Western Conference.

This is probably the spot where we'll want our D column to stick, if possible. Pareja doesn't seem the type to effectively turn his team into a draw-machine like Gary Smith did, unless he chooses to go the Porterball style. We'll find out next year, I guess. Either way, yay rooting for ties! We're terrible Americans!

This week, we're going to be taking a look back at the Ten Keys to 2013 series I put out prior to the season. Number 5 on the list was draws.

As stupid as it may seem, the Western Conference (past the top three) was so god-awful in 2012 that the Rapids were actually in the playoff picture until the very end of the season despite having one of the absolute worst seasons defensively in team history. In fact, they would have probably snuck into the last spot instead of Vancouver had they not been so darn good at dropping points at every single chance because of Oscar Pareja's 'never say die' mentality on the attack. They ended that year with only 4 draws, which is a startlingly low number.

Lo and behold, Oscar Pareja came into 2013 with some much smarter tactics, along with a re-tooled defense, and managed to pull five more draws out of his hat en route to a playoff spot, and a spot that left them a stone's throw away from the top spot in the Western Conference.

This is probably the spot where we'll want our D column to stick, if possible. Pareja doesn't seem the type to effectively turn his team into a draw-machine like Gary Smith did, unless he chooses to go the Porterball style. We'll find out next year, I guess. Either way, yay rooting for ties! We're terrible Americans!

This week, we're going to be taking a look back at the Ten Keys to 2013 series I put out prior to the season. Number 6 was the left backs.

If Klute can play even at the same level he played this year, let alone better, the Rapids have their starting left back situation sorted like we never could have dreamed of last February.

This week, we're going to be taking a look back at the Ten Keys to 2013 series I put out prior to the season. Number 7 was Diego Calderon.

…Yeah. Let's move on to the next one of these, then!

This week, we're going to be taking a look back at the Ten Keys to 2013 series I put out prior to the season. Number 8 was veteran presence.

Next season, the whole team will be a year older and a year wiser, so this probably won't be as important. Had the old guard not done their jobs in 2013 though, we probably wouldn't be talking about next year's potential in quite so sparkling terms.

This week, we're going to be taking a look back at the Ten Keys to 2013 series I put out prior to the season. Number 8 was veteran presence.

Next season, the whole team will be a year older and a year wiser, so this probably won't be as important. Had the old guard not done their jobs in 2013 though, we probably wouldn't be talking about next year's potential in quite so sparkling terms.

Come on, you knew we couldn't get away with at least one more of these before the off-season started in full, didn't you?

As of right now, the slate is clean. None of the players who are injured on this team seem unlikely to stay that way long enough to affect their status for 2014. That means that we can assume the team at full health right now, and that's not something we were able to do for much of the 2013 season. With this team at full health and with a season of watching these new-look Rapids under our belts, what's it look like depth-wise? It's time to call on our old friend to find out. For the uninitiated:

The bigger what-ifs are the guys who struggled to find the field. Will Jaime Castrillon make it to 2014? Can Tony Cascio put that sophomore slump behind him? Can Kamani Hill do something that actually catches Pareja's eye and gets him some minutes? Can Danny Mwanga do anything even remotely resembling a thing that a footballer should be doing?

Don't get me wrong, a starting three up top of Brown, Torres and Sanchez will likely prove lethal next year. However, there's so much turbulence behind them at the moment that I'm going to give this spot the worst rating of any of them this time around.

PALGUTA LEVEL – 3

PALGUTA LEVEL – 1

PALGUTA LEVEL – 2

This week, we're going to be taking a look back at the Ten Keys to 2013 series I put out prior to the season. Number 9 was starting strong.

Yeah, I completely whiffed on this one, but can you blame me? I was expecting a tough opening to the season for the Rapids to be the death of the team, and I don't think I was alone in thinking that. It was a young squad with a still inexperienced coach that had shown some pretty gutting confidence issues in 2012.

Here was the start of that schedule, and the results that ended up coming of it:

Had you told me prior to the season that we would be going 1-3-2 during that stretch, I would have probably given up right then and there. Fortunately, this team eventually proved to have a lot more talent and fight than that 1-3-2 stretch belied.

On to the next one, then.

This week, we're going to be taking a look back at the Ten Keys to 2013 series I put out prior to the season. Number 10 was finishing.

In all honesty, there wasn't an enormous improvement in that regard in 2013, but it was a bit more noticeable because this season's defense was so much better than last season's defense that we were far more prone to screaming at the TV for someone, anyone to score a goal and get the team a win.

All you really need to do is check out the number of chances they created again. Colorado were sixth in the league in terms of shots taken, with a whopping 460. However, they were only 11th in the league in terms of actual goals scored (45) and 14th in terms of shots that actually went on-frame (141).

As the chemistry improves and the team hopefully rebuilds the depth at forward next year (it proved to be the biggest depth problem on the team down the stretch) this should get better. Still, you should probably expect to see this on our Ten Keys to 2014, as well.

This week, we're going to be taking a look back at the Ten Keys to 2013 series I put out prior to the season. Number 10 was finishing.

In all honesty, there wasn't an enormous improvement in that regard in 2013, but it was a bit more noticeable because this season's defense was so much better than last season's defense that we were far more prone to screaming at the TV for someone, anyone to score a goal and get the team a win.

All you really need to do is check out the number of chances they created again. Colorado were sixth in the league in terms of shots taken, with a whopping 460. However, they were only 11th in the league in terms of actual goals scored (45) and 14th in terms of shots that actually went on-frame (141).

As the chemistry improves and the team hopefully rebuilds the depth at forward next year (it proved to be the biggest depth problem on the team down the stretch) this should get better. Still, you should probably expect to see this on our Ten Keys to 2014, as well.