COMMERCE CITY, Colo. – It’s been a classic case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde for the Colorado Rapids this season.
On the road, the Rapids are the last undefeated team in MLS with a win and four draws. At home, the Rapids are still looking for the first win of 2015, having posted three draws and two losses at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park.
The answer is believed to lie within the team’s mentality, one that is “do or die” on the road that puts all the pressure on the home team.
“Our mentality going into [road games] is that, ‘This is going to be a difficult place to play.’ When you have a do-or-die mentality going in, you want to start the game fast and not give up anything up early,” Rapids captain Drew Moor said. “We need to have that same mentality here at home.”
Rapid head coach Pablo Mastroeni offered up his explanation.
“It’s two-fold,” he said. “The onus is on the home team to make the game. In doing so, you open yourselves up. Going away from home, you’ve got to be very tuned in, very intelligent with your decisions and very organized.
“I think that’s been component of everything we’ve done on the road. I think we’ve been able to attack the game and, more importantly, get ahead in the scoreline.”
The lack of that mentality at home has manifested itself in the form of slow starts and a lack of clinical finishing in front of goal. Creating scoring opportunities hasn’t been the issue for Colorado, who rank in the top five in both shots (3rd) and shots on goal (5th), but their finishing has left a lot to be desired. They are one of four teams tied for 13th in the league with nine goals in 10 games.
“The way you start games is a mentality, so you almost have to throw the tactics and the soccer out the window. We’ve been trying to preach that for the last couple weeks because we’ve started slow here at home,” Moor said. “It’s vital and we have that right mentality on the road.”
Rapids defender Marc Burch echoed those sentiments.
“Yeah I think it’s the mentality we have,” Burch said. “When we’re coming home, we want to play a good style, we want the fans to enjoy it and we want to score goals. We’re creating them but we’re not scoring them.”
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The hope is that the club’s new additions along the front line, striker Luis Solignac, who trained with the Rapids this week, and Designated Player Kevin Doyle, who is expected to join training next week, will remedy the team’s scoring woes, particularly at home.
“Hopefully a guy like [Solignac] and Kevin Doyle can convert some of these good opportunities into goals,” Moor said. “I think we’re looking for a little more of that. We have the players here to do it, but maybe bringing in a couple guys more can help push them as well.”
For now, the Rapids appear content to be away from Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, a place that Mastroeni called “cursed” and “in need of an exorcism” following last weekend’s 1-1 draw against San Jose, which extended the club’s home winless streak to 11 games. It’s a problem he won’t have to worry about for another week with the Rapids traveling to face Sporting Kansas City on Saturday (8:30 pm ET; MLS LIVE).
“Away from home we want to roll up our sleeves, get to battle and see what kind of results we can get,” said Burch, who is available for selection after missing six games with a rib injury. “We’re going to go to Kansas City and going to get to work.”
