Chris Armas was using an elliptical machine in the basement of his New York home last September when he began watching a Colorado Rapids news conference in the wake of Robin Fraser’s dismissal.
A few months removed from his Premier League spell at Manchester United and Leeds United, the 51-year-old cautiously kept his eye out for opportunities to keep coaching.
There were a few head jobs available in MLS, but none were more intriguing than the one in Colorado — at least based on what Armas was hearing from Rapids president Pádraig Smith on the podium that day.
As Smith talked about developing an identity on the pitch based on a suffocating press and swift attacks to take advantage of Colorado’s altitude, Armas found himself nodding along. In fact, he watched the hour-long news conference a second time, almost like he was listening for a reason not to make a call.
None came. And not long after, he was holding his own news conference in Commerce City.
Armas’ time in Europe had ended. But every lesson learned from his stint overseas has been carried back to the States — from the highs of coaching the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and talking at length with legendary United coach Sir Alex Ferguson, to the lows of catching the “Ted Lasso” nickname when things weren’t going well.
“You have to be on your (stuff) every day. People aren’t there to judge you but you’re always being judged and you have to know that,” Armas said. “But then you realize that what matters most is your work every day, that’s the way you’re going to earn respect. You’ve got to carry your own weight in a big way.”
Returning to MLS, he’s trying to instill that attitude into his new club’s culture.
For Armas, it helps to have new members of his team who have had similar experiences. Like Armas, Djordje Mihailovic, Zack Steffen and Sam Vines all started in MLS — Vines, a Homegrown and former Rapid from 2018-2021 — went overseas, experienced adversity and ended up in Colorado.
Steffen suffered a knee injury on loan at Middlesbrough from Manchester City. Armas was an assistant at one of the most inopportune times possible at Man United, as the club navigated manager issues in 2021-22. Mihailovic alluded to “outside things” which forced him back to stateside. Vines was left out of the UEFA Champions League due to a clerical error.
Now it’s up to them to help make the most out of a new opportunity to turn the Rapids around.
Bringing the heat
Mihailovic, the Rapids’ new No. 10 and the club’s most expensive incoming transfer, has bought into the effort needed to spark a turnaround. Intensity is his main contribution.
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The 25-year old, formerly of Dutch side AZ Alkmaar, has drawn on what he saw in Europe — where training is a battle ground to earn minutes and players from giants like West Ham, Lazio and Aston Villa do whatever possible to earn three points — and applied it to the Rapids.
That fire has been on display not only during training, but also in the team’s six preseason matches in Mexico and Florida.
“We’re coming here to win titles,” Mihailovic said. “And I know it’s funny when I say that, given the last few seasons in Colorado. I say that all the time and people look at me a certain way, like ‘Are you serious?’ Yeah, I’m serious. We play this game to win and I think the locker room is slowly coming to the understanding that we have a good opportunity to set a baseline of competitiveness and a winning spirit.
“I’m someone who, if I don’t win, I get very upset, and I think my teammates have seen that already in the few training competitions we had in Mexico. If I’m not on the winning team, there’s going to be some chaos.”
He knows as well as anyone it’ll be a process. At media day in January, he called it “foolish” to think things would be perfect right away. On all accounts, the production on the field is still far from spotless.
Take it with a grain of salt, but the Rapids have shown this preseason they can find the back of the net at a rate unseen at any point last year. Through six unofficial matches (some lasting beyond 90 minutes), they’ve scored 21 goals.
“It’s not going to be a straight line towards MLS Cup, there’s going to be a lot of ups and downs,” Mihailovic said. “I’m very confident, and we also have multiple competitions — Open Cup, Leagues Cup and MLS. I’m very familiar with MLS in that if you make the playoffs, anything could happen.”
That was then, this is now
Vines’ experience in Europe ended somewhat abruptly, thanks in part to that clerical error made by his former team, Belgian side Royal Antwerp. The oversight left him off the team sheet for this year’s Champions League group stage.
The left back is no stranger to the fervor which is commonplace in European soccer. For lack of a better term, he said, having to adapt to a different culture both in life and soccer in Europe forced him to grow up.
“Everything behind me is in the past, but they’re all experiences, whether they’re good or bad, things you can learn from,” Vines said. “For me, I’m just looking forward to the season and hoping we can start off on the right foot.”
Vines was a major piece of the 2021 Rapids, which topped the Western Conference in the regular season, before packing it up for Belgium.
Though he wasn’t with the club last year, longtime friends and teammates like Cole Bassett and Keegan Rosenberry have both let him in on some of the bleak details of the club’s quick two-year fall to the bottom of MLS. Still, Vines said he can only imagine how it actually felt, particularly through a coaching change after runs of awful form.
Now reunited, he said the buzz is similar to what was felt around the club before he left.
“You can feel a fire behind the team,” Vines said. “Talking with (Bassett and Rosenberry), they’re excited. They speak highly of the coach and they’re excited with all the new guys coming in. Overall, I think this is a really good environment for all of us.”
The culture shift
From the moment he was hired, Armas has done all the right things.
With a focus on a club-wide goal of winning a trophy, laying the groundwork for a revamped culture is the means by which to hoist MLS Cup. On day one, the team set that goal, but Armas knows it’s one thing to say it and another to do it. His philosophy: Forget about the objective. Do the right things every day, and the results will come.
So far, so good.
“He’s fiery. He’s all-in for everything,” Vines said. “You can feel the passion he has and it’s infectious for all of us.”
What was once a rare occurrence toward the end of 2023 has become customary since Armas took the reins: Players joking with each other in training.
While preseason has so far given the team reason to be more optimistic than it was four months ago when the 2023 season ended, they’re acutely aware of the need to produce real results to back it up. During practices, when warmups finish and tactical work begins, a team-wide shift happens, and focus becomes singular.
Currently, the target is on the season opener at Portland on Saturday, which kicks off at 8:30 p.m.
“(Getting everyone to buy in) is the goal, it doesn’t matter if I believe in it,” Armas said. “I tell the players it’s their team. What is the end goal, MLS Cup? Fair enough, then let’s not kid ourselves, there’s a lot of work to be done. The way to the top is never easy and you can’t skip any steps. That’s a dose of reality, but it becomes exciting for guys, you know, we have a lot of the same guys, but we’ve had some additions and all of a sudden you get the feeling of, ‘Yeah, we have a real chance here.’”
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