2011 Player Rating And Review: Pablo Mastroeni

This offseason, the Burgundy Wave staff will give short reviews on the play of all Colorado Rapids players who received a decent amount of time on the pitch during the season along with a season grade. Starting with Goalkeepers and then moving up the field as necessary from defenders to forwards, today we'll feature Pablo Mastroeni.

Name: Pablo Mastroeni
Number: 25
Appearances: 30 (0)
Stats: 1 goal, 4 assists
Oh Pablooooooo Mastroeniiii. They say he's just defense... They say he's just defense...

Our captain's career revitalization is still going strong even as he enters his golden years in footballing terms. There's nobody who plays the position that Pablo plays quite as well as Pablo does it, and the Rapids are fortunately shifting their system away from the type that requires a player like him in the center to work. After all, we all remember what happened when Joseph Nane had to start in his place in Gary Smith's system against FC Dallas.

His defense and ball stealing abilities are still of a high caliber as they always have been, though Pablo did start to show his age this season with some untimely injuries and some occasional spats of bad play. Jeff Larentowicz proved his mettle as captain a few times but it's clear that the entire team saw Pablo as their field general and for good reason, he can still travel the entire pitch and his four assists show that he can start plays as well as anyone on the team could in 2011.

Pablo even scored a huge goal this year, a game-changer against the Philadelphia Union on the road.

It's hard to say what role Pablo is going to play in the new system under coach Pareja, but it's certain that he's still going to get plenty of minutes and he's likely to continue playing at the high level he's shown since 2010.

PLAYER RATING: 8