Rapids Roundtable: What Burgundy Wave writers think of Pablo’s firing

The staff at Burgundy Wave want to provide you a short quick-take, hot-take of our thoughts on the dismissal of Rapids head coach Pablo Mastroeni. Based on the struggles of the past year and the overall record of PM over his time in Commerce City, I don’t think you’ll find any of our takes especially ‘hot’, per-se.

Richard Terry:

In my opinion, Pablo Mastroeni should have been sacked in 2015. However, the Rapids were willing to give him more time, but the success of 2016 was due to our defensive brilliance and our ability to squeak by in 1-0 victories. Overall the Rapids have been dreadful on offense, and despite the success last season, Colorado still were quite poor at putting the ball in the back of the net.

South Stands (Matthew Perry):

Stunned, shocked, but not entirely surprised. While I appreciate all that Pablo Mastroeni has meant to the Rapids, the team made very little progress. At the end of the day, it does come down to coaching and would have benefitted from having more experience coaching at some other level rather than being thrust into MLS as his first gig. One wonders if the front office saw a decline in season ticket sales and knew something needed to be done. I wish Pablo well.

Mile High Soapbox (Peter Soeth):

It's a sad day, but a move needed to be made. The play is not getting better, in fact it has regressed significantly this season. Pablo will always be a Colorado Rapid and a club legend. Thanks to him for all that he has done for the club.

Dom Burgundy (Dominic Hoffman):

I can't say I'm surprised, after the rain delay in Dallas I expected the rapids to come out throwing men forward to win the game. Instead they say back and took a point. This was his downfall, he will be missed for sure, but the team needs a coach who can get more than just moral victories.

Rapids Rabbi (Mark Goodman):

His all-time record doesn’t lie, and soccer is a “results-oriented business”. Mastroeni was not successful as the Rapids coach. Moreover, his orientation as a defensively-minded coach means that he was in a bind when the team announced at the beginning of the year that they wanted to be more attacking. He couldn’t make the switch to a more attacking, or at least more balanced, tactical approach. It could strongly be argued, however, that he doesn’t have the right pieces to be successful no matter what his approach. As much as it didn’t work out, I have trepidation for the next coach. MLS tends to bring on American re-treads against all logic. If the Rapids go out and hire Curt Onolfo, who seems absolutely allergic to playing a winning brand of football, I will absolutely lose my freaking mind.