Ahead of Sunday’s Leagues Cup match against Club Tijuana, we sat down with the club’s newest radio broadcaster, Jose Rios. The Spanish radio play-by-play man will be calling select Rapids matches during the 2025 season alongside Mauricio Jaramillo for TICO Sports.
Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got to this point in your career?
I was born in Mexico in 1997 in Ciudad Juárez. Since we didn't have a local team at the time, I was a big Chivas fan. When I moved here to Denver in 2008, that's when I found out about the Rapids. Once I was 19 or 20 years old, that's when I started pursuing this career in broadcasting and journalism, and the Rapids gave me that chance, they let me come into the press box to cover the team. At that time, I was one of the few Spanish outlets independently doing it, and that was pretty rewarding. Since then, I have always had that goal in mind, that if we didn't have a Spanish radio broadcast, I wanted to be the one to actually push for it. So that's where my love for soccer and then my love for broadcasting came as well. The Rapids definitely helped me with that and I'm very happy about it.
Describe your experience calling your first Rapids match against Santos.
First game was just really stressful on the technical side. Once that was done, before the broadcast started and when the intro was going, I just closed my eyes. I took a deep breath, and I was just remembering the times that I came to the stadium as a fan when I was a little kid and the first game that I covered here with the Rapids in 2019. I never thought I was going to go this far, but I actually had a pretty good and positive mindset that I was going to be in this spot at some point. So, I'm really glad that that happened. Once the game started, everything was just flowing. Everything went pretty well and it was even better that the Rapids won on Thursday.
What did you see from the Rapids on Thursday against Santos?
It really surprised me how they fought back. At home, the Rapids are a team trying to create a fortress here. They're trying to defend the home field every match. It felt unfair when Santos scored first after the great first half from Colorado, but that showed that the that the guys on the team have a lot of spirit. They stood up to a Mexican team, like they have before, but this time it just felt a little more intense, it felt different. You don't stand up to Mexican teams just with quality, but you also have to do it with a little bit of attitude, and the team definitely showed that on Thursday. If you combine the attitude with the quality, then this team can go far in this competition.
What do you make of Tijuana and who should Rapids fans be looking out for?
I see the coach, [Sebastián] “Loco” Abreu, he's played everywhere in the world, and he has that South American mentality. That Uruguayan spirit, which is really tough minded, if you want to call it. He's definitely going to try to pass that on to his players. As far as on the field, the 16-year-old Mexican Gilberto Mora is definitely a guy that we have to have to look out for. He scored a brace against LA Galaxy last time. Not very many 16-year-olds score in an international competition, and to do it against LA Galaxy, the MLS Cup champions, is pretty interesting. Those two should influence the game, on and off the field. Mora can do some interesting stuff on the pitch, and then “Loco” Abreu has that mentality and that experience that could make Tijuana a really complicated team.
How do you see tomorrow's match playing out?
The Rapids definitely have to play the same match that they played against Santos. They have to step their foot on the gas from the beginning, and they have to take advantage of the altitude against Tijuana, a sea level team. You just have to keep pressing them and you have to have that attacking mentality. Of course, Tijuana might be dangerous in the counterattack, but the less off those moments that you can have from Tijuana, then I think the Rapids are going to be in a good place to take another victory. I do see the game going similar to what happened on Thursday night, just because Mexican teams tend to play out like this sometimes, that's their style play and that's how the league plays. The Rapids have to take advantage of that.
