The Rapids return home for their second matchup of the season against San Jose Earthquakes, and on the call will be announcer Mark Rogondino. Since starting his broadcasting career in 2002, the play-by-play man has called various competitions apart from MLS, including UEFA Champions League, Bundesliga, Liga MX and the U.S. Men’s and Women’s National Teams. Rogondino will call the match alongside Heath Pearce on the English broadcast for Apple TV and MLS Season Pass this weekend.
The Rapids have only lost one match at home so far this season. How important would a positive result against San Jose be to set the tone at DICK’S Sporting Goods Park for the rest of the year?
Those are kind of results are even more important when you get into late August and September, but any time you can protect your home turf, that's a good thing in MLS. I say that from the standpoint that typically, teams that make deep runs in our league are the teams that are really good at home. Every now and then you have an exception to the rule, like a couple years ago, Real Salt Lake was just much stronger on the road and put up nine road wins during the season. To the original question though, home form is very important in this league. A lot of teams talk about wanting to make it so that when you come to their stadium, it's tough for you to walk away with anything. I think the phrase I hear a lot of coaches use is ‘we want to make our home stadium a fortress.’ They want to defend their fortress and make it really difficult for any opponent. Especially in Colorado, not only do opponents know they are going to battle the altitude, which gets to them in those first 20 to 25 minutes, but the Rapids also have a really stacked team that makes things difficult, and if you walk out of there with anything, you feel pretty good about what you did on the day.
Zack Steffen posted one of the best performances of his career against San Jose just a few months ago. In your eyes, how large of a role will he play on Saturday?
Let me preface my answer by saying, first and foremost, I'm a former collegiate goalkeeper, so I always have a soft spot and always will protect the backs of a goalkeeper. I think Zack is one of the best in our league. That's why he's been recently reintegrated into the U.S. Men's National Team. He's finally getting his due. When I say that, I mean returning from Europe and coming back to play in MLS with Colorado. In his first season, they were a team that was trying to piece together new faces, a new head coach, and a new goalkeeper in Zack. So, I think that, consequently, he had to make more saves than ever. Maybe his numbers didn't always show it, but Zack was a solid backbone for the Rapids and the reason why they took so many people by surprise last season was he made big saves in big minutes. Did he have a few blunders here and there? Yeah, he did. But the problem with being a goalkeeper is, when you have a blunder, it really shows up as opposed to say, an outside midfielder that gives away three balls in the middle in the course of a game and nobody talks about it. So, Zack is super important on the field, but also in their locker room. The guy is a stud. The guy is a veteran goalkeeper. There's a reason why he basically plays every single match and there never is a goalkeeping controversy. The defense starts with him and those guys in front of him like [Andreas] Maxsø and [Chidozie] Awaziem who are feeling comfortable, and it builds out from there. Especially with the high-pressure way that that Chris Armas wants to play, sometimes you're going to have those moments in transition, and it never seems to knock the composure of Zack out of whack.
San Jose has put up some of the best attacking numbers in MLS so far. What do you see as a key for the Rapids to help stop some of their attacking threats?
I think the big name you might first point to is Chicho Arango. Obviously, Colorado fans know him well from his short time at RSL and with LAFC. However, I think the real threat is actually Cristian Espinoza. He has been one of the best crossers in MLS over the last six or seven years, so when he gets going and he's delivering pinpoint service to a guy on the end of it, like Chicho Arango, that's when it's lethal. So, I don't even know that it's necessarily what you're expecting from the Colorado back four, I think it's actually going to come down to players like Oliver Larraz and Josh Atencio who are the pivots in the middle. Their ability to control the midfield so that a guy like Espinoza is not finding big pockets of space in wide positions to continually deliver a good ball into the area, because that's a dangerous game. If you continue to deliver service to a guy like Arango, he's shown and proven over the last three plus years in MLS that he will score.
Are there any Rapids players you think may have an added impact in this match against San Jose?
I'll say Kévin Cabal if he gets the start. His pace and the ability to get in behind San Jose’s back four or back five is going to be a real plus for the Rapids, because he can stretch defenses. Colorado can play that ball over the top and get him into open space, which is where he operates the best. Sure, you want to play through Djordje Mihailovic most of the time and get the service in for Rafael Navarro, but I think Cabral hasn't really shifted it into another gear so far in 2025. So maybe this is the game, especially at home, where he sees more of the ball, he sees more direct service over the top, and he causes problems for San Jose's defense, which ultimately will result in more chances for the Rapids.
How do you see Saturday’s match playing out?
Really good question. I think this is a game that Colorado really needs to have, right? They don't want to go what would be four matches without a win if they didn't get something in this one. I think this is a good time for Colorado to try and get right. Any time you can take both matches with a team that's in conference with you over the course of the season, that's six points for you and no points for a team that's trying to battle for position in the exact same conference as you. So, I think this is a “get right” spot for Colorado. San Jose is coming off a really big win where they put up a lot of goals. I also think that defensively, there are some spots where they can be had. I don’t think they've had a shutout in over a month. I expect this to be high scoring and high flying. I expect this to be a great game. But again, it's a “get right” spot for Colorado to not only get a home win, but also, put a stop to their winless run over the last couple of weeks.
