As the Colorado Rapids prepare for the start of the 2024 MLS Cup Playoffs, it would be easy to take for granted the regular season the team just went through. This year, Colorado had a long-awaited win in the Rocky Mountain Cup over hated rival Real Salt Lake, earned a CONCACAF Champions Cup place, and posted a 50-point, 61-goal debut campaign for new head coach Chris Armas.
The season marks a massive leap forward from 2023, a year that will live in infamy among Rapids fans. The turnaround did not happen by accident, and the tireless work of Armas is a huge reason why.
Last season was one to forget in Commerce City – the team finished last in the Western Conference, tied for last in the league in goals scored, was part of six 0-0 games at home, and zero wins against rival Real Salt Lake.
But it was the dismissal of head coach Robin Fraser that highlighted the misery for the club, just two seasons after Fraser led the team to the top of the Western Conference standings in 2021. The difficulty of the campaign had spread throughout the organization, and team president Padraig Smith knew that the impending head coach hire had to bring a new, positive energy into the club.
Enter Chris Armas.
“We did feel like we needed to bring an energy and a positivity to the environment that we just felt was lacking,” Smith told DNVR. “That’s something we honed in on from really early on.”
It is abundantly clear from the moment you meet Armas that he has energy and positivity in spades. The former MLS and USMNT midfielder is always smiling, bouncing around the practice field from group to group, hopping in games with players and staff or saying hello to observing media.
He does his homework, knowing as many names and having as many conversations as he can with anyone and everyone. Smith, along with the players, immediately took notice.
“It’s very easy to talk the talk and to act that way in an interview process,” Smith said. “But Chris has walked the walk every single day since he’s been here. That energy level that you guys see, it never stops. That is who he is, and it is infectious.”
Armas really needed that infectious positivity from the jump – seventeen people across various departments for the Rapids were involved in the interview process. The club was truly looking for a fit across all areas, from the on-field product to community outreach to the digital team. It was not a challenge that Armas wanted to back down from.
“Honestly I think it’s all connected,” Armas said in an exclusive interview with DNVR. “I think Padraig and [Wayne Brant, Rapids Chief Business Officer] at the top, they saw an opportunity that it was a fresh start this year … We are speaking the same language. Its synergy, its aligned. They know that the way I’m pushing things over here, they can see it, they can hear it, they can see it in the team, and maybe that can affect the mood over there.
If you’re selling tickets, does it get easier or does it get harder? You feel a little more proud of something that is going good, and maybe you get the sense when things are a little bit better that what I am doing matters. I feel a little more a part of this thing, that I’m rowing in the same direction and my pull is contributing.”
Armas credits his approach to the job in part to two of his former head coaches with the Chicago Fire, Bob Bradley and Dave Sarachen. Under their leadership, Armas put up a very impressive playing career, one that included four Open Cup trophies, a Supporter’s Shield, and the 1998 MLS Cup.
Individually, he piled up six All-Star appearances, five appearances on the MLS Best XI, and the 2003 Comeback Player of the Year. But as much as they helped him on the field, it was what he learned day in and day out from their work that is propelling him to success with the Colorado Rapids.
“Dave Sarachen – he was about details, tactics, but also a people-first guy, connecting, helping players play free,” Armas said. “That’s not always easy. When the guys make mistakes and you lose games, how does the vibe feel? Dave showed me people, not just tactics … he really had a way with people that I hadn’t seen.” Bradley was especially instrumental in the way Armas approaches culture-building. “[Bob] was a guy I could see turning over every stone, managing the environment, coaching every guy, getting to know families, building the culture. He was the first guy I saw do that.”
Outside the club, the reaction to the Armas hire was far from universally approved. Local and national media alike questioned the selection, who they last saw crash out of the MLS in 2021. After winning a Supporter’s Shield as the interim coach of the New York Red Bulls in 2018, Armas’ team’s point total declined each of the next two years, and he was ultimately let go by the team at the end of 2020. He was hired by Toronto the next season but was fired after a 1-2-8 start that culminated in a 7-0 loss, the worst in club history.
While Armas may have struggled stateside, a new opportunity opened up for him in England as an assistant on Ralf Ragnik’s new staff at Manchester United.
“Ralf Ragnik is the godfather of energy drink football,” Smith said. “You go to Germany, and you talk to people in Germany about Ralf Ragnik, he is revered. For him to say ‘Hey, I’m going to Man United and the guy I’m gonna bring with me is Chris Armas,’ that’s an incredible compliment and just speaks volumes to how much [Chris] is respected.”
Armas jumped immediately at the chance, and before he knew it he was running training sessions for some of the biggest stars in soccer. The experience he gained from those sessions proved invaluable.
“I’m learning in real time how to do some of that stuff,” Armas said. “I’m the one that has to walk through the match plan on the pitch, and I’m doing a lot of that in real-time. Ralf is out there with me, but I’m doing it. Imagine standing behind Cristiano Ronaldo – ‘Cristiano, when that centerback gets it, put yourself in the middle’ and he turns around like ‘Yeah man.’ But Ralf is watching me, I have to do it.”
It was a tremendous learning opportunity for Armas, who was able to use his relentless work ethic to soak up as much could while in Manchester.
“I’m showing up every day to work as hard as I can to help a team to a top-four finish,” he said. “To try to help a team move forward, implement the style of play, and I’m sitting in the middle of all that designing training sessions, running practices for seven months straight. Every day. There was not a day off. Working under that pressure, in that stressful situation, while just coming with good energy and just trying to earn respect from all those around me.”
Armas would see out the season on Rangnick’s interim staff and spent time on former teammate Jesse Marsch’s staff at Leeds United before returning to the States in 2023, where he joined up with Smith in Commerce City to spearhead the cultural turnaround.
All that he has learned throughout an extensive career in soccer is being put to use, building an environment that his players are buying into. From Captain Keegan Rosenberry to homegrown midfielder Oliver Larraz, the Rapids are all rowing in the same direction.
“I can’t emphasize it enough – compared to last year, especially getting some results early this year, with all the changes that were made tactically and personnel wise, it went a long way for just the buy-in for us to have a successful year,” Rosenberry, who was named an MLS starter for the second time in his career this year, told DNVR. “When you have the buy-in that you do and the respect of players top to bottom, it makes the leadership piece easy.”
That buy-in has led Armas to the most wins and most points by a first-year coach in club history, and he is a finalist for the Sigi Schmid MLS Coach of the Year award. As milestones roll in for him and his players, he has found a new catchphrase that has caught on in the offices at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park – “Why not the Rapids?”
Several Rapids had great seasons under the new coach’s guidance. Djordje Mihailovic, the prize addition of the offseason, set a club record for goal contributions with 11 goals and 14 assists. Zack Steffen was named Best Goalkeeper of Leagues Cup after his clutch performances led the team to a third-place finish.
The Rapids led the MLS in minutes played by homegrown players, including nearly 2,200 minutes from Larraz. The Denver native had played all of 46 first-team minutes prior to the arrival of Armas at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park.
“I am very thankful that he has included me,” Larraz said. “And he lets me know, even if it’s a bad game or a good game, you know that he’s thinking about the big picture, about you as a person and how you’re going to develop. Being a midfielder, he gives me tips all the time, especially tactical or technical. He was teaching me how he would hold people off, or how he might win a certain ball without getting beat or over committing. Little things like that come all the time.”
The work doesn’t stop for Armas, almost to a fault. He always finds time to work on his relationships across the club. Following the team’s 1-0 loss to Seattle at home on a Saturday in early October, Chris was at a Rapids 2 game the next day watching some first-team players get some minutes.
“When I take my dog for a walk after that game, those fuckers are on my mind,” Armas said. “What do I do? I called Wayne (Frederick), I called Jackson (Travis), I called Seb Anderson, and I called Mikey (Edwards). Those are the four guys that played. Forty-minute walk, ten minutes each – ‘I proud of you, this is what I saw.’”
“That’s how I’ve chosen to manage, that’s not an easy thing. Why don’t coaches all do that? They don’t, because it takes work. Does it even matter? But for me when I tell Seb Anderson, ‘Seb you aren’t in the team, I have four full backs listed.’ Brother, it’s the worst part of my job … But it makes it easier to look a guy in the face when he knows I care about him and I’m doing all I can to coach them.”
Armas faces a new challenge as the Rapids enter the playoffs for the first time since 2021, a task that felt insurmountable to fans in January. The Burgundy Boys have shown resilience all season, especially during their dramatic Leagues Cup showing, and Chris is ready to see this playoff run through.
“When I was a player, no one had to wonder how much it meant to me,” Armas said. “They never had to wonder. You were never going to be able to hang up my fucking jersey after a game because it didn’t get dirty. I’ve been around people and players like that. No one wonders how hard I work and no one will question how much I care. They can hear it in my voice, they can see that I’m ready, I’m here with energy, win, lose, or draw.”
