COMMERCE CITY, Colo. – The Colorado Rapids’ choice of retaining Pablo Mastroeni as head coach was highly questioned following back-to-back finishes at the bottom of the Western Conference in 2014 and 2015.
A year removed, the Rapids head man now has the club sitting as one of the four remaining teams in contention for this year’s MLS Cup.
But has the Rapids’ turnaround done enough to earn Mastroeni a new deal when his contract expires at the end of the season?
The Rapids head coach called it a “wait-and-see” scenario when MLSsoccer.com asked about his contract status back in September, but signs pointed to the positive when Rapids president Tim Hinchey was posed with a similar inquiry during a media roundtable Tuesday.
“More importantly, I’m just rooting for Pablo,” Hinchey stated. “He’s worked awfully hard at his craft. He deserves everything that’s happened this year and it’s all been on him. We’re thrilled about that. Our intention is certainly to have Pablo and this group back, but as we’ve said, we’re going to sit down at the end of the season and hopefully continue to focus on getting three more wins, get through that, and go from there.”
The team’s front office put their faith in Mastroeni at the conclusion of last season, and the former Rapids midfielder rewarded that loyalty by putting in additional work this past offseason, attending coaching clinics and making visits to the staffs at English Premier League clubs Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur.
For Mastroeni, the process has been all about self-reflection and the will to improve as both a person and in his role as head coach.
“You have to go through hardships in life to really have moments of reflection and to ponder what changes need to be made in your life and your career path in order to get you from where you are today to where you want to go,” Mastroeni said. “I think I’m quite an introspective human. I like to think about life at a much deeper level than most people and sometimes it’s to a fault.
“But I think a lot of the changes that I made for my own life have been a reflection of my professional life as well. Understanding that I have to continue growing every day, the challenge is for me to wake up every morning and check myself.”
Colorado showed marginal improvement in Mastroeni’s first two seasons at the helm, finishing with 37 points in 2015 after amassing only 32 points in his 2014 debut — results that were recognized as simply not good enough by the Rapids' brass.
This season, the Rapids made a giant leap, achieving the club’s goals of reaching the Audi 2016 MLS Cup Playoffs and hosting a home playoff game following a season-long chase of the Supporters’ Shield. The results have come, but Hinchey has been looking at a bigger picture in regards to assessing the head coach.
“He’s done an amazing job and deserves all the accolades, but primarily because he’s worked so hard at it,” Hinchey said. “As I said before, the character of the man, we’ve seen that as a player. I’ve seen that as a husband and a father and what he’s done around this squad, so it doesn’t surprise me at all that the results have come this way and he deserves it.”
So while an “official” announcement and re-signing have yet to be made, all signs point to keeping the gang together in Commerce City, Colorado.
“Our motto [last offseason] was ‘Stick together’ and that was really important to the club," Hinchey said. "I don’t know if there are a lot of organizations like ours that allow the opportunity to continue to stick together, have our jobs and continue to work for a goal.”
