Soccer analyst Ross Smith took the words right out of my mouth, not that a number of other people haven’t thought the same. To paraphrase the former Portland Timbers player, somebody who still features prominently on Timbers’ broadcasts and Talk Timbers, if you didn’t know better, you’d swear that Pablo Mastroeni never left the Colorado Rapids.
During his three-plus years in charge of the MLS original, Mastroeni almost stubbornly stuck to a style that reflected his playing approach, one that reached international levels because of its intelligence, toughness and, well, stubbornness. Perpetually difficult to play against, Mastroeni’s Rapids weren’t perpetually good, going 46-58-41 during this 145 games in charge.