Rapids aim to “bring a little bit more to the table” in first-ever San Diego FC matchup

Chris Armas has made a bit of a habit of beating MLS expansion teams. The Colorado Rapids, not so much.

Since 2015, MLS has added 12 new franchises to the fray, the most recent being San Diego FC, which is in its first season this year. This Saturday, the Rapids will face SDFC for the first time at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park at 7:30 p.m.

Only two expansion teams — 2018 LAFC and 2023 St. Louis CITY — had a better record through seven games than San Diego’s current 4-1-2 start, good for second in the Western Conference.

The Rapids (3-2-2) opened strong, but inconsistency has crept in. They’ve dominated top MLS teams like Charlotte FC, but also stumbled badly at home and on the road, even against short-handed and fixture-congested opponents.

Armas is a perfect 3-0 against expansion teams since becoming a head coach in 2018, all of which came as front man for the New York Red Bulls (one of them vs. that 2018 LAFC team). In the same span, the Rapids are an underwhelming 3-4-2.

Seven games may be a small sample size, but San Diego has shown early signs of a clear identity. Part of it is a bit like Colorado in that it’s high-energy and can destroy teams on the counter attack.

But it also possesses the ball at the highest clip in the league at 58.4%. That’s not necessarily a bad thing for the Rapids, who sit in the bottom 10 in the league in possession percentage but thrive on their press and 11-man defending to create chances.

For Armas, the game plan centers more on what his own team is trying to do than overanalyzing a relatively unknown opponent.

“There’s always enough film. A lot of what they know about themselves, we know about them because you can see it,” Armas said. “I think sometimes when you don’t know the (opponent) as well, it’s so much more about us, but I think it’s pretty clear. Some teams are very, very clear about what they try to do, their behaviors, their principles. That’s clear: They’re a team that can play direct, and they’re a team that can play really, really good in possession.”

Those values have led to 13 goals so far for SDFC, with most of the offensive firepower coming from winger Anders Dreyer, who has three goals and two assists. In total, the front three of Dreyer, Chucky Lozano and Onni Valakari have combined for six goals and eight assists.

The Rapids have faced some tough attacking duos like FC Dallas’s Luciano Acosta and Petar Musa; and Charlotte’s Patrick Agyemang and Wilfried Zaha. But firepower in threes doesn’t come often like this.

That said, it’s a chance to, as midfielder Oliver Larraz put it, “bring a little bit more to the table.” In the Armas era, the Rapids are an impressive 4-2-2 in home matches directly following a road loss.

Though the Vancouver Whitecaps had a couple of scoring moments last Saturday that would’ve been difficult for any team to stop, the Rapids were overall bad offensively, registering no shots on goal for the third time this season across all competitions.

According to Larraz, this week of training has served as a nice reset from a bad night in Canada.

“We came together as a team and said, ‘This is on us.’ I think this week of training has been one of our best, and we’re looking forward to the weekend,” Larraz said. “We approach this game the same as all the other games: with the intent to win.”

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