Matt Wells

Um, so I think...

And then Matt Wells is another one, very young guy who run in the Rapids who, uh, was perceived as w- as a real coup for that organization to, for him to cross the Atlantic.

A rising, young, you know, respected English manager in the, sort of in the Premier League world.

So, you know, it's k- kind of fun things happening in, in the, in the sense of, like, the coaching dynamics, uh, here in MLS.

And I

don't even think Matt Wells is bad, but you can clearly tell he's a rookie head coach.

I don't know, man.

I don't

You are listening to Holding the High Line with Rabbi in Red.

My name is Matt Pollard.

It is Tuesday, September 22nd, 2026.

Happy autumn or happy fall to all of the spooky people and people who like pumpkin spice and the people who are down for, um... all of the foliage changes up in the mountains.

And the Rapids will be missing three players due to international duty.

What could possibly go wrong? Joining me now, because Rabbi Mark Goodman is atoning for his sins of the past year over the high holidays, it's Rocky Mountain Soccer Journal and Commerce City Radio's Braden Nurse.

Matt, thank you for the intro and thank you for having me on.

I think this is my second appearance on HGHL.

You know just as much as I do.

That was one of the biggest... opportunities that we've had to gain some glory with this new Matt Wells team.

And, uh, how, how many episodes ago was I like, just so gung ho on, we need to focus on this match.

This is going to be key.

But we obviously had a clear run at the play, and he decided to just call it back.

Yeah.

Even Matt Wells, I noticed he was pretty upset with the way the officiating went.

Not to say that the officiating was the reason why we lost or we could have won, but just now, Crash, looking back at it, what are your thoughts on just the way the officiating kind of took...

But this is a UNM8 team that just keeps on keeping on.

I have a question mark on my show notes on the bad and it's, it's tough to really be too critical and analytical on this, especially after I like, I liked hearing from Matt Wells when I watched the Colorado manager speak post game and his, his takeaway from this is that he doesn't have any takeaways.

I thought it was kind of a cop out, but at the same time, there's logic to this in the sense that it is a knockout elimination match.

It is a winner.

But this doesn't seem like a discipline side.

having played them now three times this season, this just does not.

And Matt Wells, you know, I'll, I'll go ahead and make the Tottenham dig right now, but Matt Wells first year head coach for Colorado Rapids.

I don't know what the intent is.

When you see some of these numbers in terms of, what, 22nd in goals, 22nd in shots, but, you know, top 10 in many defensive categories, what jumps out at you?

Yeah, Matt Wells has a kind of defined style of play that he's known for, which is very sound fundamental defense.

Their issue has always been scoring goals under him.

That was one of the things that when we looked at potential targets for City, it was like, oh gosh, if Navajo is that good in Colorado, which he was a good player, put him in an offensive-minded system and look out.

You can get away with sticking a winger out there and just saying, just do your thing up and down the wing and just try and score or try and get offense going.

And it's not really going to wreck what you do as a structural unit, much less than a guy who plays in the middle would be, right? Because if you've got a guy who's playing centrally, who needs to have a lot more responsibility, I think that's something that, yeah, that's hard.

They said, Matt Wells have talked about the fact that those guys have been training with the team for a little bit of time now.

It's not like they just got able to join the team Saturday.

They just recently beat Montreal 1-0 at home on the weekend.

Still coached by Matt Wells, has taken them to be more of a possession type, circulation type team.

High tempo, has really engineered this team and the attack following the deadline and departure of some of their key players.

But again, look for this team to want possession, but They are going to look to kind of circulate between the goalkeeper, Nico Hansen, and their center backs, Rob Holding and Williams, to bait in the press, bait in some pressure and release to some of their playmakers and O'Hadrian and Josh Atencio, Paxton Aronson as well on this team.