The Colorado Rapids did their best to not let the unknown complicate the preparation.
During the week leading up to the road trip to Inter Miami — which includes on its roster soccer legends like Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez, Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba — nobody really knew if any of them would start, come off the bench or even play at all.
The Rapids could not read too much into one game plan tailored to slowing down any specific players. As a result, coach Chris Armas was cautious and intentional about how he’d speak to his team during the week.
“The preparation this week, ‘If Messi plays, if Messi doesn’t play,’ we don’t try to confuse the guys and overwhelm them with so much information,” Armas said. “Because if you know they’re playing, you can be really specific about that. But then if it’s an hour before (the game) and you find out they’re not starting, then what becomes the message? So we didn’t flood them with too much information and anxiety in that way.”
And for the most part, it worked out in Colorado’s 2-2 tie with Inter Miami on Saturday night. In the end, any number of hypotheticals all led to one reality, which perhaps the team would have been prepared for. But then again, maybe not.
You just have to take it as it comes. And as it turned out, none of the four former FC Barcelona stars started the game.
Then the Rapids looked dominant to start, pressing the issue and controlling possession, leading in that category a staggering 54.9% to Miami’s 45.1% at halftime. More importantly, Rafael Navarro’s penalty in the 45th minute gave the Rapids their first halftime lead of the season.
“At halftime, we knew (the stars) would come on, so we talked a bit more,” Armas said. “But it gets real really fast.”
Armas was right. Messi subbed on out of the locker room after halftime, Busquets came in 10 minutes later and Alba joined the fun in the 70th minute. Suarez never saw action.
The realness Armas alluded to was certainly the case for Cole Bassett, whose left foot salvaged a point in the 88th minute after Messi orchestrated three minutes of mastery from the 58th minute to the 60th minute to take a 2-1 lead.
For Bassett, the moment he watched Messi step on the same blades of grass as him was extraordinary. Dreams were unfolding right in front of him, but he knew he had to stuff his childhood awe away until the final whistle.
Still relatively young himself, he’s looked at as one of the veterans of a team filled with youth. So not only did he have to control his own astonishment, but also remind his teammates that couldn’t be the focal point while the ball was still in play.
“It was a special game. (Growing up,) Barcelona was my favorite team, from like 2011 to ’15 when that team was on fire and all those guys were playing there, they were my favorite to watch,” Bassett said. “So it is pretty special when you look at it, but at the same time I went into the game knowing we have a young team and they were kind of idolized a little bit, too.
“We tried to change that mentality into, ‘This is an opportunity to show ourselves.’ A lot of people watch these games across the world now and it’s an opportunity to show the world you deserve to be here and deserve to be on this field (with them).”
For all involved, the Rapids’ first match against Inter Miami was memorable for any number of reasons. Because of the team’s flexibility and freedom in the preparation, they can now say they’re undefeated against the greatest of all time.
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