It Kinda Seems Like Anthony Hudson's Making the Same Mistakes In Colorado As He Did With The All Whites
Anthony Hudson’s Colorado Rapids were eliminated from playoff contention two weeks ago when they lost 3-0 at home to Atlanta United. Six games still to play at that point but they had no mathematical chance of making the knockout stuff. The defeat against Atlanta was predictable enough but it capped off a run of four straight defeats in which Colorado had conceded 13 goals and scored a grand total of zero – the low point being the 6-0 loss at home to Real Salt Lake when the Rapids had two red cards in the first half. They’re not last in the conference, surprisingly, but they are comfortably the lowest scoring team in the MLS this season.
When Hudson left his All Whites post after the team fell 2-0 to Peru in the intercontinental World Cup playoff, safe to say there weren’t too many people upset to see him go. Many were outright delighted. That was a bit harsh, to be fair, there was a lot of lumping Huddo in with the greater NZ Football dramas going on back then and as we’ve seen since that was hardly Anthony Hudson’s fault. He left and things got even worse until Andy Martin finally, thankfully, expensively, resigned. Sorry, *retired*. (Hard to keep track given all the people that left NZ Football while Martin was in charge.)
The reality with Hudson as an All Whites coach is that he didn’t qualify for the World Cup. He was never likely to qualify for the World Cup and he didn’t. That’s the bottom line. The deeper story entails frustratingly negative tactics against Oceania opposition and continued defeats against non-OFC teams with small hints of progress latched upon to distract from the lack of results. Hudson clashed with the culture of NZ Football (both organisation and concept) with well-meaning enough intentions and rumour is he fell out badly with the CEO by the end of his time. He began things by picking players out of club football, almost to the point of taking the piss, but ended up coming to rely on a relatively strong group of players. He did have his favourites but he was never afraid to drop folks to make a point. Tommy Smith, Bill Tuiloma, Kosta Barbarouses and Jake Gleeson all got that message, among plenty others.
His tactics evolved over time but he came to depend upon a 5-3-2 formation with wingbacks that never had the freedom (or ability, sometimes) to get forward as much as they needed to and the midfield worked hard but struggled for options with only a couple players ever ahead of them. It was not pretty football but it was at least designed to grind out results against better international teams, which is what New Zealand has to be able to do. Bit of a shame then that we literally never managed to do that – the best result being a 0-0 draw against Peru in Wellington – but while you can argue with the ideas, you at least can’t say there wasn’t a purpose behind them.
All in all, Hudson achieved the minimum he could be expected to achieve and not much else. He left the All Whites in a better place with a much stronger and more stable national team, although with some of the players coming through that might have happened naturally anyway. A narrow pass mark, despite the poor relationship with the fans. Call it a C-.
He then cashed in on a well-maintained global profile, bolstered enormously by smooth talking efforts at the Confederations Cup (three games, three defeats), and took up the job as manager of the Colorado Rapids. Being Anthony Hudson, he quickly snatched a few of his favourite kiwis by signing Tommy Smith, Deklan Wynne and Kip Colvey (with rumoured attempts made for Mike McGlinchey and Fijian icon Roy Krishna). Preseason came and went with eloquent promises and great publicity. Something was happening in Colorado.
From our perspective back in Aotearoa those first few months were a wild ride. Listening to Anthony Hudson’s words – and his words are his best attribute – being received with an innocent enthusiasm rather than a fatigued cynicism. Bashing a bloke after he’d left seems rather pointless but Hudson’s relative inexperience when he took on the All Whites gig did make him a tricky fellow to judge so seeing him in a club environment, where his tight relationship with players and fastidious coaching methods should be better suited, was always going to make for some interesting context to his time with the All Whites.
Well, mate, we’re almost a year into the experiment and it’s been a definite failure so far in Colorado. That’s nothing to gloat about, especially not with the professional futures of three NZ internationals in his hands, but it is something to chat about because what’s been most fascinating about this particular train wreck is just how many of the same tricks he’s tried at Colorado after the All Whites stint. And, in an environment where home draws are nowhere near as excusable, the products have been even worse.
Deklan Wynne had never played an MLS game before 2018. He’d been on the verge with the Vancouver Whitecaps, putting together a few impressive seasons with their reserves as a left-back before getting a game with the seniors in a cup game, and an MLS deal was on the table for him from the Caps when Colorado stepped up acquired him in a trade in exchange for $100,000 of Targeted Allocation Money. Initially it was expected he’d spend at least the first half of the season out on loan to continue his development… instead he played every minute of the first 18 MLS games in a row. Strangely he played most of them as a right-sided centre-back in a defensive trio, despite being a naturally left-footed fullback by trade.
That’s Anthony Hudson for ya. He seems to overvalue character in his players, way more willing to work with a keen rookie than a disinterested veteran. Take Axel Sjöberg for example. One of the team’s most talented defenders and he’s played about half the games that Wynne has. Good thing then that he’s got Tommy Smith to call upon… although odd that he’s his number one soldier these days after the two famously fell out over Smithy’s skipping of All Whites duty a few years back. Shows he doesn’t hold a grudge, s’pose. The shoehorning of players has also seen Scottish defender Danny Wilson play a few games in midfield and you don’t even wanna get started with the forwards.
In struggling for defensive cohesion, he’s made things worse by chopping and changing his team. Kortne Ford’s injury didn’t help, costing him the first half of the season, but as soon as he was back in the team, Deklan Wynne was out of it. Tommy Smith has been the one regular. Him and Tim Howard in goal, Edgar Castillo at wingback and Jack Price in midfield.
Hudson’s not a pernicious tinkerman but he’s got that Jose Mourinho quality of sticking with what works until it doesn’t and then immediately changing it. So safe to say he’s made constant alterations to that defence. Wynne, for example, has barely played since he lost his ever-present status. His start on the weekend – a 2-1 defeat to Columbus Crew – was his first in two and a half months… and he got sent off in the 51st minute. Even when he’s picked he doesn’t get to play (granted, the call was soft as hell). 1620 minutes out of the first 1620 minutes… 115 out of 990 since for Dekkers.
Tactically it’s exactly the same. Sometimes there’s an extra midfielder instead of a striker but the All Whites tried that same thing too against better teams, Kosta or Rojas playing quite deep behind Woody. Still five at the back for Uncle Tony. Still looking to keep his midfield line behind the ball and play on the counter and through set pieces. But that approach depends on having a dynamic midfield, some excellent wingbacks and some real pace and strength up top. And this Colorado squad have basically none of that because Hudson spent all his transfers on central defenders and central midfielders. For a while he got some quality our of Dominique Badji up front, that dude scored seven goals in 16 games including a hat-trick against Philadelphia Union… but then the goals dried up and he was on the rotation line too, getting traded to FC Dallas (lucky break for that dude).
Do you wanna hazard a guess who their next top scorers are? The answer is a three-way tie between defenders Edgar Castillo, Tommy Smith and Irish midfielder Joe Mason who has since returned to England after his loan was cut short early in July. Yannick Boli is their main striker now and he so far has one goal in 569 minutes. Without a proper centre forward this team is completely rudderless. Those wingbacks aren’t there to cross the ball to each other and they’re the only width on offer. The midfield plays too deep to do much of anything else. When their 394 minute goal drought ended on the weekend against Columbus it came from a quick free kick which caught the defence napping. Not exactly a move you practice at training or can rely upon every week.
Then the defence, which should be the strength of the team (and speaking relatively it still is), goes around leaking horrible goals and this is what happens. Losing can be contagious. Drop a couple games and suddenly you forget how to win. But some of these errors are worse than that. It’s concentration going AWOL. Playing the offside trap with one guy lurking way too deep. Awful clearances and missed tackles.
They’re actually very good against set pieces. The All Whites were too under Hudson. No team in the MLS this season has conceded fewer goals from set pieces. But they concede so many goals from open play. The Hudson Rapids have the lowest average possession percentage in the MLS this season and by far the most cards while they take the fourth fewest shots and the second fewest shots on target. Meanwhile they allow the third most shots against them.
This is eerily similar to the All Whites, you know. Too many men behind the ball impacting on any sort of flowing football, standing deep and accepting pressure on their own goal while only having a handful of half-decent chances at the other end. It’s cautious to the point of laying down all arms. Clearly his squad is completely imbalanced which limits any tactical flexibility but watching Anthony Hudson repeat the same mistakes at Colorado as he did with New Zealand sort of makes you wonder if he maybe doesn’t have any other ideas.
But the one thing he never runs out of is words…
November 30, after first being announced as Rapids manager: “I don’t want to come across as sounding arrogant … but I have a very clear idea of how I want to play and I know what I have to offer in terms of a coach and I know what I can do. I know what I want in terms of how we want to play. And I have certain standards and expectations that I’m very clear about as well.”
April 1, after Colorado’s first win of the season: “It feels good, proud of the players. I think it’s important, really important that we’ve got off the mark because of where we’re at and what we are doing but again I’ve said it over the past few weeks, we are very much a team in transition. It’s very new for us, We’ve just spoken in the locker room, it’s all about performance, it’s all about now, improving what we’re doing, progressing what we’re doing. Its far more important right now than the result but this is important tonight for us.”
May 26, after Portland beat Colorado 3-2 with a late winner: “They kept going, they kept working and we’re better than the results are showing recently. We’re a better team than that… disappointing night. I personally don’t think there was much between the two teams tonight other than making a couple of mistakes that cost us.”
July 28, following a 2-2 draw with DC United in which they missed a penalty and conceded a late equaliser: “Disappointing to concede there in the end after putting in hard work to get back into the game. We didn’t start incredibly strong, but for periods of the game we played some really good football. We scored a really good goal to get back in the game. It’s devastating for the lads with how the game ended.”
August 26, after a 6-0 defeat at home to Real Salt Lake: “First of all, I have to apologize to the fans. They've been fantastic all season, especially at home. This was such a big game, such an important game. We went into this game prepared, off the back of a really good run, performing well, really confident. We knew how important this was to the fans. Coming away after the result, it's not what they deserve. We apologize, we can win this come next season. Not a good night for us.”
And so on and so forth. Hudson’s victories are enormous achievements, brilliant rewards for a hard working team that deserved a bit of luck. His defeats are devastating blows to a hard working team that deserves a bit more luck. His victories are proof that his methods are building towards a brighter future where these results are coming on the regular. His defeats are still moral victories because the lads are working so hard, are so close to turning everything around.
Same as with the All Whites, when you think about it.
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