Matt Wells wants a dominant team in his first head coaching job. The Colorado Rapids hired him, making it official on Tuesday, because they believe their roster can become one.
In his first availability since being hired as the club’s new head coach, Wells said he expects the Rapids to be the “protagonist” on the pitch, regardless of opponent. With a detailed game model and an intentionally demanding preseason ahead, Wells made it clear he plans to start installing that identity immediately.
There’s a long road to navigate before the vision is realized, but he’s thinking like the club that believes it has top Western-Conference talent but missed the playoffs last year: there is no time to waste.
In the meantime, Wells feels like he’s arrived at a destination. Last season, he was the top assistant to Ange Postecoglou at Tottenham Hotspur and won the Europa League. But now, at just 37 years old — the third-youngest active coach in MLS — he’s felt ready for a head coaching job for “a very long time,” having started coaching in his early 20s. It was about waiting for the right opportunity, which he said he saw in Colorado.
“The first thing I saw was the opportunity of a young, hungry squad, and when you saw them in their best moments, you saw what they were capable of,” Wells told The Denver Post on Friday. “So that was a big attraction to me. And then I wouldn’t say problems — I think there’s just differences. Someone like me coming in, I have my own views on the game, my own tactical profile. …
“We’ll be a very dominant team, regardless of who we play,” Wells said. “The mentality needs to be that we’re pressing high, building out from the back, trying to control the ball, bring the ball up the pitch, always with a sense of trying to attack. I’m not saying that wasn’t there last season, but it’ll be done in a slightly different tactical profile, a bit wider with the frontline players. It’ll be exciting football, and I think the fans will be very happy to watch it.”
There are some key differences in that idea from the reality that doomed the Rapids down the stretch of 2025. Per FBRef, the Rapids ranked 27th of 30 in MLS with just 45.7% possession. That’s not necessarily a bad thing for the style of play former coach Chris Armas deployed, but Wells wants ball dominance and possession ahead of having to press and win the ball back — not the other way around.
Not every league is the same, but possession wins consistently in MLS. All four teams in last year’s conference finals ranked in the top six for possession. The MLS Cup participants, Inter Miami (56.7% possession) and the Vancouver Whitecaps (53.4%), ranked third and sixth, respectively.
When the Rapids did hold possession for long stretches in 2025, opposing clubs figured out that sitting in a low block almost always prevented Colorado from scoring. Early in Armas’ tenure, success out wide usually resulted in good chances through Kévin Cabral and Calvin Harris, but after Cabral departed midway through 2025, the attack narrowed to the point of frustrating inefficiency.
Harris is currently a free agent and may or may not return to the club for 2026, but there’s still a bevy of good wide options for a club that loves speedy, out-wide wingers. That group includes on-loan trickster Alexis Manyoma, U-22 Ted Ku-DiPietro and Dante Sealy, whose reported $2 million General Allocation Money signing is yet to be made official.
The club said one of the main priorities this offseason was to find a left-footed right winger like Sealy. Tottenham has an inverted winger of their own in Richarlison, just on the other side of the pitch.
There’s a chance the Rapids could start on matchday one with two inverted wingers — Sealy and Manyoma — which allows for the sort of fullback overlapping and wing overloads Wells wants to see. If effective, drawing the defense out wider than is manageable could help massively in breaking down low blocks.
“Every (opponent) is different. A low block is one thing, but there’s also the profile of the low block. Is it a 5-4-1, a 5-3-2, are they defending with a back four? Where are the spaces? What are the qualities of their players? Where’s the weakness?” Wells said. “So it’s difficult to give a concrete answer to that, but through preseason, we have to educate the players on how they build up against high pressure, how they build up against man to man, how they build up and travel up the pitch and then face a low block.”
With around a month until preseason training begins — which the club said will take place entirely in Florida instead of its usual inclusion of a stint in Mexico — Wells doesn’t have a ton of time to prepare players for what’s next.
But in the meantime, he’s told the players he has met so far to “strap yourselves in” for two-a-days, hard physical work and tactical work in volume. That’s the part Wells loves most: the process, rather than the distant idea of lifting MLS Cup. How quickly players can get up to speed with his particular process is what will determine the outcome and who is involved.
“That’s the exciting thing for me, being with each other the whole time in Florida, is that they can’t escape me,” Wells joked. “We’re training, then we’re off the pitch in meetings. When they think it’s bedtime, back in the meeting room. … I can’t wait to indoctrinate them with our game model, and I think they’ll respond so well because it’s such a positive way of playing.”
Want more sports news? Sign up for the Sports Omelette to get all our analysis on Denver’s teams.