Lead-footed as he may be, Rob Holding is sure-footed enough to be the first-choice driver on holidays with his buddies.
On trips to destinations like Los Angeles and Las Vegas, the Englishman’s car of choice is a Jeep Wrangler. Blaring on the speakers, perhaps to the annoyance of his passengers: country music, probably. Holding is actually a big fan of the American football 49ers, and Colorado-born Christian McCaffrey is his favorite player. He once got on stage at Red Rocks to sing a song with Zach Bryan.
An eventual move to MLS always lingered in Holding’s mind, despite playing at the highest levels in England, including 10 years and a few trophies with Arsenal and a couple of stints in the Championship (the nation’s second league). One of his peaks as a self-proclaimed “old-school” center back was playing all 90 minutes in the FA Cup final in 2020, which Arsenal won over Chelsea, 2-1.
Now with the Colorado Rapids, it’s a new chapter for the 29-year-old, who joined the team officially in early August on a free transfer. So far, all indications are that Colorado may have been tailor-made for Holding as a place to plant a flag. On Saturday night, he’ll make his Dick’s Sporting Goods Park debut against the Houston Dynamo after starting two weeks ago at Sporting Kansas City.
A home debut for his new club won’t be the only box he’ll tick this weekend. Houston’s goalkeeper, Jonathan Bond, is a frequent passenger in those Wranglers. Of the group of close friends — composed mainly of high-level soccer players — who take those offseason trips together, Bond is the only one Holding has yet to play against.
“I said to him, ‘If I’m up for a corner and I get a chance on a header, just let it go past you,’ ” Holding joked. “ ‘We’ve been through a lot together, do me a favor for my home debut,’ and he laughed and said, ‘I’m afraid I can’t do that.’ ”
Bond’s response a few days later: “What I’m gonna do is, I’m just gonna have like four or five players on (Holding), leave everyone else unmarked. If anyone else scores, it’s fine. But if he scores, that’s a problem.”
The two friends played for teams in the same league twice — once in 2015, and then again last season — but their teams never met. There was some excitement in the prospect of facing each other, but disappointment in their paths not crossing.
In the lead-up to their first encounter on the pitch together, their phone calls and text threads have been more about soccer this week than they ever have, Bond indicated.
“We rarely ever talk about football. … Honestly, sometimes the last thing we want to talk about is soccer,” Bond said. “The role we (play for each other) is to just give that kind of escape, really. Even though he plays professional soccer just like I do, naturally, we will discuss (on-the-pitch) things and him moving to this league. … But I think over the course of the friendship, it’s, you know, we look forward to going on holiday together, and that was always in the U.S.”
LA Galaxy goalkeeper Jonathan Bond waves to the crowd after the team's MLS soccer match against Real Salt Lake, which ended in a 2-2 draw Saturday, Oct. 14, 2023, in Carson, Calif. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)
The Rapids are holding onto a playoff spot by a thread after a pair of bad losses, while the Dynamo is just on the outside looking in after nabbing six crucial points from its last five games.
Though they’ll swap jerseys after the game, the 90 minutes prior could set the tone for the remainder of each team’s season. There’s a scenario where one team’s playoff hopes could survive at the expense of the other. They joke now about marking on a corner kick, but the stakes don’t leave a lot of time for in-game banter.
“I’m going to try to pretend like he’s not playing,” Bond said.
For Holding, who debuted in a back five that leaked four goals to SKC two weeks ago, the keys to the game — at least defensively — are fairly straightforward. Conceding in the first 10 minutes, which the Rapids have done in each of their last two games, cannot happen because the Rapids have dug themselves deeper numerous times trying to chase games.
That’s in part due to throwing all the chips in the middle and not being ready for counterattacks. Holding thinks that could improve.
“I think we leave ourselves a bit more exposed, and it’s something we need to control better when we’re chasing games, that we’re not conceding an extra one that kills us, and then we have no chance of getting back into the game,” Holding said. “Our desire to attack is great. People want to run. … But then I think it’s just a bit more structure and organization as we attack, especially in our rest defense, which we’ve worked on a lot.”
The match, the first of the Rapids’ final five of the regular season, kicks off at 7:30 p.m.
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