When Jordan Angeli finally called time on her playing career last June, it was with a heavy heart. Soccer was all she had known from the age of five, and playing professionally was everything she had wanted to do.

But her body had been through a lot. The Colorado native tore her left ACL three times in five years, and had undergone seven surgeries by her early 20s.

Despite the physical set-backs, which - even once ‘healed’ - come saddled with emotional scars, Angeli still played at the highest level. When she retired, she did so while with Western New York Flash of the NWSL.

And so, one imagines, as the NWSL kicks-off this weekend, there may be a tinge of sadness sweeping across the 30-year-old Angeli.

As she wrote, in a retirement letter last summer: “The smell of the grass, the sound of striking a ball perfectly 50 yards across the field, and the feeling of the ball kissing my laces as I watched it billow the net."

“Soccer is awesome. And it will always be just that, a sport I love for all the joy it brought my life.”

Often, when something you have given so much to appears to cast you aside at a time of their choosing, one can feel bitter, even angry. It would have been easy, and not unusual, had Angeli turned her back on the sport of soccer. But, as one door slammed shut, another eased open.

Angeli, who graduated from Green Mountain High School in Lakewood, is bringing her knowledge, experience and pure passion for the beautiful game to the radio booth. She will partner Conor McGahey for all home games, as color analyst, on Altitude Sports Radio AM 950.

“I’m really excited for this opportunity,” beamed Angeli. “Conor called me up right before the season started and said ‘I’d love to have you alongside me for radio broadcasts of the game’.

“Last season I took on the role of (matchday) host, giving a little bit more of soccer insight with Rapids Live, and so this is just another way for me to expand that and to continue my passion of soccer, but now as an analyst.”

You can hear the full interview with Jordan Angeli on the latest Rapids Podcast. Click HERE to listen.

And, if you cannot get to the match against Real Salt Lake on Saturday (TICKETS), then you can catch Conor McGahey and Jordan Angeli on Altitude Sports Radio AM 950.