Superdraft Results and Messi Game Moved

As expected there were a couple of trades with today's Superdraft and a last-minute wrinkle impacting our first pick.  With that first pick the Rapids selected forward Mamadou Billo Diop from...Rapids 2.  Yeah, strange.  It turns out sometime in the last few days another MLS team found a loophole in the rules that due to the fact that Diop went to high school in Florida but did not enroll in college he matches a precedent that he has to go through the draft.  Because he came to R2 from Florida and is not a homegrown the only way the Rapids could keep a player already under contract was to draft him, and they didn't want to risk him falling any further.

After that we selected forward Mitchell Baker out of Georgetown at #10.  Mark Kelkenberg expected him to go in the 20's and says:

Young complete center forward with a big frame. Took over for Jacob Murrell and recently had a 14 goal season for the Hoyas. Attended Northwood School/Black Rock FC where he had a lot of success prior to college

At this point the Rapids traded the 19th pick to SKC for $50K in 2026 GAM and the #44 pick.

At number 26 they took forward Wahabu Musah out of Clemson.  Yes, three forwards in a row.  Again from Kelkenberg who had him at 35 overall:

Musah could go earlier based on being the youngest player in the draft, so if he wound up available, I’d be surprised if they passed on him. He has shown great ability at Clemson already, and it’s rare that he played two collegiate seasons before his 18th birthday, which was earlier this month.

In the second round the Rapids traded the 40th ant 44th picks to Dallas for $75K in GAM.  All told they traded a 2025 international slot and the #44 pick and got back $325K in GAM, when you consider the #19 pick came as part of that international slot trade that also got $200K in GAM.  Nice funny-money business, but we'll see what they spend it on.

At #56 was my favorite pick of the draft, defender Asher Hestad from the National Champion Washington Huskies (Go Dawgs!).  We are now far enough down that I haven't found any MLS writeups on these players but Hestad did start at right back for every game in the Huskies run in the NCAA tournament.

In the 3rd round the Rapids took midfielder Koven Johnson out of High Point at #70 and defender Jabari De Coteau out of Xavier at #86.

One interesting note is that De Coteau is a junior and all of our other picks (other than Diop obviously) are sophomores.  So any of them could decide to return to school and the Rapids would hold their rights for two seasons.  So we'll have to see how many of these players actually show up in camp next month.  I would bet Baker will, he is the highest rated of the group and would be expected to be able to contribute at the MLS level in the near future.  The rest might stay in college.  I think beyond Musah anyone else is a long shot right now, as much as I would like to see Hestad have a bit impact.

After the busy Superdraft day the Rapids made a significant announcement.  The April 18th, 2026 game against Miami will be played at Empower Field in downtown Denver and not at the Dick.  This will be the game where the Rapids celebrate their 20th anniversary by returning to where it all began (almost).  On April 21st, 1996 the Rapids played their first ever home game at old Mile High, which was situated in what is now the parking lot of Empower Field.

Season ticket holders will be moved to to seats with similar sight lines in the lower bowl at Empower.  No word yet on parking, tailgating, or the supporters section.  Centennial 38 has a meeting with the Front Office next week to discuss those things, including where C38 season ticket holders in the supporters sections will end up, so more information should be available after the holidays.  Remaining tickets after the season ticket and flex pack holders are covered will be put on sale on January 15th.

Honestly, I hate this.  They can couch this in the terms of "celebrating are origin" as much as they want but we all see this for what this is.  A cash grab with Messi.  Its a betrayal of long-time fans who have worked hard, sometimes with no support or even active opposition from the Front Office, to make the Dick our home.  This is even the 20th season in the Dick and we could be celebrating that, but instead the FO is going for the quick buck and giving away what home field advantage we have so they can get all the Messi fans in the stadium.  My hope is that they announce the week before the game that he's not coming.

This is another log on the fire of disrespect I'm feeling from the Rapids and the league this offseason but honestly its been a long few months for me professionally (in a good way) and I'm pretty fried and I know that's probably driving my reactions lately.  So I'm going to take a couple of weeks off, see family, play some video games and watch bowl games and the African Cup of Nations, and see how I'm feeling come the New Year.  If I still feel this way then I'll write something up about how (IMO) the fans are being treat.  If not then it will be good I cleared my head.  Baring significant news tomorrow (like announcing Wells as coach or the trade for Sealy) this will do it at least until after Christmas and possibly 2025.

I hope everyone has a a happy holiday season and a great New Years!

Superdraft Preview

All quiet in Commerce City.  No official coach announcement yet.  Rumor of a significant trade for Dante Sealy from Montreal.  I'm waiting for it to be official to get too much into it, but the reported $2M of GAM we're trading is a significant overpay if its accurate.

One thing I never commented on here was that we did exercise the purchase option for Noah Cobb.  I have mentioned that this was something I was in favor of so I'm glad it got done.

The Re-Entry Drafts came and went with the Rapids doing nothing, so its on to tomorrow's Superdraft.  Colorado has 8 picks in the 3 rounds, including 4 first round picks.  We have Toronto's pick at #6 in exchange for us allowing Toronto to hire Neil Emblem to join Robin's staff in Toronto.  e have our natural pick at #10.  We have Columbus' pick at #18 in exchange for an international slot in 2025, and we have Philly's pick at #26 (along with #56 and #86) due to the trade of GAM for all their draft picks in 2025, 2026, and 2027.  In addition to Philly's picks in the 2nd and 3rd round we have our natural picks at #40 and #70.

The reality is with all those picks we'll be very lucky if we get tow players who contribute in the next couple of seasons.  The player who would likely be the top pick, Grand Canyon University striker Junior Diouf, is a freshman and would only be eligible with a GA contract.  Today there were 4 GA contracts announced and he wasn't one of them.  There was also a senior contract announced (a senior who's signed with the league pre-draft) and its my personal favorite pick in the draft, Washington midfielder/striker Richie Aman.  I'd love to see him drop to 6 and have Colorado take him, but I have my doubts.

Anything more I could tell you about the picks is better summarized by American Soccer Analysis' great Superdraft writeup.  Work will probably prevent me from doing any live updating tomorrow but I will have a recap of whatever happens, which will probably involve Smith trading picks, tomorrow night.

We Have A Coach!

First reported by Tom Bogert and confirmed by many the Rapids will name Tottenham Hotspur assistant coach Matt Wells as the team's 11th official head coach sometime next week.

Wells is a name out of left field, but to be fair with the lack of rumors anyone outside of the league would be out of left field.  Most Rapids fans spent the day researching what they could find on him and asking friends who were Spurs fans or Tottenham social media accounts what we're getting.

What we do know is that Wells is a 37 year old born and raised North Londoner who played in the Spurs academy before injuries derailed any hope of a senior career.  He then moved over to the coaching side at Spurs Academy, as an assistant eventually leaving to follow Academy coach Scott Parker as he took over Fulham's first-team and continued with him to Bournemouth and Clube Brugge.  He returned to Spurs under Postecoglou for the 2023-24 season and became the senior assistant to Ange last season, before stepping back down to assistant under Thomas Frank this season.

Postecoglou is known for giving his assistants a lot of responsibility and Wells is credited the game plan that Spurs used to win the Europa League final last season.  Under Postcoglou and Wells, and continuing to this season, Tottenham has been playing with a strong defense and this year in particular going with a counterpressing strategy.  Not exactly Pablo-ball boring but certainly a more defensive focus than what Armas brought the last two seasons.  Of course we don't know what Wells will use when he's the one calling all the shots.

With what little we know right now this seems like a middling hire with more potential to be an improvement from Armas than a step back IMO.  I do like that we didn't go for another unsuccessful MLS retread or elevated Bushey.  I don't like that, yet again, we're hiring somebody without successful first-team club head coaching experience.  It has been 25 years (arguably just 20) since the Rapids have done that and maybe its time to try it?

Chris Armas - took over a RBNY team and runined it, lasted less than a season in Toronto

Robin Fraser - Failed at Chivas USA

Anthony Hudson - Never had a first-team club job, only international experience

Pablo Mastroeni - First coaching job

Oscar Pareja - First head coaching job

Gary Smith - Only youth experience

Fernando Claivjo - Did take the Revs to 2nd in the East but lost in the playoffs

Tim Hankinson - Did succeed and make the semi-finals with the Charleston Battery

The reality is that with Padraig Smith still making the decisions on player recruitment its hard to get to excited about an unknown hire.  Its going to take significant upgrades in the roster to make this team competitive.  If Wells is successful he's likely back to England with a better first-team job in 2-3 years.  If Wells is unsuccessful he'll become the next in line of a list of failed hires by KSE.  I do not expect Wells to be coaching this team by the time the 2030 World Cup rolls around.

Rapids Announce Year End Roster Decisions

Colorado announced their player decisions today.

Options exercised: Nico Hansen, Jackson Travis, Darren Yapi

Options declined: Daouda Amadou, Sam Bassett, Michael Edwards, Nate Jones, Andreas Maxsø, Rafael Santos

Free agents: Calvin Harris, Oliver Larraz

The option to purchase Noah Cobb has to be exercised by December 15th.

The Rapids are negotiating new contracts with Amadou, Harris, Larraz, and Santos.  Bassett, Edwards, Jones, and Maxso will not be returning in 2026.

Looking back at my review of the upcoming decisions most of this was expected. The two ones I missed on were Santos and Bassett.

I was glad to see we are negotiating with Santos because letting him walk would be crazy.  Hw only started 5 games yet was our best left back of the season.  Either we want him back at a lower number, but he was only on $400K, or we're giving him a longer, better contract and by passing on his option we're smoothing out negotiations so he gets his raise right away instead in a mid-year negotiation.

While Sam Bassett didn't light the world on fire he was cheap and Cole clearly liked playing with his brother.  I figured those two factors would lead to him coming back next season.  You have to wonder if Sam and people in his orbit have decided he'll do better somewhere other than the Rapids.

Other than those two most of these were obvious or we didn't have enough information to evaluate.  I'm hoping Santos gets signed quickly and I would be fine with Larraz and Harris coming back for depth but its not a huge loss if they leave.  Amadou is a long-term project.  Hansen and Yapi were absolute no brainers to keep and Travis is good depth if we can't get Santos signed.

We did release three centerbacks today, leaving us Holding and Murphy as true centerbacks from this year, plus the incoming Herrington.  Cannon and Rosenberry can both play there if needed too.  I would expect we would exercise Cobb's purchase option given that, plus be looking for another starter/top sub in the offseason.  I don't think a back pair made up of Holding/Cobb/Murphy/Herrington is going to get it done over 34 games.

The next major date for the Rapids is Dec. 10th and 11th when free agency opens and then the first stage of the reentry draft.

Schedule Surprise!

Late this morning word started filtering out that MLS could announce some of the schedule details today.  Instead MLS announced the whole schedule, at a time much earlier than they ever have before. This is likely the first time we know next year's schedule before we know which of this year's players will have their options picked up.

Of course the big news in the Rapids schedule is that Inter Miami is finally coming to Colorado.  This is their seventh season so it gets harder and harder, from a competitive standpoint, for MLS to excuse why Miami has never been here but even with that I did not expect them to pass up the big bucks of sending the GOAT back to LA or Seattle or something.  April 18th Miami will be here.

Of course, where will here be?  There was nothing said about a change of venue in today's announcement but many fans think that the game will be moved from the Dick's Sporting Goods Park to Empower Field.  I, for one, hope it isn't.  The Rapids are celebrating not only their 30th anniversary this year but also 20 years in the Dick.  Since they made the move on April 7th, 2007 they have played every competitive home match there.  They didn't move games for Beckham.  They didn't move cold weather CCC games to a better venue.  They didn't play USOC home games at a smaller stadium.  The Dick is our home and we shouldn't give that up just to get 15K extra fans to show up, watch Messi, eave as soon as he's subbed off, and never think about the Rapids again.

The other question is, of course, will Messi travel/play.  The good news is that there are no competitive Argentina matches around that date.  The bad news is that if Miami makes the quarterfinals of the CCC their trip to Colorado comes right after the midweek second leg.  If that happens, I could see them not bringing Messi.  Its also the start of a three game week for Miami, they'll go from Colorado on Saturday to Utah on Wednesday before heading home to face the Revs, which would be followed by the first leg of the CCC semifinals.  If they're eliminated before the quarterfinals I would expect Messi to travel and play some (barring injury) but if they're in the quarters all bets are off with that schedule.

Now that we've dealt with the GOAT elephant in the room, on to the rest of the schedule.  We open in my hometown of Seattle on Sunday February 22nd i what will be the Sunday Night Soccer opening match.  We then come home and face another Cascadia team in our home opener the next Saturday in the Timbers.  Traditionally we do fairly well with the Timbers as our home debut.  Our first long road trip is March 14th through April 4th with 3 road games, including two of our three East Coast trips to NYCFC and TFC (Hi Djordje!).

That Miami match is the first game of our first 3-game week with trips to LAFC on Wednesday and Vancouver the following Saturday.  Our second three-game week starts May 9th when we host St. Louis and then we make a midweek trip to Minnesota before heading to the dark place for the first leg of the Rocky Mountain Cup on Memorial Day Saturday.  We then host Dallas a week later before a long World Cup break.

MLS restarts right after the World Cup final with the Rapids hosting San Diego on Wednesday, July 22nd.  There's a noticeable break in everyone's schedule the second week of August, which will presumably involve Leagues Cup.  That's also in the middle of our only run of 3 straight home games, with Austin on the 1st, SKC on the 15th, and LAFC midweek on the 19th (we pop over to San Diego to finish another 3-game week).  Then to finish August FSL comes through for the second half of the RMC.

Another week break and we're right back to a 3 game week as we go to Columbus, Austin and host Montreal.  October starts with another 3 game week after the International break with San Jose and Minnesota visiting before we go to Portland.  We get a midweek off and, stop me if you've heard this before, another three game week as host Vancouver, go to San Jose, and host Chicago in the home finale on Halloween.  Then we finish the season the next weekend in Dallas.

So we have 5 3-game weeks and a 2-game Wednesday/Saturday week coming out of the World Cup break.  Half our games are played with another league match within 3-4 days of it, instead of the "traditional" week on either side.  And that's before the USOC and Leagues Cup games are added.  Its tough to get a whole schedule in when you're taking June and most of July off.  Good thing its a once every 4 years thing...oh wait.

Other than that though the schedule actually stacks up fairly well.  No ridiculous trips where we play on the East Coast and then on the West Coast in 4 days or anything and no real long road trips or home stands.  One note is that the home opener in February and the Miami games are 2:30pm kickoffs and the home finale on Halloween is TBD.  The other 14 are the normal 7:30pm kicks.  

Unlike this year where the run in looked fairly brutal we finish @Portland, Vancouver @San Jose, Chicago, @Dallas.  You never know who's going to jump up in a given year but outside Vancouver those are teams roughly on our level right now.  Our toughest stretches are the 3-game Miami week (Miami, @LAFC, @Vancouver) and late August/early September (LAFC, @San Diego, FSL, @Columbus).