Preseason News and Notes - 2/24

Quiet week for the Rapids, bout a couple moves of interest.

• Rapids acquire the rights to Gregory Richardson

Richardson last played for T*T's Joe Public and burned the Revs for 4 goals in their CONCACAF Champions League matchup last season. This put him on the radars of all the MLS teams. Toronto had first dibs on him and brought him into camp this preseason but deemed him surplus to their needs. The Rapids are very thin up front and it only cost them a 2nd Round pick to acquire his rights. Probably a good move, we'll see if he's more Melven Tarley or Maykel Galindo.

• Rapids face road trip to LA for US Open Cup first-round play-in

Despite a press release that ALL teams would play in the U.S. Open Cup this year MLS has decided to use the same qualification as last year. This means the Rapids must beat LA in LA, like they did last year, and then beat the winner of the FSL-Seattle matchup just to get to the USOC. We play LA on April 7th at 8:30 MDT. Honestly, with the amount of travel we have early in the season, I expect a quick end to our USOC hopes.

UPDATE: The Rapids have informed me, in case anyone was wondering, that home field for both USOC qualification rounds this year is being determined by a coin flip.