Final Roster Set

Earlier today draftee Joel Helmick tweeted this:

Thank you @ColoradoRapids for the great opportunity. Made some friends and learned a lot. Hope to return sometime in the future.

From this I think its safe to say that the Rapids didn't extend him a contract.  Not really a surprise since he was our pick in the final round of the Supplemental Draft and we already had 3 keepers under contract.  That's a big hill to climb.  He was the last unsigned player in camp so we now know the full 30 man roster we're starting the season with.  Colorado, surprisingly, only made 6 moves this offseason, plus re-signing Mullan and Emory to new contracts.

• Danny Earls out, Luis Zapata in - Pretty much a straight swap of an international left back for an international left back.  Zapata is a probable starter for the opener next weekend, which Earls was not going to be, so it appears at first glance to be an upgrade.
• Miguel Comminges out, Hunter Freeman in - Another left back swap, but this time we dropped an international for a domestic player.  When Freeman gets healthy he'll push Zapata for that starting spot much like Comminges would have done, but probably for a cheaper price.
• Sanna Nyassi out, Tony Cascio in - A winger for a winger swap.  Nyassi was a casualty of the expansion draft rules and I'm sure the Rapids would have wanted to keep him if they could.  Cascio showed some good skill in Hawaii though so he may not be a bad replacement.
• Caleb Folan out, Jamie Castrillon in - Not really a straight position for position swap, but they're both attacking players that are expected to carry a good part of the load this season.
• Macoumba Kandji out, Martin Rivero in - Again not a true position swap but Kandji was sort of a super sub once he got healthy last year, and that's kind of what I'm expecting from Rivero this year.
• Michael Holody out, Kohei Yamada in - Two players that don't really have much in common other than being young projects.

A unexpected low number of changes for a team with a new coaching staff and new leader at the top.  The stability, especially in the core starters, should help as we adjust to the new formation.  I'll have a full season preview sometime in the next few days.

Here's the final roster:

* = Requires an international slot

Goalkeepers:

Steward Ceus

Ian Joyce

Matt Pickens

Defenders:

Eddie Ababio

Hunter Freeman

Kosuke Kimura

Tyrone Marshall

Drew Moor

Scott Palguta

Anthony Wallace

Marvell Wynne
Luis Eduardo Zapata*

Midfielders:

Davy Armstrong

Tony Cascio

Jaime Castrillon*
Steven Emory

Josh Janniere*

Ross LaBauex

Jeff Larentowicz

Pablo Mastroeni

Brian Mullan

Joseph Nane
Martin Rivero*

Jamie Smith*

Wells Thompson

Kohei Yamada*

Forwards:

Andre Akpan

Quincy Amarikwa

Conor Casey

Omar Cummings