Rapids Sign One, Cut Two, Keep One?

A number of player announcements today.  The big one is that, as expected, Jose Mari was officially signed today.  Mari has returned to Spain to work out his paperwork for his permanent move to Colorado and is expected to rejoin the team later this week.  He'll be eligible to play once his visa and ITC come through.

Today the Rapids also announced that trialist Juan Guzman and draftee Albert Edward have been released from camp.  This leaves Arsenal youth player Samuel Galindo as the only unsigned player in camp.

Thanks for this one go to regular reader and frequent commenter Jester who noticed that Michael Stephens just signed with Stabaek, filling their last international spot.  That means that Matt Pickens won't be moving there, so presumably he'll be returning to Colorado and the Rapids will have to figure out what Plan B with him is.

One last non-player note.  C38 has announced that Pablo Mastroeni will be the special guest for Saturday's season kickoff party at the Celtic.  They have also said the Rapids will have a big announcement at the party, with the leading fan theory being the official announcement as Pablo as head coach.  We'll see what happens.

So now that preseason is wrapping up, here's our roster.  We've got 29 players signed against a cap of 30 and 6 of our 8 international spots filled.  We've got probably 1 too many goalkeepers, so you have to assume something is going to be done with Pickens, and probably too many attackers, though a number of them can drop into midfield.  The big depth issues are at right back (Wynne and then...?) and target forward (Buddle and then...?).

Goalkeepers:

John Berner

Clint Irwin

Joe Nasco

Matt Pickens - On "Excused Absence"

Defenders:

Davy Armstrong - Homegrown Player - Will start season on IR(knee)

Mark Burch

Brenton Griffiths - International

Chris Klute

Drew Moor

Brian Mullan

Shane O'Neill - Homegrown Player

Grant Van De Casteele

Marvell Wynne

Midfielders:

Samuel Galindo - Unsigned trialist, International

Marion Hariston - Generation Adidas

Nick LaBrocca

Jose Mari - International

Dillon Powers

Dillon Serna - Homegrown Player

Nathan Sturgis

Jared Watts

Forwards:

Deshorn Brown - Generation Adidas, International

Edson Buddle

Martin Chavez

Charles Eloundou - International

Kamani Hill

Danny Mwanga

Vicente Sanchez - International

Gabriel Torres - Designated Player, International