Saturday, January 31, 2015

Unofficial: Fricke Signed

A tweet from Rapids draftee Brandon Fricke's former coach (I'm guessing):
Congrats to Brendan Fricke on signing for the & the - Adam Nugent believed & believes in you.
So that gives us 8 defenders signed plus two other draftees, trialists Wes Knight and Ben Newnam, Zat Knight, and VDC as possible additions.  At this point I'd be surprised if we signed any of those 6, unless the roster rules allow us to put some of them in Charlotte for the year.  We've got 24 players signed total.

(* = international):

Goalkeepers:
John Berner
Clint Irwin
Zac MacMath

Defenders:
Marc Burch
Bobby Burling
Brandon Fricke
Michael Harrington
Drew Moor
John Neeskens
Shane O'Neill
Axel Sjoberg*

Midfielders:
Sam Cronin
Marlon Hairston
Nick LaBrocca
Lucas Pittinari*
Dillon Powers
Marcelo Sarvas*
Dillon Serna
Jared Watts

Forwards:
Deshorn Brown*
Caleb Calvert
Charles Eloundou* (not yet in camp)
Vicente Sanchez*
Gabriel Torres*

Unsigned:
D Joseph Greenspan (draftee, on Naval duty through 2017 probably)
D Matt Jeffrey (draftee)
D Wes Knight (trialist in camp)
D Zat Knight* (not yet in camp)
D Ben Newnam (trialist in camp)
D Grant Van de Casteele (confirmed to be in camp)
M Carlos Alvarez (confirmed to be in camp)
F Dominique Badji* (draftee)

Rapids Officially Sign Pittinari On Loan

Official word was just released that the Rapids have completed the signing of Lucas Pittinari on a year long loan from Belgrano.  He's already with the team at their training camp in San Diego.  Pittinari is a 23 year old defensive-minded midfielder.  With his signing 7 of the 8 international slots the Rapids have are filled.  Here's the updated roster:

(* = international):

Goalkeepers:
John Berner
Clint Irwin
Zac MacMath

Defenders:
Marc Burch
Bobby Burling
Michael Harrington
Drew Moor
John Neeskens
Shane O'Neill
Axel Sjoberg*

Midfielders:
Sam Cronin
Marlon Hairston
Nick LaBrocca
Lucas Pittinari*
Dillon Powers
Marcelo Sarvas*
Dillon Serna
Jared Watts

Forwards:
Deshorn Brown*
Caleb Calvert
Charles Eloundou* (not yet in camp)
Vicente Sanchez*
Gabriel Torres*

Unsigned:
D Brandon Fricke (draftee)
D Joseph Greenspan (draftee, on Naval duty through 2017 probably)
D Matt Jeffrey (draftee)
D Zat Knight* (not yet in camp)
D Grant Van de Casteele (confirmed to be in camp)
M Carlos Alvarez (confirmed to be in camp)
M Wes Knight (trialist in camp)
M Ben Newnam (trialist in camp)
F Dominique Badji* (draftee)

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Busy Day Of News

Lots of news so let's get to it.  At the bottom is an updated list of the roster and camp invitees as we know it.

  • First, the Denver Post's Daniel Boniface tweeted confirmation that LaBrocca signed a new contract:
I ran into Nick Labrocca...he's re-signed with the and will be back for 2015.
I'm not loving this move.  Sam Cronin and Nick LaBrocca are too similar to really need both on the roster.  If LaBrocca signed for sub $100K as a depth player then fine, but otherwise its redundant.

  • The Rapids have two right backs on trial in camp, Wes Knight and Ben Newnam.  Newnam is actually signed with our USL affiliate in Charlotte so that may already be paying off.  This is the downside of the Klute trade though as we have a lack of depth at outside back.  Harrington and Burch cover the left side but right back is a big question mark at the moment.
  • Argentine defensive midfielder Lucas Pittinari is in town in preparation for finalizing the loan deal.  If they had him come to Denver it should be just a formality at this point, assuming he passes the physical.  This is likely a loan for a season so we can decide if he rates the $1.5 million price-tag he's rumored to have, making him a DP in 2016 if we buy him.
  • Finally, two tweets from the Post's Mark Kiszla about that "big name" signing this week that fist came up on Friday
pursuit of big-name designated player not dead, but has hit snags. Might have new star by start of reg season, but not by Feb 1.
 Pursuit of marquee designated player can be roller-coaster ride for any MLS club, and have hit dip in the ride.
That second tweet was actually favorited by Tim Hinchey, so I'm guessing this report is fairly accurate.  I wish I could say I was surprised or disappointed by this news but I'm not.  As I wrote on Friday:
I'm hoping the Rapids have an actual target they're in final negotiations with and they've managed to keep it tightly under wraps, because the only real rumors we've heard so far this offseason are the two Argentinian players and they don't meet the standards of "big-time scorer".  By self-imposing a deadline and announcing it they've set themselves up to disappoint the fan base (again).  I would think they wouldn't let this information out unless they were very sure they've got a deal done, but we've seen stranger things.  Remember all the hassle when we thought we had both Martin Rivero and Gabriel Torres signed, only to not have the deals done?
This is just another incident in a long history of incidents where the Rapids failed to deliver on an earlier statement.  We'll see if we get that big signing before March. 7th or if we have to wait until the mid-season transfer window, but if I had to bet my money is on mid-season at best.

UPDATE: I reached out to the Rapids and got a couple of camp updates:
Carlos Alvarez (waived) - In camp
Zat Knight (out of contract) - Not in camp yet
Charles Eloundou (under contract) - Not in camp yet

Though on the last two they weren't sure if that was just "They haven't arrived in Denver for the season yet" or if there was something else going on.  They were going to check.

Updated roster:

(* = international):

Goalkeepers:
John Berner
Clint Irwin
Zac MacMath

Defenders:
Marc Burch
Bobby Burling
Michael Harrington
Drew Moor
John Neeskens
Shane O'Neill
Axel Sjoberg*

Midfielders:
Sam Cronin
Marlon Hairston
Nick LaBrocca
Dillon Powers
Marcelo Sarvas*
Dillon Serna
Jared Watts

Forwards:
Deshorn Brown*
Caleb Calvert
Charles Eloundou* (not yet in camp)
Vicente Sanchez*
Gabriel Torres*

Unsigned:
D Brandon Fricke (draftee)
D Joseph Greenspan (draftee, on Naval duty through 2017 probably)
D Matt Jeffrey (draftee)
D Zat Knight* (not yet in camp)
D Grant Van de Casteele (confirmed to be in camp)
M Carlos Alvarez (confirmed to be in camp)
M Wes Knight (trialist in camp)
M Ben Newnam (trialist in camp)
M Lucas Pittinari* (in town negotiating)
F Dominique Badji* (draftee)

Saturday, January 24, 2015

Quick News and Notes

A couple of quick pieces of news.
  • Dillon Serna and Shane O'Neill made the roster cut for the U.S. National Team's upcoming friendlies against Chile (in  Chile) and Panama (at the Stub Hub Center).  So while that will delay their joining of the Rapids in preseason its great experience for them.
  • Dillon Powers tweeted that Grant Van de Casteele was with him for their first practice yesterday, so as we expected.
  • I missed this before but Axel Sjoberg, our first round pick, tweeted before the draft that he had signed a MLS contract.
Updated roster:

(* = international):

Goalkeepers:
John Berner
Clint Irwin
Zac MacMath

Defenders:
Marc Burch
Bobby Burling
Michael Harrington
Drew Moor
John Neeskens
Shane O'Neill
Axel Sjoberg*

Midfielders:
Sam Cronin
Marlon Hairston
Dillon Powers
Marcelo Sarvas*
Dillon Serna
Jared Watts

Forwards:
Deshorn Brown*
Caleb Calvert
Charles Eloundou*
Vicente Sanchez*
Gabriel Torres*

Unsigned:
D Brandon Fricke (draftee)
D Joseph Greenspan (draftee, on Naval duty through 2017 probably)
D Matt Jeffrey (draftee)
D Zat Knight*
D Grant Van de Casteele (confirmed to be in camp)
M Carlos Alvarez
M Nick LaBrocca
F Dominique Badji* (draftee)

Friday, January 23, 2015

Rapids Want To Make Name Signing Next Week

There was an interesting article on the Denver Post's Rapids blog today.  Apparently the Rapids are still looking to make a big signing up front and have set a deadline of Feb. 1st (a week from Sunday) to do it.  Quoting from the article:

Colorado is itching to pull the trigger on the largest contract in club history for a big-time scorer, and ownership has approved the money to land him. But the clock is ticking. The Rapids have a self-imposed deadline of Feb. 1.
"We're looking at established names that have star power. We're also looking at goal scorers in Europe that maybe don't have the same name recognition but will also be a major investment to help," Hinchey said. "To be fair, I'd probably rather get the goal-scorer that's going to help us win and go get trophies."

The examples given by Kiszla in the article include Fulham's Hugo Rodallega (who's name has been floating around this offseason) and Guadalajara's Marco Fabian.  The article then goes on to say they're aiming higher than those names though.  It also mentions that the "swung and missed" on Cubo Torres, who ended up in Houston.  i find this interesting because it was wildly reported at the time Torres signed with Houston that he was made available to the whole league and only Houston was willing to meet his demands.  For example, from ESPN:
Torres, 21, starred for Chivas USA last season while on loan from the now-defunct MLS team's Mexican parent club, Chivas Guadalajara. After that loan expired this month, MLS signed Torres to a permanent deal and offered his contract to all 20 clubs.
The Dynamo were the only team to accept the terms of the Torres' contract, which includes a six-month loan back to Chivas Guadalajara for the upcoming Liga MX Clausura season.
So maybe we didn't take a real swing at him and didn't want to take his contract on, or maybe MLS really wanted him to be in Houston (4th largest Hispanic market with only the Galaxy, NYCFC, and RBNY being in larger markets) over Denver (17th largest Hispanic market), or maybe its a combination of the two.  Whatever it was I have a hard time believing we ever had a real shot at Cubo Torres.  The Rapids have a long history of dropping names that they "almost" signed in an offseason (the most infamous was the multiple offseasons we "almost" signed Jared Borghetti) and this feels like another edition of that story.

I'm hoping the Rapids have an actual target they're in final negotiations with and they've managed to keep it tightly under wraps, because the only real rumors we've heard so far this offseason are the two Argentinian players and they don't meet the standards of "big-time scorer".  By self-imposing a deadline and announcing it they've set themselves up to disappoint the fan base (again).  I would think they wouldn't let this information out unless they were very sure they've got a deal done, but we've seen stranger things.  Remember all the hassle when we thought we had both Martin Rivero and Gabriel Torres signed, only to not have the deals done?

Thursday, January 22, 2015

Camp opened today, where are those "difference-makers"?

Veterans reported to Commerce City for physicals and fitness tests today with true preseason starting tomorrow.  Its always good to get into preseason and get the new players integrated with the returning veterans in preparation for the opener on March 7th.  The question is, have we done enough this off-season to improve?

To recap what Tim Hinchey and Paul Bravo said they needed this offseason (bit long, stick with me):

Tim Hinchey: Aug 27th, 2014:
Should we expect to see a busy off-season, then?
According to Hinchey, yes. We're going to see a busy off season. I don't want to make too big a deal of this, but he said they are looking at bringing in a 2nd DP in the January window. I didn't want to pry into it much because it's a while away so I don't know how far along the talks are. It's not important at the moment. But it's interesting to hear that there are plans in the works for next season.
Paul Bravo, Oct. 3rd, 2014:
“The guiding principles that we have instilled include building from within (our academy), putting priority on the college draft, scouting the lower leagues, and using the international market to add players who can make a difference in our league,” he says.
So what about the difference makers? Where do you find them? “We are looking all over the world for these players, but the areas of focus continue to be South and Central America, and European countries like France, England, Spain and Germany. We look at hours and hours of video, consult with people we trust here and abroad. There’s also a little bit of luck involved, and of course, it also takes investment.”Other factors in the equation are adjustment periods for foreign players coming to the United States. Sometimes they fit right in and hit the ground running, while others might take a year or two to settle in.“Players have to get comfortable with the speed of play, style, travel, the hot summer weather – all of the elements packed into our great country and our great league,” Bravo says. “There are other important things, too, like bringing wives and families, new doctors, new schools and how that player deals with things off the field as well as on.” 

Tim Hinchey, Oct. 14th, 2014:
Well, without question, it hasn’t been a very good run. We’re not happy about it. No-one’s happy about it. I’m sure you ask the same question to Paul, Pablo, the coaches, the players, no-none’s happy about this and nor should we be. It’s not something any of us envisioned when we were sitting in third place with a fantastic victory on July 25th. Again, this trip was planned for some time. In fact, it’s an annual trip for me, but it was a trip that made sense for Paul to come on months ago based on our long term player acquisition goals. Clearly there’s even more of a heightened sense of awareness and we fully realize that we need to invest. We need to find more key ‘difference makers’, as Paul likes to say, and Pablo likes to say, and right now like José Mari who we found in Spain last year, there are a lot of players who see our league growing.  These players maybe have been in the bottom level of some of the elite leagues or they have been relegated into the second divisions of those leagues, and see Major League Soccer as a fantastic destination, (with) fantastic communities, facilities and fans. I think that Major League Soccer is certainly on the radar for a lot more players that are in between the top flights and what might be closer to what our level of play is here in the States.
If we’re going to be successful in this league, we've got to continue to invest and find better players. 
Clearly that’s going to lay with Paul and Pablo to decide, but I think all of us have a pretty good sense that - and I think both Paul and Pablo have discussed this quite a bit - we clearly need to invest defensively, and we will, but at the same time we also need to invest in all areas of our squad, so it’s not an easy answer because we need that help, so we need help at the back, we need help in the middle and we certainly want ‘difference makers’ up front.  
We will find the best players globally with our increased technical staff and we will work harder – we’ll have to work harder – than other clubs and if we can leverage our relationships and the resource of someone like Arsenal, to help us find those ‘difference-makers’, it means we'll not necessarily have to over spend but we will spend wisely. 
Tim Hinchey, Town Hall, Oct 15th, 2014 (paraphrased from my notes):
They'll be able to plan for the transfer window in advance and make some investments.
So those were the expectations set going into the offseason.  What have we actually done so far?

Acquisitions:
D Bobby Burling after Chivas was contracted
F Caleb Calvert in Chivas USA dispersal draft
M Sam Cronin from San Jose in trade
D Michael Harrington from Portland in trade
GK Zac MacMath from Philly on loan
M Marcelo Sarvas from LA in trade
D Axel Sjoberg in Superdraft
4 other draftees that will either not be available (Greenspan) or are unlikely to make the team

Notice something?  Every single acquisition so far has come from inside the league or the draft.  We have yet to use this increased scouting to find these "difference-makers" that Hinchey and Bravo talked about.  We've been linked to a 23 year old defensive mid and a 21 year old attacking mid from Argentina, but neither of their resumes scream "difference-maker" and again, they aren't actually signed yet.

I would agree that Sarvas has all the makings of a difference maker but the rest?  They fill the holes created when we let a number of players go after the season but none of them look like a significant improvement from what we already had.  Calvert is too young, MacMath isn't significant upgrade from Irwin, Burling and Harrington are solid MLS defenders but nothing more (though cheaper than Wynne so that's good), and Cronin is equivalent to LaBrocca IMO.

So far there's no hint of that second Designated Player they were promising.  There's no word on another "difference-maker" up front like Hinchey suggested.  Instead we appear to be putting together a team from the MLS scrap pile again, something that hasn't been successful in recent years.  In fact I think the league has advanced to the point where that can no longer be a successful strategy.  The last team to win using it was the 2010 Rapids.

There's still 6 weeks until the season opener, but as Bravo said, it takes time for international players to adjust to their new situation in MLS.  We need the players here now so that they are settled and adjusted when the league starts in 6 weeks.  We don't need a scenario where they show up in late February and take the first month of the season to settle in and start playing well.  We need quality players able to stand out at the MLS level this season and we need them ASAP.  Otherwise we're playing for 2016 already.

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

All-Star Game Announced


As expected the big announcement at Union Station today was the All-Star Game coming to Colorado.  Here's what we know so far:

  • Date: Wed. July 29th
  • Time: 7pm
  • Location: DSG Park
  • TV: Fox Sports 1, UniMas, TSN, and RDS2
  • All-Star Coach: Pablo Mastroeni and his mustache
  • Chipotle MLS Homegrown Players Game also returns this year
What we don't yet know:
  • Opponent, other than an "elite international club" and almost confirmed that it won't be Arsenal (it was mentioned at the event that they're scheduled to be in China this summer)
  • Schedule of the Homegrown game
  • Ticket cost and availability, other than Rapids season-ticket holders will get first shot
A couple of interesting snippets from the press conference:
  • There was a bid process to get the game, which Colorado won.  That doesn't mean that KSE fronted the money for the bid, or all of the money (the fact that its the Chipotle homegrown game again this year and Chipotle is a Denver company is probably not a coincidence), but they must have pushed for this.
  • Don Garber called out the expected big support from Centennial 38 by name, which is kind of awesome.
  • Josh Kroenke talked about all the big names coming to MLS.  Of course that's not the best selling point when he's not bringing any of those big names into his team.
All in all O know some Rapids fans are grumbling that KSE is spending time/money on this and not improving the team but I think its a good thing to see us get to host this game.  I'm waiting to hear about the opponent and the ticket cost to decide if I'm going to go, but at the very least I'd like to see the homegrown game.

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Rapids Add Three More Giants In Second Day Of Draft

Today was the second two rounds of the draft.  The Rapids had no picks in the 3rd round but had 3 picks in the 4th and final round.  They had their natural 5th pick, the 16th pick in the trade that sent Rivero to Chivas USA, and the 21st pick from RBNY.  It was a conditional Supplemental Draft pick from the Andre Akpan trade but with the elimination of the Supplemental Draft there were two picks tacked on to the final round of the draft for us and Portland due to prior trades.

Just a reminder, on Thursday we picked a 6'7" and a 6'6" defender.

With our first pick today we took Dominique Badji, striker, out of Boston University.  Badji is 6' tall and came to BU from Senegal.  Reports are he dominated all the physical tests at the combine but needs work on his technical skills.

For our second pick we took 6'4" defender Matt Jeffery out of Monmouth.  Jeffery is the two-time defending MAAC defensive player of the year.

Our final pick was Brandon Fricke from Butler University.  He's a 6'1" defender that has already faced off against our first round pick Axel Sjoberg in college play.

So total in the draft we took 5 players, all 6' tall or more, 4 of which are defenders.  If we get beaten on a defensive header in the box this year somebody is going to have some explaining to do.

Here's an updated roster.  I've now separated out the unsigned players and include two (Alvarez and VDC) who's options weren't picked up and who's names have not come up this offseason, but who still appear on the Rapids roster, despite other players in their situation being removed.  I think that's an indicator that they've at least been invited to camp to earn a contract, or possibly that they're already working on a new contract with the team.

(* = international):

Goalkeepers:
John Berner
Clint Irwin
Zac MacMath

Defenders:
Marc Burch
Bobby Burling
Michael Harrington
Drew Moor
John Neeskens
Shane O'Neill

Midfielders:
Sam Cronin
Marlon Hairston
Dillon Powers
Marcelo Sarvas*
Dillon Serna
Jared Watts

Forwards:
Deshorn Brown*
Caleb Calvert
Charles Eloundou*
Vicente Sanchez*
Gabriel Torres*

Unsigned:
D Brandon Fricke
D Joseph Greenspan (on Naval duty through 2017 probably)
D Matt Jeffrey
D Zat Knight*
D Axel Sjoberg*
D Grant Van de Casteele
M Carlos Alvarez
M Nick LaBrocca
F Dominique Badji*

Monday, January 19, 2015

Cronin Arrives, ASG Confirmed

Today the Rapids traded some of that allocation money (presumably) from the Klute trade to San Jose for Sam Cronin.  Cronin is a 28 year old holding/defensive midfielder that joined the league in 2009 with Toronto and moved to San Jose in min-2010, playing in almost every game in the last 4 seasons.  Last year he made 187K so he's a middle of the pack MLS regular.

This is a solid if unspectacular move by the Rapids.  This should make LaBrocca redundant as they do very similar things for similar prices (LaBrocca is $35K cheaper).  I think this is an upgrade for the team if Cronin takes LaBrocca's minutes.  Its a waste of a move if they try to find room for both of them on the team though.

Also today the Denver Post confirmed that the Dick will host the All-Star Game.  Both Commerce City and Denver will "host" the game with evens both at the Dick (including the game) and in downtown Denver.  More details including date and possibly opponent will be announced during the formal event on Wednesday.

Here's our current roster with today's move (* = international):

Goalkeepers:
John Berner
Clint Irwin
Zac MacMath

Defenders:
Marc Burch
Bobby Burling
Joseph Greenspan (on Naval duty through 2017 probably)
Michael Harrington
Zat Knight* (unsigned)
Drew Moor
John Neeskens
Shane O'Neill
Alex Sjoberg* (unsigned)

Midfielders:
Sam Cronin
Marlon Hairston
Nick LaBrocca (unsigned)
Dillon Powers
Marcelo Sarvas*
Dillon Serna
Jared Watts

Forwards:
Deshorn Brown*
Caleb Calvert
Charles Eloundou*
Vicente Sanchez*
Gabriel Torres*

Sunday, January 18, 2015

Go Hawks!!!

And that was a Husky with the winning TD!  Jermaine Kearse!

Friday, January 16, 2015

All-Star Game May Be Coming But Klute Is Gone

A couple of big new announcements this afternoon.  The off-field one first, then we'll get to the big story.

Soccer By Ives writer Franco Panizo tweeted this a few hours ago:
MLS has announced that Don Garber will join Colorado Rapids' Josh Kroenke in downtown Denver next Wed. for an "important announcement".
Followed by:
Those attending: Garber, Kroenke, Mastroeni, Lt Governor Joseph Garcia, Mayor of Commerce City Sean Ford, CEO of Visit Denver Richard Scharf
That combination of Commissioner, owner, coach, politicians, and city PR almost certainly means that Colorado is getting the All-Star Game this summer.  The only other thing that I could think would be the combine + draft next year, but why would you hold the combine in Denver in January?

This is an odd time for the Rapids to get the All-Star Game.  Its only been 8 years since we hosted the game against Celtic and with Orlando and NYCFC entering the league and San Jose opening a new stadium those would all be more logical choices.  The only thing that makes sense to me is that the opponent for the All-Stars this year will be Arsenal, which is owned by Kroenke, and the deal KSE hammered out with MLS was that Arsenal would come over and play the game, but only if they played it in Kroenke's stadium in Denver.  More information on Wednesday but if I were asked to bet I'd put money on the announcement being the ASG at the Dick against Arsenal.

The second bit of news was much less enjoyable.  During yesterday's draft the Rapids traded with the Crew to move up from #19 to #14 and in return the Crew got the #19 pick and "future considerations".  It turns out those future considerations were announced today as Chris Klute.  It was also revealed (after a few minutes of confusion and 3 different sources reporting 3 different version of the deal) that the Raids also got "significant" (according to the Rapids) allocation money as part of the deal.

This is a lousy trade.  I know Axel Sjoberg (who I'm going to start calling Axel Foley I think) was well regarded but there's only two ways this trade makes any sense.  He's going to have to become a starter by midseason or we're going to find out Klute had a huge escalation clause in his contract (similar to Omar Cummings between 2011 and 2012).  Otherwise this is a bad trade no matter how you look at it.  Yes, a chunk (or all) of that allocation money probably went to LA in the deal that got us Sarvas that still doesn't make it a good move.  I find it hard to believe Klute wasn't worth more than a Superdraft pick and allocation money.  This is a guy who a year ago was on the firnges of the National team.  I think we're going to regret this move.

So here's our roster at the moment (* = international).

Goalkeepers:
John Berner
Clint Irwin
Zac MacMath

Defenders:
Marc Burch
Bobby Burling
Joseph Greenspan (on Naval duty through 2017 probably)
Michael Harrington
Zat Knight* (unsigned)
Drew Moor
John Neeskens
Shane O'Neill
Alex Sjoberg* (unsigned)

Midfielders:
Marlon Hairston
Nick LaBrocca (unsigned)
Dillon Powers
Marcelo Sarvas*
Dillon Serna
Jared Watts

Forwards:
Deshorn Brown*
Caleb Calvert
Charles Eloundou*
Vicente Sanchez*
Gabriel Torres*

That's 20 signed players and 3 more likely to sign.  If they do we'll have 7 of our 8 international spots filled.  I'm sure Greenspan won't count against our roster/salary cap while with the Navy.  Suddenly we're deep at CB and weak on the flanks, we're going to have to find at least one more outside back I think.  We still need either a full-strength Torres or a difference-maker up front and a lot of depth in the midfield.

Thursday, January 15, 2015

A Mustache, A Draft, and a Trade

A big day for the Rapids with their first "difference-maker" move of the offseason.  But first, the look that most say won the draft.

In Mustache We Trust!

Pablo going all musketeer on us this offseason.  Well one for all and all for one!

As you saw in my earlier post the Rapids drafted two big defenders today in Sjoberg and Greenspan.  Some think Sjoberg is MLS-ready now so at worst he should be able to contribute at some point this season.  6' 7" in the back means we shouldn't get beat on crosses and free kicks.  Greenspan is a more unusual case.  As a Midshipman he's first responsibility is to the U.S. Navy.  He's not the first athlete out of a service academy good enough to be drafted though.  In the past the services have sometimes agreed to take the player's 5 year service commitment and reduce it to 2 years of active duty combined with an extended time in the reserves after that.  So a best case scenario is that Greenspan will be available to us mid-2017.  I think what he's doing is a great service and I hope he can also pursue a professional career.  I do wonder though if we could have made a different pick that could contribute right way.

The big news of the day was a trade for one of the "difference makers" we needed to find this offseason.  We sent our #3 spot in the allocation order and allocation money to LA for Marcelo Sarvas and an international roster spot along with moving into LA's 18th spot in the allocation order.  Sarvas is a 33 year old midfielder who was responsible for 3 goals and 11 assists for the Galaxy last year.  Most LA fans considered him the heart and soul of the team and are sad to see him go.  LA traded him to make room for the summer arrival of Steven Gerrard.

The Rapids are now up to 7 international players (if you include Sjoberg) and 8 international spots.  Sarvas will be a natural partner with Powers in midfield and gives us the MLS-quality starting mid we needed.  There's still work to do but this is a good start.

SuperDraft Results

Live updates, more details tonight:
  • 1sr Round 14th Pick: Rapids trade the 19th pick (and presumable something else) to Columbus for the 14th pick.  They take CB Axel Sjoberg out of Marquette.  Sjoberg is Swedish and presumably will take an international slot.
  • 2nd Round 5th Pick: D Joseph Greenspan out of the Naval Academy.  Combined our two draft picks are 13' 1" tall (6'7" and 6'6")!  I'm not sure what his responsibilities to the Navy will mean for his playing career with the Rapids.
That's it barring a trade.  Further wrap-up tonight.

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Argentinian Rumors and Superdraft Preview

As I sit here watching the Dakar Rally in (partially) Argentina I figured now as a good time to mention the rumors of two Argentinian players being linked to the Rapids.
  • Lucas Pittinari, a 23 year old deep-lying/defensive midfielder.  The rumor is that Pittinari would come on loan (actually the rumor is that the deal is done) for 2015 with a $1.5 million option to buy after the season.  He is currently with Belgrano in the Argentine Primera Division where he's appeared 67 times since 2009.  He also played with Belgrano's youth team since he was 15.
  • Juan Edgardo Ramirez, a 21 year old attacking midfielder.  He currently plays for Argentinos Juniors in the Primera B Nacional (the second division) where he's made 50 appearances over the last 3 seasons.  Last year he played alongside Riquelme, so hopefully he picked up some things from the creative playmaker.
Neither of these guys jump off the page as the missing piece but neither of them scream mistake either.  If accurate I don't love that price to buy Pittinari, that's a lot to spend on a pretty unknown defensive midfielder.

Another source for new players hits on Thursday with the annual Superdraft.  You figure without lousy finish we'd have a pretty good draft position.  That would be wrong.  In a stunningly poor move we traded our first round pick to Portland.  for Danny Mwanga.  He of the 19 appearances, 1 assist, and 0 goals in two seasons before he was cut and now signed by Orlando City.  We do have Dallas' worst first round pick from their "Don't accuse us of the tampering we committed when signing Pareja" payoff which means we're back in the first round...at pick 19.  Its a big fall from 5 to 19, especially in a draft that's looking weaker than some past seasons.  We also have our natural 5th pick in the 2nd round.

So barring trades we can expect to add two players on Thursday and possibly two Argentinian players in the near future.  We still need to make some big impact signings and with camp opening in the enar future, they need to be sooner rather than later.

Thursday, January 8, 2015

2015 Schedule Released

MLS released the 2015 schedule yesterday.  A quick rundown of the Rapids.

*We start, as previously announced, on the road in Philly on March 7th.  We then have a bye week before our home opener against NYCFC on March 21st.

*Our other bye weeks are June 13th and 14th, Sept. 5th and 6th (though we play midweek on the 9th), and Oct. 17th and 18th.  All 3 of these dates fall during FIFA windows, but the league is playing a full schedule during the October date, other than us and Vancouver.

*We have 1 Wednesday night home game in August, 2 Friday night home games, and 1 Sunday night home game.  The rest of the home schedule is on Saturdays.

*The biannual Jameson Night will be April 4th this year.

*FSL will be in town on July 12th and October 3rd.  We'll be in Sandy on June 7th.  None of these dates are during either of the league's hyped "Rivalry Weeks".  I guess MLS wasn't pleased that the Rocky Mountain Cup fan bases fought to  keep control of the trophy. ;)

*No more than 2 away games or 2 home games in a row.

*3 of our 4 midweek games fall between two weekend games.  The two toughest runs are the last weekend of May where we run through the Cascadia trio north-south, Vancouver and Portland at home split by a midweek trip to Seattle, and the last week of June where we host Dallas before our inaugural trip to Orlando midweek with a stop to play KC on the way home.

*The only game in the league scheduled on ESPNEWS is our trip to Sandy in June.  The only game in the league scheduled for FOX Sports 2 (instead of FOX Sports 1) is our game against FSL in July.  Odd.

*We play everyone in the East once and everyone in the West twice.  We play 6 teams in the West a third time, FSL, Dallas, and Vancouver at home, Seattle, KC, and Houston on the road.

*Our Eastern road trips are to Orlando, Montreal, RBNY, Philly, and Chicago

Tuesday, January 6, 2015

MacMath Loan Finalized

The rumored Zac MacMath loan was made official today.  In exchange the Union get our lowest second round pick in the upcoming draft.  Details of who is picking up his salary (or if its split) and which roster he'll take a roster spot on were not revealed.  If the Rapids make the transfer permanent at the end of the season it will cost us our top pick in the 2016 Superdraft.

I still think this is an unnecessary move and an added cost the team doesn't need to take on.  Its certainly not the "difference-maker" type of move that we've been waiting for.

Monday, January 5, 2015

MacMath to Colorado?

The following tweets made the rounds today:
Getting word goalkeeper-heavy preparing to trade (95 league starts past 3 years) to
and
RE: the Goff report, I've heard it may be a loan to Colorado. We'll see what happens. 

So that's interesting, and not in a good way.  In my opinion MacMath is not much of, if any, improvement over Clint Irwin and made 33K more than him last season.  I can't see a scenario where it makes sense to get MacMath as a backup, nor can I see Irwin being happy as a backup.  So the only reason to make this move is to push Irwin out.  Given the myriad of problems this team has, most notably a porous backline that hasn't been greatly improved yet and a total of 4 true midfielders currently signed, I hope we're not spending effort and resources improving the one position that could probably stay unchanged going into 2015.

Thursday, January 1, 2015

First News Of 2015

The Rapids posted the newest episode of their official podcast today, which included an interview with Tim Hinchey.  The biggest news to me was the first (as far as I know) official statement that we're looking for a new jersey sponsor.  I don't think this is a surprise after the Ciao debacle but now we know for sure.  There was a pretty strong report that OtterBox up in Fort Collins had made a bid to be a jersey sponsor before the Rapids went with Ciao.  I'm not a huge fan of their cases (too bulky for what I want) but I'd jump all over a Rapids case if they became the jersey sponsor.  Heck, maybe we could get them to do a limited edition Centennial 38 case run in this scenario. :D

Here are the cliff notes of the rest of the Hinchey interview.  No real news in here, most of it other than the jersey sponsor talk is what we heard at the Celtic in October, but it appears the plans haven't changed so that's something.


  • They're getting a lot of interest in the shirt sponsorship (Gee, where have I heard that before)
  • Season ticket renewals are near 85%
  • The two key off the field areas are the shirt sponsor including finding the "right partner" (again, heard this before) and making the Dick a fortress
  • The team has tripled its season tickets in the last 3 years
  • A second Designated Player is "absolutely going to happen"
  • Scouting on 3 different continents
  • They've added talent to the front office/technical staff, now its time to add talent on the field
  • Success in 2015 on the field is Progress, doing better than 2014, making the playoffs, doing better against rival clubs like FSL and KC (when did KC become a rival?), consistency.  Off the field its growing the supporter base had having fans who are happy.
Again it was mainly a rehash of the same topics from the C38 Town Hall in October.  My opinion hasn't changed.  Talk is cheap, its time, especially now that we're through the holidays, for actions.  Time to sign some of those "difference-makers" Hinchey and Bravo have talked about (Burling/Calvert/Harrington aren't difference-makers).