Roster Compliance Day

Today was the day that MLS teams had to meet roster requirements.  Without getting too technical these are the requirements:

• 18-20 senior roster players
• No more international players than international slots
• Salary cap compliance

We can't do analysis about the last one of those but we can look at the first 2.  Let's take the second first as its the easiest.  Thanks to a helpful post on Facebook from Post reporter Daniel Boniface we know that the Rapids have 8 international slots.  That means the slot we traded for as part of the Sarvas trade from LA last offseason has returned to LA.  Current internationals on the roster:

• Dominique Badji
• Kevin Doyle
• S. Gashi
• Sean St. Ledger
• Axel Sjoberg
• Luis Solignac
• Mekeil Williams

That leaves one spot unfilled.  Most likely this will go to draftee Dennis Castillo who has gotten the most playing time in the preseason.  That means there's no room for any other international signings (or for Juan Ramirez to return) but that can be solved by sending players to Charlotte on loan.  Badji and Castillo would be obvious choices.

As far as the 18 senior roster players go the Rapids seem to be a bit short.  Looking at players like Berner, Azira, Pfeffer, Watts, Badji, and Calvert you would expect them to not be senior roster players but that only puts the Rapids at 16 senior players.  Now it could be some signings are essentially done but not announced (Keel, Howard) or some players are more senior than I thought.  MLS also is less than clear about the ability to move players between the two classifications during the year.

The fact that we only have 22 players signed 100 hours (by 9am tomorrow) before the season starts is very concerning though.  I really hope we get a run of player signing announcements tomorrow than are more than just a couple of draftees and trialists.  Right now the C38 kegs after a tailgate are deeper than this team.