A Little News Over The Last Two Weeks

Sorry to go quiet, but there hasn't been much to talk about over the last two weeks.  We do have a couple of things though.

First, Tommy Smith has been training with his old team, Ipswich Town, but only to stay in shape for his New Zealand callup he got today.  The notable thing in that article is that he's in contract negotiations with the Rapids.  That tells us that his option for 2020 was not picked up, and now the team is trying to bring him back at a lower number.  Solid move by the Rapids.

Second, Pablo Mastroeni was named an assistant coach under Tab Ramos in Houston.  Its a good move for him and makes me wonder, if Ramos had been hired for the Rapids job instead of Fraser, would Pablo have returned to the Rapids as an assistant?

Third, the annual Forbes list of team values is out.  I'm not going to link to it because its fundamentally flawed, as it is every year.  They admit to not having access to any financial information and they've never shown an ability to handle a setup like KSE's arrangement of the Rapids.  Since merchandising, tickets, stadium rental, TV, and field rental are all run by separate KSE entities the Rapids look like the have very little income, but KSE is making a lot more money than the money that comes in under the Rapids corporate structure.  This, and other flaws, are pointed out every year the list comes out yet we still see a ton of discussion around the list.  This year the Rapids are the lowest valued MLS team in the list.

Lastly, the U-17 World Cup ended, for the U.S. at least.  They went 0-1-2  in Brazil with 1 goal scored and 8 allowed, finishing 20th of the 24 teams.  Sebastian Anderson was dressed for every game but didn't get any playing time.  Given the defensive disaster the tournament was for the U.S. though, that might have been a good thing.