First the Leagues Cup groups were announced yesterday. The groups were determined by giving the MLS and Liga MX champs a bye to the knockout round, then the remaining top 15 teams in each leagues were seeded opposite each other. So the best of those 15 MLS teams got the worst of those 15 Liga MX teams, second-best got second-worst, etc. The Rapids were not one of the 16 best teams last season. The way they seeded the remaining teams was to break them up into regions (West, Central, South, East) and then seed them so the best MLS team in that division got the worst remaining MLS team in that division in their group.
The end result of all that is that the Rapids ended up in a group with Nashville SC and Toluca from Liga MX. The Rapids will host Toluca, and Nashville will host both the Rapids and Toluca. After the 3 games the top two teams move on to the knockout rounds. My guess is that the Rapids will travel to Nashville first, then the games against Toluca will happen so that Toluca will know immediately if they are staying in the U.S. for the knockout rounds or are eliminated and can go home. I don't know much about Toluca, but taking a look at their recent finishes they finished 6th in the recent Apertura and before that they went 15th, 6th, 11th, 11th, 15th (COVID shortened), and 17th. Based on that they seem very similar to the Rapids. Sometimes good, sometimes bad, mostly mediocre. I think this is a group we can get out of, but it will be close games between all three teams.
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Next up, on Thursday Colorado played its first friendly of the season, a 3-0 win over second-division Mexican side Celaya FC. There was no stream of the match so all we've seen is a few highlights the Rapids have posted. The goals were scored by Darren Yapi, who got a brace, and Diego Rubio. Nicholson had the assist on the Rubio goal while Rapids 2 winger Yosuke Hanya got assists on both Yapi goals (Rubio also got an assist on the second. All the goals were after the 60th minute, and the Rapids made wholesale changes in both the 30th and 60th minute, Unfortunately the Rapids twitter feed only reported on the 30th minute changes and the starting 11 so we don't know who else was on the field when the team started scoring. At least 23 players got 30 minutes in the friendly though.
Another note, in some of the camp footage the Rapids have posted from Mexico you can see Drew Moor in coach's gear in the background. I don't know if he's just helping out during preseason or if he's going to be officially added to the staff (he did get a coach's jacket with his initials on it) but regardless, good to see he's still involved with the club. Hat-tip to Joseph Samelson for pointing that out to me.
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The other thing that happened this week is rumors about 4 different signings from Europe. Two have been reported by Brenden Ploen at the Denver Post as done deals, while two others are more rumors.
Dispensing with the rumors the Rapids were linked to two players, French Ligue 1 Reims and Austrian international keeper Patrick Pentz and Cypriot First Division Omonoia and Nigerian international keeper Francis Uzoho. Being linked with two keepers is a bit unusual, given that Yarbrough has pretty solidly locked up the starting spot. But Yarbrough only has one guaranteed year left on his contract, with a team-option for 2023, and will turn 34 in two months. We saw his play fall off last year compared to 20221, but with a much worse defense in front of him as well. So the Rapids thinking about a post-Yarbrough future isn't out of line right now, but you have to wonder about the wisdom of looking internationally for a position the U.S. does very well in developing, and its a little frustrating to hear about the team looking at future potential over filling in the current holes. That said, from some of the scuttlebutt I'm hearing, these reports seem to be more about agents using some passing interest to hype up their clients more than true interest from Colorado
The two moves that are expected to be completed in the near future are the signing of Irish midfielder Connor Ronan from Wolves of the English Championship and Danish centerback Andreas Maxsø from Brøndby in the Danish Superliga.
Ronan will turn 25 in about 6 weeks, and came up through the youth system at Wolverhampton (and before that Rochdale), making his first team debut in 2016. He's only appeared 8 times for Wolves, being sent on a succession of loans, including stints in Slovakia and Switzerland. Most recently he spent the '21-'22 season with St. Mirren in the Scottish Premiership where he was a regular starter, with 24 starts and 7 goals. He became known for his long-range shot, scoring repeatedly from outside the box. He's also on the edges of the Irish national team, having played for all the youth sides and being called to camp last March but has not yet been capped by the full team.
Ronan would add to what's becoming a very crowded midfield with Price, Max, Bassett, Priso, Acosta, and Larraz all available to play in the center. Price, being a former Wolves player himself, probably helped with a recommendation on Ronan so you hope they could work well together. At 25 this is also a potential move for the future.
The other rumored "all but done" deal is the most exciting move of the offseason IMO. Maxsø will turn 29 in a couple of months and is a regular starter for top-Danish club Brøndby. He joined them at the start of the 2019/20 season from a third division German side and has made 96 appearances in 3.5 years. 6 months after arriving he was named team captain, a position he still holds. He helped lead Brøndby back to a championship in the 2020/21 season and appeared in the Champions League qualifying stages against Red Bull Salzburg, scoring a goal in the home leg. He's a fan favorite but has struggled over the last season, so it may be time for a new start somewhere else. He seems to prefer playing in a back 3, so this may indicate a return to our 3/5-man backline in 2023.
IMO this is exactly the type of player we should be looking at. He comes from a generally "lesser" league but as a starter for one of the top teams we should expect him to be MLS quality. At 28/29 he's at the top of his game, and he fills an immediate need in giving us a starter at centerback. If he's a good as he appears to be I expect him to be a regular starter this season.
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Last, but not least, I wanted to comment on the news from VOX Media, who owns the SB Nation sites including Burgundy Wave, yesterday. Their decision to pull back on MLS sites is a disappointing one, and leaves good writers for Rapids coverage like Matt Pollard and Joseph Samelson in limbo. I have written for them off and on over the years, paid in nothing but publicity (that's a statement, not a complaint), and its great to have a central place for Rapids coverage like Burgundy Wave. I haven't always agreed with their take on things, and depending on who was running it at the time I was more or less involved, but I as really looking forward to what Matt and Joseph were going to do this season. Hopefully they can come up with a workable plan to keep it running.
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