Awaziem to France? USMNT To Commerce City?

Two pieces of news before the Seattle preview later tonight.  The big news is that French sports newspaper L'Equipe is reporting that there's a deal on the table for Chido Awaziem to return to Nantes, where he played the 2018-19 season on loan.  L'Equipe is as good as it gets in sports reporting in France and really all of Europe (they are the paper that, under their prior name, started the Tour De France in 1903) so if they're reporting it its solid, but in case you were worried Burgundy Wave has also confirmed it.  I had to pick up a copy of L'Equipe while I was in Paris even though I don't know French just because it felt like something I should do while I was there.

the deal isn't done yet but if its to the point that its being reported in mainstream press I'm going to assume they're just haggling over money and it will get done.  We all assumed that the Rapids pursuit of a CB for this summer window was because of the reported off-season interest in Maxso from the Middle East, but it may be because they knew this was coming from Chido.  There's no assured link but Awaziem did miss a game a month or so ago due to "personal reasons" which much be related to this.

Losing Maxso was going to be tricky, losing Awaziem would be worse.  He's the better of the two of them.  It is possible that we lose both of them and with Maxso on an option year next year I think its a safe bet they'll both be gone before the start of 2026.  So the Rapids need to be looking for two starting MLS CB's in the next 6-7 months.  As far as selling Awaziem we spent $1M in GAM to get him and Murphy from Cinci this offseason, with another $200K in GAM being possible based on performance.  Cincinnati also retained some percentage of any sale.  Awaziem is making $1.4M this season.  So to break even on this I'm guessing the bare minimum of a transfer fee the Rapids would need would be $1.5M, probably $2M to be safe.  We would then want to turn around and reinvest that into our defense.

On a happier(?) note the rumored USA - Australia game on October 14th was finally announced yesterday.  The surprise is that it won't be at Empower Field as originally reported, it will be at the Dick.  This is the first time the USMNT has been at the Dick since the T&T qualifier in 2017.  Tickets go on sale to the general public on Friday, with Rapids Season Ticket holders getting their shot at 10am tomorrow.  Given the recent track record I expect it to be pricy, which will impact if I go or not.