Superdraft Results and Messi Game Moved

As expected there were a couple of trades with today's Superdraft and a last-minute wrinkle impacting our first pick.  With that first pick the Rapids selected forward Mamadou Billo Diop from...Rapids 2.  Yeah, strange.  It turns out sometime in the last few days another MLS team found a loophole in the rules that due to the fact that Diop went to high school in Florida but did not enroll in college he matches a precedent that he has to go through the draft.  Because he came to R2 from Florida and is not a homegrown the only way the Rapids could keep a player already under contract was to draft him, and they didn't want to risk him falling any further.

After that we selected forward Mitchell Baker out of Georgetown at #10.  Mark Kelkenberg expected him to go in the 20's and says:

Young complete center forward with a big frame. Took over for Jacob Murrell and recently had a 14 goal season for the Hoyas. Attended Northwood School/Black Rock FC where he had a lot of success prior to college

At this point the Rapids traded the 19th pick to SKC for $50K in 2026 GAM and the #44 pick.

At number 26 they took forward Wahabu Musah out of Clemson.  Yes, three forwards in a row.  Again from Kelkenberg who had him at 35 overall:

Musah could go earlier based on being the youngest player in the draft, so if he wound up available, I’d be surprised if they passed on him. He has shown great ability at Clemson already, and it’s rare that he played two collegiate seasons before his 18th birthday, which was earlier this month.

In the second round the Rapids traded the 40th ant 44th picks to Dallas for $75K in GAM.  All told they traded a 2025 international slot and the #44 pick and got back $325K in GAM, when you consider the #19 pick came as part of that international slot trade that also got $200K in GAM.  Nice funny-money business, but we'll see what they spend it on.

At #56 was my favorite pick of the draft, defender Asher Hestad from the National Champion Washington Huskies (Go Dawgs!).  We are now far enough down that I haven't found any MLS writeups on these players but Hestad did start at right back for every game in the Huskies run in the NCAA tournament.

In the 3rd round the Rapids took midfielder Koven Johnson out of High Point at #70 and defender Jabari De Coteau out of Xavier at #86.

One interesting note is that De Coteau is a junior and all of our other picks (other than Diop obviously) are sophomores.  So any of them could decide to return to school and the Rapids would hold their rights for two seasons.  So we'll have to see how many of these players actually show up in camp next month.  I would bet Baker will, he is the highest rated of the group and would be expected to be able to contribute at the MLS level in the near future.  The rest might stay in college.  I think beyond Musah anyone else is a long shot right now, as much as I would like to see Hestad have a bit impact.

After the busy Superdraft day the Rapids made a significant announcement.  The April 18th, 2026 game against Miami will be played at Empower Field in downtown Denver and not at the Dick.  This will be the game where the Rapids celebrate their 20th anniversary by returning to where it all began (almost).  On April 21st, 1996 the Rapids played their first ever home game at old Mile High, which was situated in what is now the parking lot of Empower Field.

Season ticket holders will be moved to to seats with similar sight lines in the lower bowl at Empower.  No word yet on parking, tailgating, or the supporters section.  Centennial 38 has a meeting with the Front Office next week to discuss those things, including where C38 season ticket holders in the supporters sections will end up, so more information should be available after the holidays.  Remaining tickets after the season ticket and flex pack holders are covered will be put on sale on January 15th.

Honestly, I hate this.  They can couch this in the terms of "celebrating are origin" as much as they want but we all see this for what this is.  A cash grab with Messi.  Its a betrayal of long-time fans who have worked hard, sometimes with no support or even active opposition from the Front Office, to make the Dick our home.  This is even the 20th season in the Dick and we could be celebrating that, but instead the FO is going for the quick buck and giving away what home field advantage we have so they can get all the Messi fans in the stadium.  My hope is that they announce the week before the game that he's not coming.

This is another log on the fire of disrespect I'm feeling from the Rapids and the league this offseason but honestly its been a long few months for me professionally (in a good way) and I'm pretty fried and I know that's probably driving my reactions lately.  So I'm going to take a couple of weeks off, see family, play some video games and watch bowl games and the African Cup of Nations, and see how I'm feeling come the New Year.  If I still feel this way then I'll write something up about how (IMO) the fans are being treat.  If not then it will be good I cleared my head.  Baring significant news tomorrow (like announcing Wells as coach or the trade for Sealy) this will do it at least until after Christmas and possibly 2025.

I hope everyone has a a happy holiday season and a great New Years!

Superdraft Preview

All quiet in Commerce City.  No official coach announcement yet.  Rumor of a significant trade for Dante Sealy from Montreal.  I'm waiting for it to be official to get too much into it, but the reported $2M of GAM we're trading is a significant overpay if its accurate.

One thing I never commented on here was that we did exercise the purchase option for Noah Cobb.  I have mentioned that this was something I was in favor of so I'm glad it got done.

The Re-Entry Drafts came and went with the Rapids doing nothing, so its on to tomorrow's Superdraft.  Colorado has 8 picks in the 3 rounds, including 4 first round picks.  We have Toronto's pick at #6 in exchange for us allowing Toronto to hire Neil Emblem to join Robin's staff in Toronto.  e have our natural pick at #10.  We have Columbus' pick at #18 in exchange for an international slot in 2025, and we have Philly's pick at #26 (along with #56 and #86) due to the trade of GAM for all their draft picks in 2025, 2026, and 2027.  In addition to Philly's picks in the 2nd and 3rd round we have our natural picks at #40 and #70.

The reality is with all those picks we'll be very lucky if we get tow players who contribute in the next couple of seasons.  The player who would likely be the top pick, Grand Canyon University striker Junior Diouf, is a freshman and would only be eligible with a GA contract.  Today there were 4 GA contracts announced and he wasn't one of them.  There was also a senior contract announced (a senior who's signed with the league pre-draft) and its my personal favorite pick in the draft, Washington midfielder/striker Richie Aman.  I'd love to see him drop to 6 and have Colorado take him, but I have my doubts.

Anything more I could tell you about the picks is better summarized by American Soccer Analysis' great Superdraft writeup.  Work will probably prevent me from doing any live updating tomorrow but I will have a recap of whatever happens, which will probably involve Smith trading picks, tomorrow night.

We Have A Coach!

First reported by Tom Bogert and confirmed by many the Rapids will name Tottenham Hotspur assistant coach Matt Wells as the team's 11th official head coach sometime next week.

Wells is a name out of left field, but to be fair with the lack of rumors anyone outside of the league would be out of left field.  Most Rapids fans spent the day researching what they could find on him and asking friends who were Spurs fans or Tottenham social media accounts what we're getting.

What we do know is that Wells is a 37 year old born and raised North Londoner who played in the Spurs academy before injuries derailed any hope of a senior career.  He then moved over to the coaching side at Spurs Academy, as an assistant eventually leaving to follow Academy coach Scott Parker as he took over Fulham's first-team and continued with him to Bournemouth and Clube Brugge.  He returned to Spurs under Postecoglou for the 2023-24 season and became the senior assistant to Ange last season, before stepping back down to assistant under Thomas Frank this season.

Postecoglou is known for giving his assistants a lot of responsibility and Wells is credited the game plan that Spurs used to win the Europa League final last season.  Under Postcoglou and Wells, and continuing to this season, Tottenham has been playing with a strong defense and this year in particular going with a counterpressing strategy.  Not exactly Pablo-ball boring but certainly a more defensive focus than what Armas brought the last two seasons.  Of course we don't know what Wells will use when he's the one calling all the shots.

With what little we know right now this seems like a middling hire with more potential to be an improvement from Armas than a step back IMO.  I do like that we didn't go for another unsuccessful MLS retread or elevated Bushey.  I don't like that, yet again, we're hiring somebody without successful first-team club head coaching experience.  It has been 25 years (arguably just 20) since the Rapids have done that and maybe its time to try it?

Chris Armas - took over a RBNY team and runined it, lasted less than a season in Toronto

Robin Fraser - Failed at Chivas USA

Anthony Hudson - Never had a first-team club job, only international experience

Pablo Mastroeni - First coaching job

Oscar Pareja - First head coaching job

Gary Smith - Only youth experience

Fernando Claivjo - Did take the Revs to 2nd in the East but lost in the playoffs

Tim Hankinson - Did succeed and make the semi-finals with the Charleston Battery

The reality is that with Padraig Smith still making the decisions on player recruitment its hard to get to excited about an unknown hire.  Its going to take significant upgrades in the roster to make this team competitive.  If Wells is successful he's likely back to England with a better first-team job in 2-3 years.  If Wells is unsuccessful he'll become the next in line of a list of failed hires by KSE.  I do not expect Wells to be coaching this team by the time the 2030 World Cup rolls around.