Trialist Update

Some news today out of Rapids camp about a number of trialists. The big news is that Irish striker Caleb Folan will be trialling with the team on the Arizona trip. Folan is currently with Championship side Hull City, but with their current financial difficulties they are looking to off-load salary and would be willing to let Folan out of his contract. Folan has only played twice this season due to injury, after having missed significant time twice in the last 5 years due to torn hamstrings. Obviously the medical staff will have a large say in the decision to sign him or not. Folan has been capped 7 times by the Ireland National Team and if he can return to health is likely to feature in the teams Euro 2012 qualifiers.

Also accompanying the team to Arizona are Trinidadian Joevin Jones, who has been in Colorado since the beginning of camp. The article did not mention his teammate Shahdon Winchester and combined with bringing in a different striker on trial is probably a good indicator that Winchester didn't make the cut. The Rapids have looked to the Caribbean for another trialist though, defender Logan Emory. Emory is originally from Boise, ID and is currently playing for the Puerto Rico Islanders in USSF D-II. Jones and Emory will compete with Anthony Wallace for the left-back spot.

The final trialist joining the team in Arizona will be former Metro State midfielder Steven Emory, who was found during the open tryouts prior to the camp and is not, from anything I can find, related to Logan Emory.

Roster Rules

MLS has a new set of roster rules for this season now that the rosters have expanded to 30 players. Here's a (hopefully) simplified look at the rules and how our current camp roster might fit into them.

Players 1-20 - Senior Roster

The first twenty players on the roster make up the senior roster. Those players are the only ones that count against the $2.675 million salary cap. MLS teams are required to have at least 18 players on their senior roster. Any spots under 18 that aren't filled will still have a minimum salary charged against the team. Spots 19 and 20 are optional. The maximum individual salary for a non-DP player is $335,000.

Likely Rapids Senior Roster Players:

Goalkeepers:

Ian Joyce

Matt Pickens

Defenders:

Kosuke Kimura

Tyrone Marshall

Drew Moor

Scott Palguta

Anthony Wallace

Marvell Wynne

Midfielders:

Ross LaBauex

Jeff Larentowicz

Pablo Mastroeni

Brian Mullan

Joseph Nane

Sanna Nyassi

Jamie Smith

Wells Thompson

Forwards:

Quincy Amarikwa

Conor Casey*

Omar Cummings

Macoumba Kandji

* = Its unclear as to how Casey's salary of $350K would work with the limit of $335K for non-Designated Players. The Rapids may have to use $15K of allocation money to buy his salary down to the $335K level.

Players 21-30 - Development Roster

The final 10 players do not count against the cap. Players 21-24 have a minimum salary of $42K. Players 25-30 have a minimum salary of $32,600. Players making $32,600 must be under 25. All Generation Adidas players (of which the Rapids have none) are Development Roster player. Clubs can sign 2 homegrown players to Generation Adidas contract per year.

Likely Rapids Development Roster Players:

Goalkeepers:

Steward Ceus

Defenders:

Eddie Ababio

Joevin Jones

Javed Mohammed

Midfielders:

Davy Armstrong

Steven Emory

Colin Givens

Forwards:

Andre Akpan

Phillip Bannister

Shahdon Winchester

As you can see, most of the development roster is made up of the draftees and the trialists. Since the Rapids are only bringing back 23 players form last year I assumed the 20 senior roster players would come from that group. Davy Armstrong, as a homegrown player, is automatically part of the development Roster since his salary doesn't count against the cap. I chose Steward Ceus as one of the 3 returning players to move to the development roster, because he's the third goalkeeper. Akpan was chosen as the 3rd player because it was just announced that he signed a new contract. There's no reason to give a player who got into one game in his rookie year a new contract unless it was to fit into the new development roster rules.

Pre-season Roster

Last year i kept a running track of who was reported as being in camp and their contract status (to the best of our knowledge). This seemed to be well received, so I'm going to do it again this year. Later this week I'll try to break down the current roster under the new roster rules, but for now I'm just going to sort into general categories. At this point I haven't heard that any one's contract was u at the end of last season except Marvell Wynne and Tyrone Marshall (both of whom signed new contracts) so I'm assuming all returning players are under contract.

Under Contract:

Goalkeepers:

Steward Ceus

Ian Joyce

Matt Pickens

Defenders:

Kosuke Kimura

Tyrone Marshall

Drew Moor

Scott Palguta

Anthony Wallace

Marvell Wynne

Midfielders:

Davy Armstrong

Ross LaBauex

Jeff Larentowicz

Pablo Mastroeni

Brian Mullan

Joseph Nane

Sanna Nyassi

Jamie Smith

Wells Thompson

Forwards:

Andre Akpan

Quincy Amarikwa

Conor Casey

Omar Cummings

Macoumba Kandji

Draftees:

Defenders:

Eddie Ababio

Javed Mohammed

Midfielders:

Colin Givens

Forwards:

Phillip Bannister

Trialists:

Defenders:

Joevin Jones

Midfielders:

Steven Emory

Forwards:

Shahdon Winchester

Jones and Winchester are 19 year olds from Trinidad & Tobago's W Connection. Both have been capped for the T&T full National Team and play regularly for the U-20 side. They will be in camp all preseason. Emory is out of Metro State and was found at thee team open tryouts.

Rapids Re-Sign Akpan And Smith

The Rapids just announced that Andre Akpan, last year's first round pick, and Jamie Smith have signed new contracts. Akpan was probably offered a new contract so quickly due to the new rules on roster spots (which I'll go into in more detail sometime over the weekend) with minimum and maximum salary limits. Smith's new contract is a bit of a surprise. I'm guessing he got more years for less money or something.

Preseason starts!

The team reported to Commerce City yesterday for the official start of pre-season. The first few days are physicals and fitness tests, including concussion tests. They'll hit the fields for the first time on Thursday.

The Rapids open camp with a 23 man roster and 4 draft picks. Rosters this year are 30 players, but there are restrictions on the salaries and availability of spots 21-30. I'll get into that in more detail in a future post. To help full the last 3 spots and compete with the draftees Colorado held open tryouts over the weekend. A few players caught the coaches eye, but the only player currently in camp is Metro State's Steven Emory. He's a midfielder who previously played in the Rapids Academy in 2007.

The other bit of Rapids news is that 3 Colorado players got to put on the National team jersey for the game against Chile on Saturday. I didn't get a chance to watch the game, but going from reports it seems that Jeff Larentowicz was one of the bright spots for the Nats, playing a full 90. Marvell Wynne was probably the player most at fault on the Chilean goal, but it seems that the defending was a disaster across the board on the play. Anthony Wallace got 18 minutes at the end of the game, and impressed in what little time he had. Matt Pickens, the 4th Rapids player in camp, did not get picked for the game day squad. This is the 4th time he's been to a Nats camp and the 4th time he's failed to make the game-day squad. The last American #1 keeper the Rapids had, Joe Cannon, faced similar difficulties.