Rapids Sponsored By Transamerica

Well, didn't see that coming!  Colorado announced today that they have made a deal with Transamerica to be the jersey sponsor for the next two seasons.  Quite a turn around from the Ciao debacle of the offseason.  The sponsorship total was not announced but the team did work through Denver based Impression Sports & Entertainment which is a departure from how the team has pursued this in the past.  The deal is for two years but can be extended.  This is below the MLS threshold of 3 years that was announced but I'm thinking that getting out of the Ciao hole might have played into that.  1 year of Ciao + 2 years of Transamerica = 3 years.  The sponsorship will also include the youth teams, which is a nice touch.

The first reaction was that Transamerica was an odd choice.  A San Francisco based company sponsoring a Denver team, especially with the Earthquakes needing a sponsor?  It turns out that Transamerica has 350 employees in the Tech Center and is in the process of taking over a chunk of the CenturyLink building downtown, with plans to hire up to another 300 employees in Denver.  So not that unusual in that light.

As far as what this will do for the team on the field its hard to tell.  Hinchey had this to say in the Post:

Hinchey said the Rapids had already planned the 2015 budget — including adding new designated players — prior to the deal.

The new infusion of cash, he said, could help bring the club somewhere it's never been before: breaking even or possibly turning a profit.

Its hard to interpret that quote.  does that mean they already planned to spend money and this will just help, or does that mean that none of the money will go into the team in 2015 but it may make the team profitable?  We'll have to see what kind of moves the Rapids make in the near future.

Overall this is a big win by the Rapids.  Great move by Hinchey and the Front Office to sign well known and well respected company as the sponsor.  We won't see any Ciao funny business with Transamerica.

What Can Brown Do For Valerenga?

The Rapids made it official today and transferred Deshorn Brown to Norway's Valerenga.  A Norwegian paper says that the transfer fee was $4 million, presumably Norwegian Krone, which would convert to just under $500,000.

Overall this is the move the Rapids should have made.  An offer in hand is hard to turn down, though anything lower and the decision would have been questionable.  That doesn't mean we've improved though.  As I put it in my season preview:

Forward: Um, yeah, nothing much happened here.  We signed Badji!  Otherwise we're apparently hoping that what we have can get us enough goals until a move can be made.  At this point I think the assumption is that Kevin Doyle will be joining the team but the question is when.  If we have to wait for the July transfer window then Brown, Torres, and Badji are going to have to figure out how to score without a holding forward.  If somehow we can get Doyle before the end of Wolves season then we can probably muddle through for a few games until he gets here.  If we don't make any move at all we're in trouble.

This was not the move I had in mind.  Our already thin options are now transparent.  Badji doesn't look like the answer so that leaves Torres moving to the top of the formation and Powers moving back to center mid.  Really what needs to happen sooner rather than later is bringing in a new MLS-caliber and ready to play yesterday striker.  Its a bit frustrating that we don't have that player yet.  This transfer didn't come out of nowhere.  A deal like this takes some time and the Rapids must have had some idea this was possible during preseason.  I'm inclined to think that's why Badji got so much time with the first team at the expense of Brown.  Based on that, why didn't we get a replacement lined up in preseason?

In the end we're going to struggle until either Torres finds his 2013 Gold Cup form or we make a move.  The sooner one of those happens the better.

Brown To Norway?

It appears that Deshorn Brown is on the cusp of moving to Valerenga in Oslo, a team in Norway's top division.  A report three days ago from a Norwegian paper said that their managing director had traveled to Colorado to work on a deal.  This morning the Denver Post confirmed he was seen at training on Wednesday along side Paul Bravo, presumably to watch Brown.

If we're at the point where representatives of the team have officially traveled to Colorado and are talking to the team and Deshorn, its pretty much a done deal.  Negotiations may take another few days but I'd be surprised if it falls through at this point.  The Norwegian league starts in 3 weeks and according to the article from the Norwegian paper they would want to get Brown before the season starts.

From the Rapids point of view, if the money's good enough they should be making the deal.  This is how the Rapids will compete in MLS.  Finding good young talent, developing them, and selling them, then using that money for the occasional big purchase like a Ramirez or a Doyle.  Plus with Torres and possibly Doyle, not to mention the amount of time Badji's gotten, its going to be hard to find playing time for Brown.

The big issue is what to do between possibly selling Brown and hopefully signing Doyle (or another striker).  Based on last week's game Badji didn't look like he was ready to be the man up top in a 4-5-1.  The best option seems to be to push Torres forward and have Powers take the central midfield spot but that wasn't real successful last year.

Schedule Changes and Roster Movement

Over the last two days the Rapids have announced 3 schedule changes:

• The Sun. July 12th home game against FSL has been moved to Sat. July 11th at 7pm
• The Sat. October 3rd home game against FSL has been moved to Sun. October 4th at 5pm

What happened is that with the Gold Cup schedule being announced on Thursday the planned FOX Sports 2 coverage of our Rocky Mountain Cup match on July 12th conflicted with FOX's Gold Cup coverage.  So FOX gave the July game back to Altitude and the Rapids moved it to the better attended Saturday night.  In exchange FOX took the October Rocky Mountain Cup game and moved it to their Sunday night national TV slot.

The other change is the Red Bull New York road game on Sat. July 25th.  It has been moved to Wed. April 29th so the Red Bulls can use that Saturday in July for a friendly.  This is a lousy move for the Rapids as it will now have them play Dallas at home on the 25th, fly to NY for the game on the 29th, then turn around and fly to LA for a game 3 days later on May 2nd.  Meanwhile both the Red Bulls and Rapids have a bye this weekend.  Had somebody at MLS or Red Bull been paying attention when the schedule came out months ago they could have rescheduled the game to this weekend and allowed both teams to play on regular rest.  Yes it would have risked an early season weather delay but is that really worse than 3 games in 8 days on both coasts?

Also some roster news.  Reports are that Eloundou is in Charlotte going through preseason training with the Independence.  However it sounds like this is just a temporary thing while he works on his fitness and he's expected to rejoin the Rapids in a couple of weeks.  He missed almost all of preseason due to his visa issue so this is probably a way to get him back into playing shape with other players going through the same thing.

It does sound like that both John Berner and Caleb Calvert will be joining the Independence on a longer-term basis though as part of our partnership with them.  This will be a good chance for both younger players to get some competitive playing time.  If they stayed in Colorado neither of them would be likely to see the field.

The last piece of news today is that Joseph Greenspan is back with the Rapids during the Naval Academy's spring break.  The team is still working with the Navy to maximize Greenspan's time with the team this season but obviously his responsibilities to the Navy will come first.  When announcing this the Rapids also mentioned journeyman Jeff Parke is trialing with the team.  He's a defender that is probably being looked at to help fill out our thin backline, especially with the suspensions we picked up.

Good Point From Bad Play

Sorry for going quiet, a family emergency called me out of town.  I'll dispense with the game recap as at this point I assume everyone has seen the game or at least the "highlights".  Getting a point on the road in the season opener is a good result, but this was a poorly played game that the Rapids were lucky to get the point they got.

• The Rapids set a new team record low with only 2 shots all game
• They tied a league record (with 7 other games) with 0 shots on goal
• They had more fouls than in any game last season

Looking at those stats they accurately reflect the game.  Colorado had no real offensive plan other than hoof it forward and hope Badji, and later Brown, could do something with it (they largely couldn't) while playing tough defense and denying the Union good looks at goal (which they did until late).  It worked but its not a game plan that's going to get us very far over the course of the season.

General impressions:

• Very disappointed that Juan Ramirez didn't make the 18.  Word is he's nursing a hamstring injury so probably good they didn't risk him but lets hope it heals quickly and he's ready for NYCFC in 9 days.
• Brown and Powers were also both nursing knocks which is why they came off the bench.
• Sarvas looked like the "difference-maker" we were looking for, maybe the only new player that looked that good.
• Sanchez had a surprisingly poor game.  Everyone's allowed an off game from time to time so hopefully we see the better Sanchez next week.
• Both of Burling's yellow cards were good calls and just poor play.  On the first Sapong pushed the ball towards the endline.  Burling has stuck his leg in front of Sapong and CJ goes over it (he didn't fight much)  Unnecessary foul but it happens.  But to add to it Burling gives Sapong a shove in the back as he topples over.  Easy yellow for a push that gained nothing and din't need to happen.
• On the second Burling gets beat by the Philly forward in the center circle and yanks back on his shoulder.  A good yellow foul if he's beat and nobody is there to easily cover, a red if he's the last man.  In this case all three other defenders were behind Burling to cover, completely unnecessary for a first, horrible for a second yellow.
• Forget high balls in the box when Sjoberg is playing.  He'll beat everyone to them.  He needs to watch the elbows though.  Partially because he swings them too much but also partially because he starts off so much higher than most players his elbows are more likely to impact heads.
• Harrington was solid and quiet, all you want out of a defender.  Good game from him.
• Riley was not.  A stupid kick in the back late in the game was ignored by Peterscu (typical of his style of officiating) but not by the DisCo toda,y who suspended him for a game.
• The DisCo also fined Burling for taking too long to leave the field after the red and warned the team about mass confrontation.  All fair actions.  Looks like #RapidsThugLife is back and that's not a good thing.  Colorado was far too physical in this game and that's not the style I thought we were looking for.

Pablo's quote after the game has me shaking my head:

I’d be hard pressed not to give it a 10. I say that because we were a man down for 20 minutes in these conditions. It is easy to lay down. There are so many things you could make excuses about. And the players did not. They made a statement. It is not the result but the mentality that they leave behind and will carry with them going into the next game.

Really?  A 10 out of 10 with no shots on goal, 2 total shots, 1 given red card and lucky not to get a second (which the Disco made up for), another 3 yellow cards, and a general look like there was no real plan?  If that's a 10 then I'd hate to see a 5, or a 1!

Small sample size warning and all but looking at the other opening matches this team has a lot of work to do to even be competitive in this league, much less challenge for a playoff spot.

Man of the Match: Clint Irwin.  Stood strong in net, including one point-blank save from Casey (and who didn't see that coming) to get his first shutout and apparently win the starting job.