Off To Mexico With Some Old And New Faces

Colorado left for preseason camp in Mexico today and gave all of us a roster to work with while they're there.  There are three names not on the roster for good reason.  Zack Steffen is at the Nats camp and Adam Beaudry is at the U-20 camp (the teams trained together today).  Kevin Cabral is back in France finalizing his green card and will join the team when that's done and he no longer takes up an international slot.  Other than that all the expected names were on the plane.

They were joined by some old and new names, some under new contracts and some trying to earn a contract.

GOALKEEPERS: John Berner (Trialist), Zack Campagnolo (Rapids Academy), Nicolas Defreitas-Hansen (Rapids 2), Abraham Rodriguez (Trialist)  

DEFENDERS: Chidozie Awaziem, Reggie Cannon, Daniel Chacón, Michael Edwards, Nate Jones, Andreas Maxsø, Ian Murphy, Anderson Rosa (Rapids 2), Keegan Rosenberry, Matthew Senanou, Jackson Travis, Sam Vines  

MIDFIELDERS: Daouda Amadou, Cole Bassett, Sam Bassett, Josh Copeland (Rapids 2), Omir Fernandez, Wayne Frederick, Oliver Larraz, Djordje Mihailovic, Connor Ronan, Noah Strellnauer (Rapids Academy) 

FORWARDS: Alex Harris, Calvin Harris, Rafael Navarro, Kimani Stewart-Baynes, Darren Yapi 

Michael Edwards signed a new deal for 2025 yesterday with an option for 2026.  Rosa was a 2024 SuperDraft pick who went back to college for a year and has now signed a deal with Rapids 2, while Copeland signed with R2 coming out of this year's draft.  Alex Harris was our top pick in this year's draft and was already signed to a Generation Adidas deal prior to being picked.

We've got a couple of former keepers trying to catch on as the third keeper while Steffen and Beaudry are away.  Rodriguez is back after spending last year with Toronto 2 and John Berner makes his return have 7 seasons.  In between he played for Phoenix, Oklahoma City, Saint Louis, Memphis, Huntsville, ant Atlanta 2.

Guys like Campagnolo, Defreitas-Hansen, Rosa, Copeland, and Strellnauer are on the trip to get experience, something the Rapids regularly do with their young Academy and R2 players.  Senanou was our second highest pick in the first round this year and is hoping to make the team.

Nate Jones is on the trip but Tom Bogert is reporting that a deal has been worked out for him to be loaned to the Las Vegas Lights for the season once the USL team gets started for the year.

Awaziem, Cannon, and Murphy, all defenders, are the only experienced additions to the team since roughly this time last season.  While defense was the weaker side of the ball in 2024 adding two central defenders (after selling one in Bombito) and a versatile defender in Cannon is barely enough to trad water.  Its not enough to get better.  We appear to be betting everything that a highly-rated homegrown (S. Bassett), a Generation Adidas player (A. Harris), and a whole bunch of young guys will find some rookie magic.

The Badge, The Players, The Fans Deserve Better. Still.

In September of 2023 Centennial 38 staged the protest above and released a statement about it.  I reviewed the statement and KSE's response in March of 2024 and my conclusion at that point was:

To answer the question I asked in the title of the piece, no, we haven't gotten better yet.  While we have some shiny new pieces on the field (that haven't yet changed any results), the rest of the organization is still far behind even a midlevel Major League Soccer team. This isn't an org that can expect to compete year in and year out, which is the bar Padraig Smith has stated on multiple occasions.

Now 10 months later has anything changed?

C38 wanted, above anything else, more investment from KSE.  Both in terms of $$ but also in terms of interest.  I noted in March that we had invested heavily in the roster during the 2023-24 offseason.  Of course since then we haven't.  We did bring Navarro in on a transfer but beyond that its been free agent signings (Cannon), draftees, and trades.  None of which cost KSE anything.

But I hear you saying, we did invest in Navarro, Mihailovic, Vines, and Steffen.  Yes, we did.  And that counted for something last year.  But since we did that we sold Moise Bombito for $7.7m, which escalators up to $10.7m.  Meanwhile we reportedly spent $3.5m on Rafa, $3m on Djordje, nothing on Steffen, and an unknown amount on Vines.  And there's been no other significant transfer fee paid since the protest.  So somewhere between $6.5 and $7.5m total (there's no way we spent over $1m on Vines, and we probably spent less).

In other words KSE didn't invest, they just pre-spent the transfer fee they were going to get from Bombito (a player they got for free in the draft) and at this point they're at least $1M in the black on player movements in the last 15 months.

Moving beyond the roster another area of focus was the facilities.  This weekend the Denver Post launched a series of articles about the stadium situation of Denver's teams.  Their article about the Dick was not kind.  Nor should it have been.  We have seen no notable investment in the stadium.  The scoreboard is still a joke, the lack of game day features are still lacking, and even the rollout of the new food options last season seemed to end before the play did (by the last game of the season none of the new food options were available anymore).

There were some rumors flying at the end of the season that some sort of construction project was going to start at the Dick this offseason.  There was a report that Phish will not be back for Labor Day (now confirmed) due to the stadium not being available for a construction project (not confirmed).  Paired with the season-ticket holders lot going away which is on the north end and it seemed to suggest that something was going to be going on at that end of the field.  Yet nothing happened.  Now I've heard multiple reports that something was planned, but KSE has since cancelled it and there will be no renovations.  I know the Front Office is working with the supporters to do what they can around the stadium, but that's a far cry from the full court press the stadium needs.

KSE itself (above Padraig Smith) seems to have continued to ignore the Rapids.  We had a couple of big, yet uninformed, statements from the new President of Team and Media Operations when he took the role in March but since then I haven't heard anything of note about the Rapids from anyone at KSE who doesn't work in Commerce City.

Going back to KSE's response to the C38 statement:

On the field, we are focused on returning the team to the level of competitiveness we expect and have seen in recent years

Well, to be fair, we're back to being a one-and-done playoff team so I guess that's an improvement?  Yes, great Leagues Cup run they should get credit for.  The next step is to become a team that can be dangerous in the playoffs though.

Over the next few months, we will be finalizing the master plan for our exciting Victory Crossing Project. When this is ready in early 2024, we will be hosting several open forums with supporters and members of the community to gather feedback on our plans for the club, stadium and entire project.

That was written in September of 2023.  Its January of 2025 and no plans have been shared with supporters.  So needless to say they badly missed their "early 2024" date.  Dave Wegner, speaking for C38 in the Post article above (and also a personal friend, just to be transparent) confirms we've seen nothing from KSE.

So KSE has shown no new investment in the 15 months since the article.  They haven't met their own stated deadlines for planning.  If rumors are to be believed they in fact cancelled plans to invest in the facilities.  And their well received investment in the team last offseason turned out to just be an advance on their upcoming transfer fee windfall.  So to answer the question I asked in the opening, in the last 10 months has anything changed?  Yes.  Its gotten worse.

The Badge, The Players, The Fans Deserve Better

What's Better Than One Bassett? Two Bassetts!

Yesterday the Rapids made official what seemed to be obviously coming, they signed Sam Bassett to a homegrown deal.  For anyone who isn't in the loop Sam is Cole's younger brother and has playing at DU the last few years.  He was a Hermann Trophy (NCAA best men's soccer player) finalist and Top Drawer Soccer's player of the year this season.

Sam got a one year deal with 3 option years.  Its a bit of an odd contract but Nate Jones who was the highest of our draft picks last year got a similar contract.  I wonder if this gives the players more flexibility to renegotiate should they kill it early in their career or something.

I don't think we'll see Sam immediately impact the first team.  He can play both central mid and on the wing and if he's going to make an immediate impact it will likely be on the wing.  Between Mihailovic, Larraz, Ronan, and older brother Cole there's not many minutes to be had in central midfield.  More likely he'll get some time off the bench and some starts with Rapids 2 in 2025.

Oh and to avoid confusion going forward Cole will be Bassett and Sam will be S. Bassett when I discuss them.  I'm reminded of when the Mariners signed Ken Griffey Senior and Dad and son were debating which one got to be "Griffey" and which one had to add the "Sr./Jr." suffix to their jersey.  Junior's point was he was in Seattle first so he got to be Griffey, Senior's point was that he had been in the league longer so he had seniority.  Junior won.

One other transaction this week, the Rapids sent a 2025 international slot to Miami for $175K in GAM.  As the Rapids only have 5-6 internationals (depending on if Chacon actually joins the roster or gets loaned out again) this still leaves them room to sign at least one international before hitting the limit.

2024 Prediction Review (aka I Take My Medicine)

Ok, getting the 2024 prediction review in just under the wire.  I originally made these predictions back in February.  Usually I'm too optimistic about the team but this year I' pretty sure I was too negative.

• The Rapids either don't participate in the USOC (due to the ongoing negotiations between the USSF and MLS) or if they do they get knocked out in their first two rounds to another MLS team.

Ok, got that one correct (Rapids 2 doesn't count)

• They also don't get out of their Leagues Cup group, but give Portland a scare in Portland.  Leon is too much for them at home in Colorado though.

I'm sure I could have missed this worse but I'm not sure how 

• And to finish out the competitions, they finish 10th overall and miss the playoffs.  They're eliminated in the next-to-last week.

That should have been "10th in the West" not overall, but either way I missed it

• All that said, the team is improved and plays entertaining soccer at times.  It won't be the pointless soccer we saw last season.

I'd say we were entertaining!  At least until the last 5-6 games.

• The rapids don't buy Diack or Navarro at their current price this summer.  Navarro doesn't show enough to be worth $4.5M and Diack gets renegotiated to a lower number before we complete the transfer.

If I'm generous I could give myself .25 here?  Nah, whiffed on this.

• Needing a striker to replace Navarro Colorado makes a big trade within MLS for a striker in the summer window.

Which of course made this a miss

• Mihailovic is the Golden Boot and Player of the Year.  He gets back into the National Team picture by the end of the season.

Not the Golden Boot but he did have the best offensive season in team history.  And got on the Olympic Team and is in the picture for the January camp.  I'm counting this as correct.

• Steffen gets a look by the Nats for either the Gold Cup or the Copa, and becomes part of the regular Nats rotation.

Going to count this as .5 as he did get a look but isn't yet in the rotation

• Vines is Defensive Player of the Year but doesn't get a Nats look.

LOL, no

• With trips to Portland, Salt Lake, Seattle, and LAFC in the first 6 weeks the Rapids will be looking up the table all season after getting no more than 2 points out of those 4 games.

LAFC was actually a home game, but we got 5 points in the 3 road games, including an unexpected win in Sandy.  So that's a miss.

• Because of that, and the fact that we have to go back to Sandy in May before FSL comes to Colorado, we once again fail to win the Rocky Mountain Cup.

Here's a prediction I'm happy to be wrong about.

3.5 out of 11.  Ouch!  Still that's slightly better than my 4 of 14 from last year so I've stopped my 3 year slide!  Nowhere to go but up, right?

Wrapping Up 2024

Well as I was busy with the holidays two big things happened, the SuperDraft and the schedule drop.  We'll get through those two today and then I'll circle back to reviewing my 2024 Predictions hopefully no later than New Year's Day so we can move into 2025 and look forward.

Starting with the schedule the big change this year is that San Diego joins the league, so its 14 home and away against the West and 6 against the East, split 3 and 3 home/away.  No 3-game Rocky Mountain Cup anymore.  Speaking of, we defend the Cup at home on May 17th and then finish our road slate in Salt Lake on October 4th.  We start the season in St. Louis on Feb. 22nd before the home opener against Dallas on March 1st.

Unfortunately for all of us who wanted a new road trip, or away day at San Diego is midweek right before the RMC home game which makes it a difficult road game for most of us, since we all want to be back in time to support the boys against FSL.  (Specifically for me I'll likely use that week for my spring work trip to the UK and fly back Friday night so I can be at the game on Saturday).  San Diego comes to the Dick on April 12th.

There was hope that Apple would spread out the game times this year and they have, but not so much for Rapids home games.  All but two home matches kickoff at 7:30, the season finale is at 7pm and Charlotte's visit on March 29th is at 2:30pm.  The Galaxy's visit on June 25th (Wed.) and KC's visit for the annual 4th of July match (Fri.) are the only home games not on Saturday.  We have two Wednesday road games in May, one in July, and a Sunday away game in August, the other 13 road games are also on Saturdays.

May is going to be tough with 7 matches.  We start the month in DC and then come home to San Jose the next weekend.  Then the rest of that week is the trip to SD and the FSL home match.  Then after 7 days off we get St. Louis at home before a midweek trip to Portland followed by a trip to SoCal for LAFC on the weekend.  Those are our only two 3-game weeks (at least for league play) though.

In June we have 3 straight home games before finishing the month in New England.  We only have one home game between Vancouver at home on July 12th and Houston at home on September 13th, that's Atlanta in mid-August.  Otherwise we play in Seattle, Philly, and Minnesota before the ATL game and at the Galaxy and SKC after.  That's going to be a tough stretch.  But that's the only times we have more than two home or away games in a row.  We finish the season at home against, you guessed it, LAFC.

Now, onto the Superdraft.  We already covered the trade for all of Philly's picks but we were busy trading on the day of the draft.  Summing it all up we traded $287,500 in 2025 GAM, a 2025 International Slot, and the #8 pick for the #4, #6, and #12 picks and $50K in 2026 GAM.  That left us with 5 first round picks and nine picks total.  So we went to town on the draft,  The full list:

Round 1: Alex Harris (No. 4) - F, Cornell

Round 1: Matthew Senanou (No. 6) - D, Xavier

Round 1: Efetobo Aror (No. 12) - M, Portland

Round 1: Sydney Wathuta (No. 16) - F, Vermont

Round 1: Joshua Copeland (No. 26) - F, Detroit Mercy

Round 2: Charlie Harper (No. 38) - D, UNC Chapel Hill

Round 3: Donovan Phillip (No. 62) - F, North Carolina State

Round 3: Shawn Smart (No. 68) - D, Las Vegas Lights

Round 3: Matthew Van Horn (No. 75) - M, Georgetown

Most reviews of our picks were positive, with the caveat that we shouldn't expect much from this group in 2025.  Specifically Aror could return to school for a year before coming out.  Also Smart is already signed and playing for Las Vegas but Colorado retains his MLS rights now.  Reports are that we're happy to let him play out his contract in Vegas (he has one year left) before negotiating with him and we're not looking to pay a transfer fee to get him here this season.  He's also being scouted by Sparta Rotterdam and a couple of Championship clubs so this seems more like a flyer on somebody we might be able to flip quickly than any expectation he will have a notable impact on results.

We'll see how many of these guys join camp next month and how many of them make the team.  I expect most of them to be on Rapids 2 if they're not back in school (or in Las Vegas).