Camp Update

Well, I didn't expect it to be 8 days before we got our first news out of camp, but here we are.  The Rapids released its first camp overview today and it has some interesting information.

Lets start with the injuries.  You never want to see two sure starters (Ford and Kamara) and a regular member of the rotation (Nicholson) injured this early into camp but the good news is that they're all expected to be healthy by opening day.  I'm actually more concerned about Ford and Nicholson than I am Kamara.  A pulmonary contusion is not a normal injury and certainly not one related to his age,  There's some bad luck there.  Ford and Nicholson's injures continue a pattern for them and its concerning to see them dealing with them so early in the season.  Especially for Nicholson as back injuries are notoriously hard to get over.

Outside of the injury news we also got information about who's been invited to camp.  Our three unsigned draft picks have been joined by three Academy players (Anderson, Larraz, Rodriguez), former Academy and Colorado Rush player Enoch Mushagalusa, Colorado Switchbacks player Jordan Schweitzer, and Kofi Opare.  Now this just lists the invites, it doesn't say who accepted them, though I expect all but one are there for sure.

The rumors about Opare signing were running fast last week but have died down since then.  When queried about it Steven Goff, one of the sources of the rumors, tweeted that the deal was done and they must be waiting for a physical or something.  That tweet was responded to by Opare himself:

Who says I’m going to Colorado? I haven’t agreed a deal with them.

So, yeah.  That's not an ideal response.  So he may be in camp or he may not.

My bet is that the three Academy players are in camp more to get them exposed to how things work on the first team and not really as a trial for a roster spot in 2019.  The other six are trying to win spots on the team.

Below is my updated camp roster with the trialists:

Goalkeepers:

Tim Howard - Designated Player

Clint Irwin

Andre Rawls

Defenders:

Kortne Ford - Homegrown Player

Sam Raben - Homegrown Player

Keegan Rosenberry

Axel Sjoberg

Tommy Smith - International

Sam Vines - Homegrown Player

Danny Wilson - International

Deklan Wynne

Midfielders:

Kellyn Acosta

Nana Boateng

Cole Bassett - Homegrown Player

Johan Blomberg - International

Benny Feilhaber

Shkelzen Gashi - Designated Player, International

Nicolas Mezquida - International

Sam Nicholson - International

Jack Price - International

Dillon Serna - Homegrown Player

Forwards:

Matt Hundley - Homegrown Player

Niki Jackson

Kei Kamara

Diego Rubio

Andre Shinyashiki

Trialists:

Abe Rodriguez - Goalkeeper (Academy)
Sebastian Anderson - Defender (Academy)
Marcello Borges - Defender

Jacob Hauser-Ramsey - Defender
Kofi Opare - Defender
Oliver Larraz - Midfielder (Academy)

Robbie Mertz - Midfielder
Jordan Schweitzer - Midfielder
Enoch Mushagalusa - Forward