Half A Game, But New Players

On Monday I gave it a 50/50 chance that last night's game would be played, and they played 50% of the game.  So I'm counting that as an accurate prediction.  After a 2 hour delay to start the game and a 90 minute delay at halftime they finally called the game and the second half will be rescheduled for a later date.  

The teams will start just like they were coming out of the locker room last night, with the same XI on the field for both sides.  If, between now and then, one of the players on the field is no longer available when the game restarts either due to injury or being transferred, they can be replaced with one of the players on the bench last night and that won't count as one of the subs/sub windows for the game.  If one of the bench players last night is unavailable then they can be replaced by anyone who was on the roster as of last night (so nobody who gets added to the roster now that the window is open).  The key is that a player who was not in the gameday roster (like say Rubio or Lewis) can not take the place of one of the XI in the game who's unavailable (there is an exception to this rule for goalkeepers if a team doesn't have any keepers who were in the gameday squad available).  The only way a player who wasn't in the squad last night could get into the game is to have somebody on the bench be unavailable when the game is rescheduled, have them be replaced by a player, and then use one of the game subs to bring them into the game.

As for the half that did get played, it was fairly lousy soccer.  The wet conditions and the general poor level of the teams led to a game where neither side could get extended possession, but if one team looked better than the other, the Rapids had that edge.

We have no game to talk about, but we do have roster moves.  The transfer window officially opened this morning and Colorado has already added two players and has a thirds in limbo.  The big move was trading for Andrew Gutman from Atlanta.  Colorado traded $300K in GAM this year, $100K in GAM next, year, and an international slot through the end of this season.  There's another $150K in gAM that could go to Atlanta depending on Gutman's play.

Gutman is a 26-year old left back with a very attacking mindset.  He already has 3 goals and 5 assists this season.  He's taken a rather confusing career, skipping MLS to go to Europe and being signed by Celtic only to be immediately loaned back to the U.S., first with USL's Charlotte Independence and then to FC Cincinnati, he was then picked by Atlanta in the Re-Entry draft and bought from Celtic without ever playing for them.  Atlanta immediately loaned him to RBNY for the 2021 season before he came back and played for Atlanta in 2022 and this year.

His drawback, which is a little concerning in a defender, is that his defense has not been good this season.  So he's similar to Lucas Esteves, though lets hope better on offense and not as bad on defense.  I expect we're going to see a pretty standard 5-man back line with Gutman attacking up the left and Rosenberry or Nicholson (or Galvan?) attacking up the right.  For the price this is a solid pickup by the Rapids, it should solve the left back problem in a way Gersbach clearly didn't, and at 26 Gutman can play in MLS and is under contract through next season.

The other move the Rapids made is signing Costan Rican national-team defender Daniel Chacon from Rapids 2 to the full squad, and then they loaned him to Costa Rican side Alajuelense until the end of the season.  So no help there until 2024 (he's signed through 2025).  Rapids 2 signed Chacon last summer and immediately loaned him back to his then Costa Rican side so he could compete for a spot at the World Cup, which he got and made one appearance.  He made 3 appearances for Rapids 2 this season, while battling injury.  This is starting to smell a bit like we're trying to flip him for cash sooner rather than later, I'd be surprised if he ever makes a significant impact with the first team.

The player in limbo is goalkeeper Marko Ilic.  His loan from Kortrijk was reported by the Rapids as "through July" but by Kortrijk as "through July 5".  Which means he might, technically, not be a Rapids player anymore as of the window opening.  Colorado included an option to buy in the loan deal, but there's been no report of them exercising the clause.  Of course, there's been no report that he's left either.  I figure we'll know around 6:45pm on Saturday at the latest, when the gameday squad for the Dallas game drops.  If he's on it then the Rapids bought him or negotiated an extension to the loan (or his team had the date wrong).  If he's not he's probably headed back to Belgium.