Season Review - Defenders

Continuing our review with the guys in the back.

Kosuke Kimura - A contender for the most improved player in 2010 and the clear winner for the most passionate player on the team. Koz did not get off to a good start this season, almost immediately being replaced in the starting xI when Wynne was acquired and having a string of average-to-poor games that really kept him from reclaiming the starting spot. Kimura didn't let this get him down though, and he continued to work and improve. When Baudet started having serious injury issues and Danny Earls was proving not to be the answer at left back, the door was open for Kimura to return to the starting lineup and he stepped through it. He had the biggest goal of his career (and one of the biggest in the team's history) in the Eastern Conference Final when cross turned into a shot and the only goal in the 1-0 win.

At this point Koz has the right back spot locked down. He can get up the line and into the attack when called on, but doesn't let his defensive assignments lapse. He might be the most pesky defender we have, as he'll challenge again and again until he wins the ball or is completely beaten. His biggest weakness is his distribution, even on a good day his passing is only average and he's not one that's likely to jump start an attack. Koz is the visible soul of the team on the field, pumping the crowd up and giving 100% every minute of every game.

Drew Moor - My vote for defensive MVP this year, Moor played every minute of every regular season game, every minute of every playoff game, and all but one half of the 2 USOC qualifiers. That's right, in 3300 minutes of competitive soccer for the Rapids this season, Drew Moor played 3255 minutes of it. He deserves every minute of his vacation. He had one goal, but it was a big one, scoring late in the home game against Columbus while the Rapids were playing down a man to give Colorado a 1-0 win.

Moor is a solid, quiet, center back. He doesn't make big plays very often because he doesn't need to. He knows his position and where he needs to be, and he simply does it. One thing I'd like him to do next year is become the leader of the backline. Our backline's ages right now are 26-24-26-21, so we need a calm organizer back there. Moor seems like the logical choice.

Scott Palguta - Palguta spent much of 2009 as the fill in starter, and probably expected to have that role coming into 2010. up until the day before the season started it looked like that would be the case, but the trade for Wynne just before the opening game changed the hierarchy. Palguta was now the 6th defender instead of the 5th. Scott only started 5 games and only appeared in about half the games and didn't play in the playoffs. Still he was there when called on, and with our recent moves he's moved back to that 5th spot. As long as he's satisfied being the first defender off the bench instead of starting, the Rapids should be happy to have him.

Anthony Wallace - One of the numerous late-season additions to the squad, once Wallace was up to speed he immediately found his place at left back. As the youngest player on the squad other than homegrown player Davy Armstrong he had to learn on the fly, and while he was inconsistent at times you could tell he was getting good lessons. His biggest difficulty seemed to be regaining his position after his forward runs. There were multiple times where players were able to get in behind him or were left without pressure to serve a ball into a box. The most dramatic example of this was the Dallas goal in MLS Cup.

The Rapids showed their commitment to Wallace on the day of the expansion draft, having already arranged a deal with Portland to have Anthony selected and traded back to Colorado in exchange for allocation money. I think it safe to say that he's expected to be the starting left back come March. In order to keep that spot he's going to need to improve his positioning and awareness to force the opposition back inside into the waiting arms of Drew Moor. He'll also be expected to contribute more to the offense, but that goal should be secondary to locking down the defense.

Marvell Wynne - Certainly the biggest surprise of the season, both his acquisition and subsequent play. Nobody saw Nick LaBrocca being traded for Marvell on the day before the season started, and the reaction form the Toronto fans was that he was a fast guy without a real good soccer brain. Well apparently Gary smith saw something they didn't. expected to be our right back he moved to center defender early on and excelled. He easily took Julian Baudet's starting job from him when Baudet was nicked up, and suddenly the Rapids had a central player who could push forward to support the attack while also being able to cover his defensive assignments. combined with Drew Moor they became one of the better central duos in the league.

Wynne just signed a new multi-year contract with the Rapids, so we should expect to see him starting for a long time. At 24 he still has things to learn, and right now his speed makes up for his lack of experience. sooner or later Wynne will need to improve his positioning and stop relying on his speed to get him out of trouble. For now though, he might be the fastest player int he league in a flat-out sprint and attackers are still surprised to find out that they don't really have him beat. That should keep things interesting for the near future.

Julian Baudet & Danny Earls - Both players put in good efforts for the Rapids this year. Earls was clearly surplus though once Wallace was acquired. Baudet would be nice to have for depth. The drawback to both of them, being international players, was too great to carry into the expansion draft though and they needed to be moved. This hurt us though, now we only have 5 defenders on the roster. There will be work to be done in the off-season to rebuild or depth in the back.

Expansion Draft Causes Trade

Full MLS Cup review coming later tonight, but I wanted to get this news posted.

On Wednesday Portland and Vancouver will have their expansion draft. They'll each get 10 picks from the current MLS rosters. Teams are allowed to protect 11 players, plus after a player gets picked they can protect one more. No team can lose more than two players. Teams must protect 3 internationals unless they have 3 or less, then they must protect all but 1.

At the end of last night's game the Rapids had 4 internationals. Baudet, Earls, Lopez, and Smith. Protecting 3 of them would have required us to leave sombody like Matt Pickens or Mac Kandji unprotected. To deal with this the Rapids amde a trade this afternoon. They sent Julian Baudet and Danny Earls to Seattle for Pete Vagenas. This move was purely to get our number of internationals doen, I doubt that the coaching staff even really cares that much about what Vagenas can bring to the team.

That allowed the Rapids to protect the following players:
Conor Casey
Omar Cummings
Mac Kandji
Kosuke Kimura
Jeff Larentowicz
Pablo Mastroeni
Drew Moor
Brian Mullan
Matt Pickens
Jamie Smith
Marvell Wynne

Anthony Wallace was the only starter last night unprotected. I'm guessing the coaching staff is hoping that Vancouver or Portland will go over Wells Thompson or Scott Palguta and they can use that extra protection slot on Wallace.

Rapids Get Trio of Reinforcements

The Denver Post is reporting that along with French defender Julian Baudet, the Rapids have also signed Argentine striker Facundo Diz and Scottish right-winger Jamie Smith. Diz would obviously give us much needed depth up front, while Smith seems to be a replacement for Terry Cooke who has reportedly been asked, and agreed, to not have his contract guaranteed until September instead of on the July 1st date all other MLS contracts are guaranteed on. Smith is reportedly a winger who likes to cut inside and go to goal, so a right-sided version of Colin Clark. As we all know, Cooke likes to stay outside and whip crosses in, so its obviously a shift in playing styles. I'm not sure if replacing Cooke is a great idea, but maybe Smith is an upgrade.

Baudet official, finally

In news that surprises nobody, the Rapids officially announced the signing of French defender Julian Baudet today. He fills the roster spot created when Gregory Richardson was waived last week. Richardson wasn't getting any playing time and reportedly had some attitude issues, so this has to be seen as an upgrade. Baudet will be able to play once the official transfer window opens on July 15th, which means the earliest we'll see him is the game in DC on July 18th.

As a center back it raises the question of who goes to the bench so he can play. Right now I would say Gibbs. I think Palguta has shown great improvement and has been pretty solid the last couple of games, while Gibbs still seems to be less than 100% committed at times.

Ivan Guerrero: Contract Terminated

The Rapids have just issued a press release:

The Colorado Rapids announced today that a mutual agreement with defender/midfielder Ivan Guerrero has been reached that will terminate his contract with the team.

Obviously a player that didn't fit into Gary Smith's system, since he saw no playing time in the league this year. Its been long rumored that he was in talks with a team in his native Honduras, so I assume he'll be heading back there now. This opens a roster position for Julian Baudet, and Guerrero's $154K almost covers the $175L salary of Pat Noonan.

The guaranteed contract date is July 1st, so I expect we'll see another move or two before then.

Rapids News and Notes 6/4

A little reminder of what we're playing for on Saturday!

• National Team loses 3-1 to Costa Rica

Embarrassing. I'm torn between firing Bradley now and improving our chances, or keeping Bradley so the team goes down hard and the USSF learns a lesson.

• Pablo called up for the Nats

Given the way he played last night, this may be his last callup. I expect he'll start on Saturday due to suspensions and injuries in midfield, but that might be it for him with the "A" squad.

• Conor Casey called up for the Nats

This was just announced on tonight's ESPN MLS Game of the Week and on the U.S. Nats Blog. Brina Ching has re-aggravated his hamstring and they may need Casey for cover. His use will be based on how Ching is doing, but I think we should assume we won't have him for the Rocky Mountain Cup match this week. Casey deserves this callup, he's been playing great this year, but the timing couldn't be worse for the Rapids with a huge road match on Saturday.

• Bouna Time! in Philly?

Apparently there are rumors that Nowak might make Bouna Coundoul his first signing as Philly manager. I hope so, Bouna's a good MLS keeper and only his idiot agent kept him from signing with the Rapids this season. Somehow I don't think training in Finland is what Bouna was thinking when he was told he could do better in Europe. The Rapids still own his rights, so Philly will have to give us a draft pick or two if they want to sign him.

• Ciaran O'Brien on loan for the USL season

O'Brien is playing for the Austin Aztex of USL-1 for the rest of the USL season. That's a good way to get a young player som playing time now that the reserve league is gone. It hurts our depth on the wings a bit, but I don't think O'Brien was going to get significant playing time with the Rapids.

• Ivan Guerrero to Honduras?

There's been a rumor for a couple of months that Guererro was going to transfer back home to Honduras. The newest report has him in Honduras for his physical for his new team. Guerrero is a left sided player, and Harvey and Clark have been the only two Rapids to play every minute of every game this year, so he was finding it hard to get into the first team. With a cap hit of $145K that's a lot of money to warm the bench. It also frees up a roster spot for Julian Baudet. Theoretically if Guerrero wants to go the Honduran side would have to pay a transfer fee, but the Rapids are probably just happy to have his salary off the books so I expect them to free transfer him or ask for a very small amount of money.

• Julian Baudet signed by the Rapids?

The most recent report out of England mentioned quote Baudet as having signed with the Rapids, while all previous reports said he would sign. Still no official word from the Rapids or the league. Assuming this happens I find it a better move than I did originally. Our defense has shown that it can't keep mental focus for 90 minutes, so maybe somebody with experience in the pressure cooker of English football and a team captain can come in and settle the back line down. We still need some depth up front, but Baudet might be an asset.

Julian Baudet to the Rapids?

Sorry, work and a dentist appt. kept me from many updates this week. No Weekend Roundup (It was a bad week for Blackburn anyway), but a game preview will be up tonight.

Well it appears that the rumors from last month are true. The BBC is reporting that Crewe captain central defender Julian Baudet has signed with the Rapids. Since the transfer window closed on Wednesday I'm guessing that he won't join the team until the transfer window this summer. At the Supporter's Kick Off party Assistant Coach Steve Guppy mentioned that he had to get up early the next morning to call a player in England about a deal, I'm guessing that ti was Baudet.

We'll have to see how much he's getting paid and is we're using an allocation on him or not before I can really judge this move, but my first instinct is that this might be overkill for a position we're pretty deep at. Gibbs, Ihemelu, Harden, Palguta, Pablo, and Dalby can all play center back at an MLS level, so adding one more really doesn't help us much while other positions (like attacking midfielder) are still a black hole.

Giles Grimandi Part Deux?

Sky Sports is reporting that the Rapids have offered Frenchman Julien Baudet a 2-year contract. He's a central defender currently playing with Crewe Alexandra in England's League One, which is the third division in England.

I don't see this as a strong move for the Rapids, if true. A player that can't get out of League One when most MLS players that go to England end up in either the Premiership or the Championship is an indicator that he's average MLS quality at best. Not only that its paying for a player where we have lots of depth. Right now we have 3 dedicated central backs in Ihemelu, Gibbs, and Harden, plus two defensive mids that have spent time on the back line in Pablo and Dalby.

If we're going to make a big signing like this it needs to be further up the field at either central mid or striker.

And for your Rapids history lesson this week, Giles Grimandi was a French center back and midfielder who signed for the Rapids in 2003, only to leave the team before the start of the season. The reported reason was that he faced abuse from Denver citizens (this was the height of the anti-French "Freedom Fries" movement in the U.S.) but rumors were that he and head coach Tim Hankinson never saw eye to eye, to the point where Grimandi was left to do his own training instead of working with the team.