Final Player Notes Before Season Kickoff

Two pieces of roster news before the season gets rolling tomorrow.  First, the obvious news.  Calvert, Dykstra, Perez, and Vines were loaned to Charlotte yesterday.  The only surprise here was picking which 4 of our reserves would make the trip to the East Coast.  For a while everyone expected Wynne to be one of them, but the news that he has a green card and doesn't count as an international means we didn't need to move him to free up an international spot.

Also yesterday MLSSoccer.com reported that a new TAM striker signing is likely imminent.  This matches with some rumors that I've heard about a possible new player being around this weekend.  It sounds like this will be a significant striker signing but we won't be signing a 3rd DP this year.  We only have one international slot left so the only way to make two major signings is if one of them counts as a domestic and I haven't heard any rumors linking us to a domestic player.

Also one last note, Mason joined up with the team in Boston.  I don't expect him to be dressed tomorrow but with two weeks until our next game he could feature against KC.

New Shirt, New Player, But Still No Striker

Two announcements from the Rapids today.  First the 2018 home jersey was unveiled:

Pretty straight forward.  Paired with light blue shorts and the burgundy socks it will look good on the field.  If I needed a new jersey I'd be happy to pick this one up but right now I've got a few others in the queue, namely Blackburn's road jersey and a Swedish National Team jersey before the World Cup.

One interesting note, with this burgundy kit the Rapids will have played in burgundy for 12 seasons.  They played in the original green for 7 seasons and the black and blue for 4 seasons, which means as of this year we've played in burgundy for a majority of our existence.

The other announcement was a bit of surprise, we traded our 2020 2nd round draft pick to KC for goalkeeper Andrew Dykstra.  He's 32 year old journeyman keeper that's spent time with Chicago, DC, and KC, as well as some USL teams, with 34 MLS starts in his career.

I'm a little surprised at this move as I expected that draftee Thomas Olsen had the inside track on the 3rd keeper spot.  This means that either Olsen isn't working out, or that this is the first move in a plan to trade MacMath.  Dykstra could be a backup keeper, he's done that successfully in his career, and MacMath is a nice trading chip for a team looking for a big upgrade at striker.  I kind of hope that's the plan because if we're keeping both Howard and MacMath I'd rather we take a shot on Olsen or another young keeper that might develop over Dykstra, who will probably never play a game this season barring simultaneous injuries to MacMath and Howard.

Signed Players:
* = international
HG = homegrown
DP = designated player

GK Andrew Dykstra
GK Tm Howard - DP
GK Zac MacMath
D Edgar Castillo
D Kip Colvey
D Mike da Fonte
D Kortne Ford - HG
D Marlon Hairston
D Eric Miller
D Axel Sjoberg
D Tommy Smith*
D Jared Watts
D Danny Wilson*
D Deklan Wynne*
M Bismark Adjei-Boateng*
M Stefan Aigner*
M Michael Azira
M Johan Blomberg*
M Shkelzen Gashi* - DP
M Sam Hamilton
M Ricardo Perez - HG
M Jack Price*
M Dillon Serna - HG
F Dominique Badji*
F Caleb Calvert - HG
F Jack McBean

Unsigned Draftees:
GK Thomas Olsen
F Niki Jackson
F Alan Winn

Trialists:
D Joel Johnson
M Enzo Martinez