Pablo Dealing With Post-Concussion/Emory Released

Two pieces of news out of Commerce City today.

• Mastroeni is experiencing post-concussion -like symptoms and has been held out of practice the last two days. 

Obviously this is not a good sign.  Kyle Martino reported during Sunday's game that Pablo felt he was one bad concussion away from retirement, and now he's having post-concussion symptoms 10 days after suffering a head knock against Columbus.  What's important now is that our captain get the rest and recovery time he needs to b e sure he's 100%, then he can worry about playing again.

There's been the feeling floating around that Mastroeni was getting close to retirement, and his contract is up at the end of the season.  With the news we've gotten this week I feel like 2012 will be his last year.  I'm sure Oscar Pareja will be more than happy to bring him on as a coach after retirement (Mastroeni spent this past offseason upgrading his USSF coaching license) as that's what Dallas did for him when he retired.

Get  better Pablo, if you're able to play there will always be a spot for you in Colorado.

• Steven Emory was released today

This was a bit of a surprise, as he was released at the end of the 2011 season and then signed to a new contract.  I would assume that this is a move to clear some salary space for one of the trialists to join the team, otherwise there's really no need to make this move right now.  With Wallace on the season-ending injury list we had an open roster spot (and with Smith on the long-term IR we actually have two spots until Smith is healthy) so it wasn't a move for that reason.

Rapids Re-Sign Emory

Colorado announced that they've re-signed Steven Emory to a new contract today. They also announced that Miguel Comminges, Danny Earls, and Michael Holody will not be returning to the team this season. This gives the Rapids 27 players under contract and the rights to 3 players from the recent drafts.

Rapids News and Notes - December 3rd 2011

Sorry I went AWOL on everyone (which I'm guessing is about 5 readers at this point in the offseason ;)) for a few days, stomach flu sucks. A couple of interesting news items came out this week.

• Colorado declined the options on Miguel Comminges, Danny Earls, Steven Emory, and Michael Holody.

Holody's 3 years of service means he's eligible to be selected by other MLS teams in next week's re-entry drafts. The other 3 are either have to work out new deals with the Rapids or hope they can get a team to trade for their rights. The only real surprise here is Comminges. I thought he played fairly well in his time here, but Colorado doesn't seem interested in keeping him. My only guess is that he had a significant salary escalation clause if his option was picked up and the Rapids want him, but not at the higher price. Declining the option gives Colorado the chance of renegotiating now.

The other oddity was protecting Danny Earls in the expansion draft but then not picking up his option. Maybe the Rapids were really hoping that Montreal would take Folan or Comminges with their current contracts and wanted to leave them exposed, which would have required them to protect Earls as one of the only three remaining internationals.

• The Denver Post reported that Colorado had a 4th coaching candidate in Commerce City for face-to-face interviews on Wednesday.

I'm glad to see things are moving quickly out at the Dick. It sounds like the team is hoping to have somebody in place before things start shutting down for the holidays. According to the Rapids the one thing all 4 candidates so far have in common is that they all have head or assistant coaching experience in MLS. Everyone seems pretty sure that 3 of the candidates are Curt Onalfo, Denis Hamlett, and Steve Ralston. My choice out of those 3 would probably be Hamlett, and I would hate to see Onalfo become the guy. I'm hoping the 4th one is a bit of a wild card like Steve Morrow or Cobi Jones but the heavy favorite seems to be Richie Williams.

Preseason starts!

The team reported to Commerce City yesterday for the official start of pre-season. The first few days are physicals and fitness tests, including concussion tests. They'll hit the fields for the first time on Thursday.

The Rapids open camp with a 23 man roster and 4 draft picks. Rosters this year are 30 players, but there are restrictions on the salaries and availability of spots 21-30. I'll get into that in more detail in a future post. To help full the last 3 spots and compete with the draftees Colorado held open tryouts over the weekend. A few players caught the coaches eye, but the only player currently in camp is Metro State's Steven Emory. He's a midfielder who previously played in the Rapids Academy in 2007.

The other bit of Rapids news is that 3 Colorado players got to put on the National team jersey for the game against Chile on Saturday. I didn't get a chance to watch the game, but going from reports it seems that Jeff Larentowicz was one of the bright spots for the Nats, playing a full 90. Marvell Wynne was probably the player most at fault on the Chilean goal, but it seems that the defending was a disaster across the board on the play. Anthony Wallace got 18 minutes at the end of the game, and impressed in what little time he had. Matt Pickens, the 4th Rapids player in camp, did not get picked for the game day squad. This is the 4th time he's been to a Nats camp and the 4th time he's failed to make the game-day squad. The last American #1 keeper the Rapids had, Joe Cannon, faced similar difficulties.