Ha Det Marko Ilic

The Rapids made the long-rumored loan of Marko Ilic to Sarpsborg 08 in Norway official today.  Ilic and Sarpsborg announced it earlier.  The loan is through July 17th but even if he doesn't stick there I don't expect to ever see him in a Rapids kit again.  Steffen is the clear starter and Beaudry is the heir apparent, there's just no future for Marko in Colorado.

Thus ends (probably) one of the worst transfer decisions in recent years, not just for the Rapids but for MLs as a whole.  Colorado went out and pursued signing an international keeper while having a quality MLS keeper already under contract.  They then paid a transfer fee that was a top 3 amount in club history at the time, while upsetting their current starter.  Ilic proceeded to then put up some of the worst advanced stats i for keepers in MLS last season (he was 65th by some measures).  Yarbrough and the Rapids clearly had to move on in the offseason, and we had to solve a keeping problem of our own making, leading to the signing of Steffen. 

This is up there with the likes of Stefan Aigner, Juan Ramirez, Daniel Amokachi, and Giles Gramindi in all-time bad signings by Colorado.  And unlike those other signings who were trying to fill a hole the team had, this was completely self-inflicted.

Combine Ilic with Gersbach, Tavares, and arguably Navarro and Maxso, and last year's scouting is an absolute disaster.  Ronan is the only player who is saving it from being a complte wash.  (Navarro and particularly Maxso still have time to come around, but so far they haven't lived up to their price tags)

Open Cup and Player News

For the second Friday in a row there's notable news from the Rapids that will delay my game preview.  First, lets start with the elephant in the room.

The Rapids first team will not be playing in the U.S. Open Cup this season.  If you haven't been following the drama around the USOC in the offseason MLS informed the U.S. Soccer Federation that they were withdrawing their teams from the Open Cup and replacing them with their MLS Next Pro teams (Rapids 2 and the rest).  The USSF said no.  Under the certification for the league granted by the USSF (and FIFA) they are required to participate in the USOC.  At first we thought that was that, but a couple of weeks ago it came out that MLS was still negotiating with the USSF.  The final decision came down today.  The teams playing in the CONCACAF Champions League will not play in the USOC.  The next best 8 teams in the 2023 standings will send their first teams (including defending champion Houston) to enter in the 4th round.  The rest will send their MLS Next Pro teams entering in the 1st round.  (DC doesn't have a MLS Next Pro team, so they won't be participating either)

This, to put it frankly, is hot garbage from the league.  They are claiming schedule congestion as a primary reason but in the end it comes down to money.  MLS and even USL teams largely lose money on this tournament.  Now that shouldn't be ignored, but the answer isn't withdrawal.  Its fair for MLS to say "hey, you have to run this tournament well enough that we're not taking a notable loss playing in it", but at the same time, MLS can afford to lose a little bit playing in the tournament for the good of the game.  Taking the ball and going home because you can make more money with the Leagues Cup is a horrible move.

When it comes to the Rapids, multiple outlets have reported that they were unhappy with the initial decision to leave the USOC and, presumably, are equally unhappy with the league's decision that only RapiDos will play in the competition.  For once the club is on the right side of something like this.  The roster rules for the Open Cup this season have not been published but we know that Rapids 1 players can be loaned to Rapids 2 on short-term deals.  It will be interesting to see if some first-team players end up playing for R2 during the Open Cup, especially if they progress to the point where they're playing USL Championship teams or the MLS first teams in the competition.

On to player news.  Tom Bogert is reporting tonight that there's a deal being made to send Marko Ilic on loan to Norwegian club Sarpsborg   When he didn't show up on the bench last Saturday I wondered if the club was trying to move him.  He's an expensive player to just be playing backup and with Steffen here (and Beaudry looking like the long-term future) that's all he would be.  I wouldn't be surprised if we don't see him in Colorado again.

Needless to say, this was a top-tier bad moves by the Rapids.  Having Yarbrough, Rodriguez, and Beaudry waiting in the wings they went out and spent time scouting a new goalkeeper, then paid a top 3 transfer fee in club history (at the time) to bring him in, only to find out he put up some of the worst advanced stats by keepers in MLS last season.  They then had to go out and sign Steffen to fill the hole they created (since Yarbrough had no willingness to stay after that move).  In a year plus one game we went from Yarbrough-Irwin-Rodriguez to Steffen-Beaudry-???.  Stability that is not.  A graduate-level class on how not to build a position.

The final bit of news is the Rapids 2 announced the extension of midfielder Daouda Amadou's contract for 2024 and 2025, but the interesting part is that he's guaranteed a first-team roster spot in 2025.  The club also has option years for 2026-28.  Amadou was a big part of the success of Rapids 2 last season, but as we've seen with Remi Cabral and Yosuke Hanya, the next step is generally a year in the Championship before moving to regular first team play.  We'll see if he goes on loan this season, or if he joins the first team next year and what he's able to contribute.

Ilic Still In Limbo, Much Like The Fans

Game preview coming later but this is sticking in my craw and I wanted to get it out.  Brendan Ploen of the Denver Post did the heavy lifting and got confirmation from the Rapids that Marko Ilic's loan has expired.  He also reports that the team is in negotiations with Kortrijk to bring him back on a permanent transfer.  There was an option to buy in the loan agreement that wasn't triggered so presumably the Rapids are interested in him but no at the number originally agreed on, so they're trying to do a deal at a lover number.  (As an aside, I can't remember a time when the Rapids exercised the buy close in a loan deal as opposed to renegotiating it to a lower number.  Good for business, but it makes me wonder what the point of those clauses are and if the Rapids have a "rep" now for not exercising them.)

I have thoughts on the idea of signing Ilic, and we'll get to them, but what really annoys me about this is that its another self-inflicted wound my the Rapids communication staff.  When the loan deal was announced the language the Rapids used was that he was on loan "through July".  At first that made sense, because that would allow him to play in the two Leagues Cup games at the end of the month.  But then Kortrijk's announcement of the deal stated it was through July 5th, the opening of the MLS transfer window.  That made a lot less sense given the lack of game time he would likely get.  Because of that there were two different dates floating around that even informed outlets like Burgundy Wave were confused by.

Why?  What was the point of a generic "through July" language in the announcement?  Did the Rapids think they were going to confuse Dallas, Houston, Nashville, and Toluca (our July opponents after the 4th) by them not knowing who might be in goal?  Does anyone really think that MLS teams care that much which keeper is playing for the Rapids?  And any benefit would be fleeting, when Ilic wasn't on the gameday roster for Dallas tomorrow it was going to be clear why.  Were they just lazy and assumed nobody would care about the end of the loan?  To be fair, very few people probably do, but those that do, like Burgundy Wave, Juanners, Holding the High Line (and me), are the type of fans and media you want to keep engaged and trusting the team.  Instead once again we're talking about the team being super-secretive with everything.  That's not how you build a fanbase.

Media and bloggers were told in the offseason that the club was going to be better about this sort of information.  Instead its the same fuzzy information we've dealt with for years on everything from injuries to contract lengths to callup timing.  It continues to be difficult to take the club seriously when they continue to run their communications like its amateur hour.

Welcome Marko Ilic!

The Rapids made the loan for Serbian keeper Marko Ilic official today, announcing his joining of the team KV Kortrijk.  The official announcement says he's joining "throigh July 2023" with an option to buy.  The announcement from his Belgium side is a bit more specific, the loan is through July 5th.

Once again a Rapids player press release has misleading or incorrect information.  "Through July" would suggest until July 31st or at least close to that, not through 4 days of July.  I had heard word that the Rapids were working on improving these issues, but I guess not.

Only having him until July is a bit odd.  Yesterday we talked about how if he stayed until the window closed on or around September 1st he would be the obvious starter for the Leagues Cup matches.  Even staying until the end of July would get him the Leagues Cup group games.  Now the only time I'm sure he'll get is our opening U.S. Open Cup match, which given the team's track record in the competition is likely to be our only USOC match.  Otherwise Ilic is going to have to beat our Yarbrough for playing time or Fraser will have to decide that giving Marko time over Will is worth it for long-term strategy even if it reduces our chance of winning that game.  A hard place to be in when you only have him available for 22 league matches before having to make a decision.

With this move you have to figure Colorado is largely done for the offseason.  We could see a late trade involving an international slot or maybe a swap of non-starting XI players but I think our big moves are likely done at this point.

New Keeper Incoming? & Preseason Results

I was going to dedicate this post to catching up on a couple of preseason results but we've got some player news tonight to get to first.  Brendan Ploen of the Post is reporting that a loan agreement has been reached with goalkeeper Marko Ilic and his Belgian side K.V. Kortrijk to loan Ilic in until the summer transfer window, with an option to buy him outright then.

This is an interesting move in the vein of other loan-to-buys like Esteves, Namli, and even Yarbrough originally.  The only oddity is the short length.  Depending on when exactly "in the summer" is, the loan could be for as short as 18 games (if its until the summer window opens in Belgium) to as long as 26 games plus at least 2 Leagues Cup games (if its until the close of the window in Belgium).  That's generally long enough to get a good read on a field player where you can get him in for some minutes even as a sub but its much harder to do for a goalkeeper that needs to unseat an incumbent just to get playing time.  There will also be at least one Open Cup match during the loan.  If he's her through the end of the window you have to figure he's getting any USOC and Leagues Cup matches at minimum.  More on this if/when it becomes official and we have more details.

Also, relevant to this, Colorado's second round pick GK Oliver Semmle signed with Louisville City FC today, as expected it appears he didn't get an offer from the Rapids.

So now, on to the first couple of preseason matches in Orlando.  On Saturday the Rapids faced off against the home team in their first game against MLS competition this year.  The starting XI looked like (best guess on formation):

Yarbrough

Rosenberry - Abubakar - Wilson - Beitashour

Price

Bassett - Ronan

Nicholson - Rubio - Barrios

Most of that group went 75 minutes and played a scoreless draw in the first half.  At half Price and Ronan came off for Acosta and Priso.  All the action happened after the break as right out of the locker room Barrios set up Bassett to take the lead, and Rubio doubled it on a PK he earned about 7 minutes later.  Orlando would get one back before the Colorado made full-scale subs:

Rodriguez

Anderson - Bombito - Edwards - Markanich

Priso

Bassett - Harris

Galvan - Yapi - Cabral

This group gave up a goal to end the game in a draw.

Then yesterday the burgundy boys took on USL side Miami FC.  The big news in the starting XI was the first minutes for Gersbach and Maxsø:

Rodriguez

Anderson - Bombito - Maxsø - Gersbach

Priso

Acosta - Max

Galvan - Yapi - Cabral

This group gave up a goal in just 8 minutes, which hurts, but bounced right back with Max and Priso combining to set up Cabral for the tying goal.  Colorado had chances but couldn't break the deadlock in the first half.  At the break Yarbrough replaced Rodriguez, Markanich replaced Gersbach, and Harris replaced...somebody.  Then in the 60th minute the remaining 8 players were swapped out leaving an XI of:

Yarbrough

Rosenberry - Abubakar - Wilson - Markanich

Bassett

Ronan - Harris

Nicholson - Rubio - Barrios

This group would take the lead on a Rubio goal from a Nicholson cross with less than 15 minutes to go.  Markanich would get one 3 minutes later off a rebound of his own shot from a Ronan cross.

Colorado will play Philly on Saturday in their last preseason friendly before the season opener next Sunday in Seattle.