All-Star Game May Be Coming But Klute Is Gone

A couple of big new announcements this afternoon.  The off-field one first, then we'll get to the big story.

Soccer By Ives writer Franco Panizo tweeted this a few hours ago:

MLS has announced that Don Garber will join Colorado Rapids' Josh Kroenke in downtown Denver next Wed. for an "important announcement".

Followed by:

Those attending: Garber, Kroenke, Mastroeni, Lt Governor Joseph Garcia, Mayor of Commerce City Sean Ford, CEO of Visit Denver Richard Scharf

That combination of Commissioner, owner, coach, politicians, and city PR almost certainly means that Colorado is getting the All-Star Game this summer.  The only other thing that I could think would be the combine + draft next year, but why would you hold the combine in Denver in January?

This is an odd time for the Rapids to get the All-Star Game.  Its only been 8 years since we hosted the game against Celtic and with Orlando and NYCFC entering the league and San Jose opening a new stadium those would all be more logical choices.  The only thing that makes sense to me is that the opponent for the All-Stars this year will be Arsenal, which is owned by Kroenke, and the deal KSE hammered out with MLS was that Arsenal would come over and play the game, but only if they played it in Kroenke's stadium in Denver.  More information on Wednesday but if I were asked to bet I'd put money on the announcement being the ASG at the Dick against Arsenal.

The second bit of news was much less enjoyable.  During yesterday's draft the Rapids traded with the Crew to move up from #19 to #14 and in return the Crew got the #19 pick and "future considerations".  It turns out those future considerations were announced today as Chris Klute.  It was also revealed (after a few minutes of confusion and 3 different sources reporting 3 different version of the deal) that the Raids also got "significant" (according to the Rapids) allocation money as part of the deal.

This is a lousy trade.  I know Axel Sjoberg (who I'm going to start calling Axel Foley I think) was well regarded but there's only two ways this trade makes any sense.  He's going to have to become a starter by midseason or we're going to find out Klute had a huge escalation clause in his contract (similar to Omar Cummings between 2011 and 2012).  Otherwise this is a bad trade no matter how you look at it.  Yes, a chunk (or all) of that allocation money probably went to LA in the deal that got us Sarvas that still doesn't make it a good move.  I find it hard to believe Klute wasn't worth more than a Superdraft pick and allocation money.  This is a guy who a year ago was on the firnges of the National team.  I think we're going to regret this move.

So here's our roster at the moment (* = international).

Goalkeepers:
John Berner
Clint Irwin
Zac MacMath

Defenders:
Marc Burch
Bobby Burling
Joseph Greenspan (on Naval duty through 2017 probably)
Michael Harrington
Zat Knight* (unsigned)
Drew Moor
John Neeskens
Shane O'Neill
Alex Sjoberg* (unsigned)

Midfielders:
Marlon Hairston
Nick LaBrocca (unsigned)
Dillon Powers
Marcelo Sarvas*
Dillon Serna
Jared Watts

Forwards:
Deshorn Brown*
Caleb Calvert
Charles Eloundou*
Vicente Sanchez*
Gabriel Torres*

That's 20 signed players and 3 more likely to sign.  If they do we'll have 7 of our 8 international spots filled.  I'm sure Greenspan won't count against our roster/salary cap while with the Navy.  Suddenly we're deep at CB and weak on the flanks, we're going to have to find at least one more outside back I think.  We still need either a full-strength Torres or a difference-maker up front and a lot of depth in the midfield.

Iwrin, Klute Signed To New Contracts

I'm feeling pretty bad tonight so my game preview will be delayed until morning (hopefully by then).  I did want to get this good news posted.  Colorado has put that free cap space after Pickens' departure to good use, signing goalkeeper Clint Irwin and defender Chris Klute to new contracts today.  Assuming they're teh standard MLS contract that will keep them with the Rapids through 2017.  Great to see our young stars getting rewarded and the FO taking care of this early.

Busy News And Rumors Day

Lots of news, lots of rumors.  We'll start with what has been reported.

• Wilmer Cabrera is hired as the new Chivas USA coach

No real surprise after the rumors of the last two days.  It does knock one name off the likely coaching list for the Rapids.

• Red Bull NY has not been asked about Fraser

A bit of a surprise since Fraser seemed to be the early leader for the Rapids job in rumors.  Take another one off the list.

• Colorado hires John Metgod as consultant

This one is more than a bit odd and came out of left field.  Rumors have him working with a future USL team that will be the Rapids affiliate, and possibly partly-owned by them.  Looking at his resume though, he'd make a good head coaching candidate.  Regardless, a good mind to have helping the Rapids.

Now on to the rumors, some of them stronger than the others:

• Jamie Smith hired as Academy coach 

This one seems the strongest of the rumors, with multiple people who know Smith confirming it.  A good move for a guy who was probably going to retire.

• Mullan to be re-signed as player/coach

Reportedly MLS has made a new player designation in recent years for veteran players transitioning to coaching where not all their salary counts against the cap.  Smith was supposed to be in that role last season but something happened, and Mullan will take it this season.  Great way to bring back and experienced vet.

• Pareja's buyout (which was in his contract) could be announced as soon as tomorrow.  The Rapids will get cash, allocation money, and a first round pick probably in next year's draft.

Solid, if not spectacular, package for all of this.  Reportedly the Rapids will turn some of that allocation money around to bring in some players on loan.  They may be using some of the cash for Metgod as well.

And a story I missed covering in the holiday last week, but Chris Klute and Shane O'Neill got callups to the January US National Team camp, and Dillon Powers was also called up but sadly had to pass due to ongoing concussion issues.  Scary to think that he's still dealing with the issue at this point, especially after Pablo's issues in 2012.  Hopefully he gets better soon.  Great to see 3 young Rapids getting the callup though, things are looking up on that front.

Re-Entry Draft Phase 2 And Off-Season Training

The Rapids passed in today's Phase 2 of the Re-Entry Draft.  Also none of the Rapids trio of Ceus, Mullan, and Smith were picked in the Re-Entry Draft, so they are are all essentially free agents.  I would expect Mullan to come back to the Rapids in some capacity (player, coach, or player/coach) and possibly Smith the same way as well.  Ceus' time in Colorado, and probably MLS for now, is done.

Meanwhile a quartet of young Rapids are in England for some off-season training.  Chris Klute,, Clint Irwin, and Dillon Serna are training with Everton through Sunday, while Shane O'Neill is training with Fulham for a couple of weeks.  None of these are trials or loans, but any player training with another team is always being watched.  I wouldn't expect anything to come out of these trips but it does lay some possible groundwork for future years, especially in O'Neill's case.

The next big date on the off-season calendar is January 16th for the Superdraft in Philly.  Around that time the veterans will also be reporting to Commerce City for preseason physicals and fitness.

Rapids Buy Klute, Leave For ABQ

Two pieces of news today, one big.  Colorado has bought out Chris Klute's loan now that the transfer window has opened, making him a full member of the Rapids.  Great move by the team, Klute has a chance to be a mainstay at left back for the next few years.  He's also being talked about as a possible Nats team call up.  If it happens it will probably be for Camp Strudel in January, though my bet is that he doesn't get a sniff until after the 2014 World Cup.

17 players also left today for Albuquerque to face Santos Laguna in the friendly tomorrow night.  The group that went includes Pickens, Ceus, Mera, O'Neill, Mullan, Wynne, Armstrong, Griffiths, Serna, Harbottle, LaBrocca, Wallace, Smith, Castrillon, Mwanga, Hill, and Cascio.  Kory Kindle would have made the trip as well except he picked up a knock in training yesterday and was kept in Denver to recover.  Dave Dir and Paul Caffrey remained in Denver to handle training sessions with the players that didn't travel while Pareja too assistants Steve Cooke and Chris Sharpe with him to ABQ.  Wilmer Cabrera is still in Turkey at the U-20 World Cup.

Unfortunately there will be no streaming options for the friendly tomorrow, the only way to follow it will probably be Twitter updates.

MLS Silly Season Starts

Well the MLS trading season opened today, and it opened with a bang.  Kimura ends up in NY, FSL guts their team, and apparently everyone wants Portland players.  Colorado got in on some action as well.

• The Rapids extended the international spot they traded Vancouver last offseason from 2014 through 2016 in return for Atiba Harris.

Ugh.  Harris is a 27 year old St. Kitts and Nevis striker who's bounced around the league for 7 seasons and 4 teams.  He has a green card so he doesn't take up an international spot.  In 138 appearances (107 starts) he has 17 goals, 19 assists, 40 yellow cards, and 2 red cards.  You read that right, he has more cards than he has goals and assists.  To compare, Casey had 121 appearances, 101 starts, 50 goals, 16 assists, 29 yellow cards, and 2 red.

He made $160K last year and you have to assume he'll get a similar number in 2013.  To me, this was a bad move.  Harris is nothing more than a backup you bring in when you need to get physical.  He's overpaid at $160K, and burning an international slot, even one in 3 years, is a waste.

• Colorado declines options on defenders Hunter Freeman and Marvell Wynne and midfielder Jamie Smith, they are re-negotiating with all 3.

Big roll of the dice here.  Players have until Thursday night to remove their names from Friday's Re-Entry Draft.  If they don't any team can pick them up for the amount of their current option.  I can't imagine somebody wouldn't jump all over Wynne is he's available so the Rapids must be pretty confident that they'll be close enough to a deal in the next 72 hours that Wynne won't be exposed.  I don't see Smith or Freeman being picked at their current number, so they have an extra week to get deals done with them before the 2nd half of the Re-Entry Draft, where teams can claim players and offer them new lower deals.

At the moment the Rapids only have 3 defenders under contract for next season.  Drew Moor, Anthony Wallace (who's played a total of 10 games in the last two seasons), and Chris Klute (who's on loan from Atlanta until late September).  That's not good.

Rapids Get Chris Klute On Loan From Atlanta

Its halftime, 1-0 LA.  If you aren't watching you aren't missing much.  At the beginning fo the game the broadcast announced that the Rapids had loaned defender Chris Klute from the NASL Atlanta Silverbacks for a year.  He can play right or center back.  Klute played for the U.S. U-17s in the 2007 U-17 World Cup and has played twice for the U-20s.  He starred at Furman University and Clayton State University before signing with Atlanta in June, playing every minute since then.  he's originally from Grand Prarie, TX and played in the Dallas Texans youth program.

Given his connections to Dallas youth soccer and the U-17 team, safe to say this is a player that Pareja and/or Cabrera have had their eyes on for a while.