Weekly Recap

After a bout with whatever bug is going around I'm back.  Let's recap what's happened since Monday.

• We got allocation money for the rights to Maynor Figueroa

Nice job by the FO on this one.  I figured when we declined his option that he just waled away.  Getting allocation money for him means we made a real offer to bring him back and he declined it.  Unless we found out he took $125K from Dallas or something this was the right move by the FO.

• Ramirez loaned to UD Almeria for 6 months

Again another good move by the Front Office.  If Ramirez is having problems adjusting as reported then this is probably the best way to get value for him.  There's no way a team like Almeria is going to pay the reported $2 million that we paid for Ramirez right now.  This gives him 6 months to earn that kind of transfer fee from Spain and if it doesn't work then we get him back with another chance to make it work for us.

• Top Drawer Soccer hammers the Rapids offseason

Can't say this is at all unfair.  Its up to the FO to do something soon to turn it around.

• Cristian Canga not coming

That appeared to be a passing rumor.  Its since been replaced with...

• Rapids linked with T&T fullback Mikeil Williams

Well, at least we're targeting the right position, though I don't think we can rely on a guy struggling to get playing time in Central America to be a starter in 5 weeks.

• Pulido's good play in Greece making a deal less likely

There was even a tweet that Pulido himself had turned down the offer from the Rapids though that's not "in print" anywhere.  Regardless its starting to look like our third major attacking strikeout this offseason (Vela, Bedoya).

• Colorado Cup coming in July

Not strictly Rapids related but fairly interesting.  Good to see some non-EPL teams in the state.  I'd be more interested if they were playing each other or the Rapids though, I'm not real interested in seeing Liga MX teams.

• Tim Howard rumors heating up

This is of course the big news this week.  All sources (including some of my own) are pointing to Howard coming to Colorado.  As we saw in the guest post there are positives to this signing but they come with a number of "ifs" and "maybes".  I have no real faith in the Rapids pulling those contingencies off and Howard isn't going to fix anything on the field for us.  This is screaming marketing move with now game upside to me.

• Details on Marco Pappa's stabbing are released

The notable detail in this is that the stabbing occurred on Dec. 17th, two days after he was traded to the Rapids.  Its always tricky to judge some of this without the details but the reports of him being intoxicated and changing his story aren't what you want to hear from a guy who was only 4 months removed from the league's substance abuse program.  If accurate I can't imagine that will play well in the league Front Office.

• Finally (no link on this one), former Rapid Stephen Keel spotted at Rapids camp

Keel didn't have his option picked up by Dallas.  He's a local boy so it makes sense he'd come here first.  He's at best a depth signing this year.

So you'll notice the great big absence of something in all that news.  Not a single player signing.  That's a problem more than a week after the players reported, all 19 of them.

Current roster:

GK John Berner
GK Zac MacMath
D March Burch
D Bobby Burling
D Marlon Hairston
D Axel Sjoberg
D Sean St. Ledger
M Michael Azira
M Sam Cronin
M Marco Pappa
M Zach Pfeffer
M Dillon Powers
M Dillon Serna
M Marcelo Sarvas
M Jared Watts
F Dominque Badji
F Caleb Calvert
F Kevin Doyle
F Luis Solignac

Unsigned draftees:

GK Chris Froschauer
D Dennis Castillo
D Bradley Kamdem
D Javan Torre
M Emmanuel Appiah
F John Manga

Trialists:

D Stephen Keel
M Yann Ekra - Charlotte
M Brian Ownby - Richmond

Rapids Go All In On Outside Signings

A wild and crazy day at the Superdraft ended with the Rapids positioned to make some big signings from outside the league and not much else.  First to recap the day.

1. Rapids send Targeted Allocation Money to LA for the #12 pick
2. Rapids send the #2 pick to Philly for General Allocation Money and a player yet to be named
3. Rapids send the #12 pick, the #2 pick in the second round, and the #2 spot in the allocation order to Chicago for the #15 pick, the #13 pick in the 2nd round, and the #1 spot in the allocation order
4. With the #15 pick the Rapids select defensive mid Emmanuel Appiah out of Cincinnati
5. Rapids send the #13 pick in the 2nd round to Dallas for the #17 pick in the second round and the #17 pick in the third round
6. With the #17 pick in the 2nd round the Rapids select defender Dennis Castillo out of VCU

So the final result:
#1 allocation ranking
General allocation money
Player to be named later from Philly
Emmanuel Appiah
Dennis Castillo
#2 and #17 picks in the 3rd round and the #2 pick in the 4th round on Wednesday

That's a far cry from my prediction of Brandon Vincent and somebody else.

Really this means the Rapids have put all their chips on outside signings.  There are basically 3 ways to acquire players.

A. Draftees/college kids - The Rapids just past on their best chances to improve in this group by trading down all day
B. Internal league trades - The Rapids have to have something to offer.  At best they have Irwin and maybe Powers but that's a zero sum game
C. Outside the league signings - This is where the Rapids have put their money

With the #1 allocation spot and allocation money while passing up a top draft pick the Rapids are clearly going with the outside signing strategy.  For a while today the rumors were that they would be signing Alejandro Bedoya but that was shot down officially tonight by Goal.com.

Allocation ranking is only used for returning U.S. National Team players (both full team and youth) and players who were sold by MLS for at least $500K and are returning.  Here's the list as of mid-summer.  We would not use our allocation ranking on Pulido who would not require that (more on that later).

I wanted to highlight a couple of quotes from the Goal.com story:

"We tried to make it happen but Nantes is not selling" Bravo said on Thursday of the club's interest in Bedoya. "We still feel securing the top spot in the Player Allocation Order is a very significant step for our organization."

According to Bravo, the Rapids still plan to use the top allocation spot to sign someone this winter, though he would not say who the Rapids are targeting

and

"Our goal is to have our team together for the start of training camp, to have all the pieces together for Pablo to start the season," Bravo told Goal USA. "Our ownership has committed to really improving our team and we have a plan in motion we feel very good about."

So clearly the Rapids new Bedoya wasn't the plan when making the moves today and they have someone else in mind.  They also expect to move quickly on this plan since camp opens (probably) in a week.

On to Pulido.  ESPN had an article today (in Spanish) saying that, if Google Translate didn't fail me, states that Olympiacos and the Rapids are very close to a deal and it was originally Pulido who didn't want to come.  It also states that this would be a one year loan with the plan that Pulido will return to Europe after one season in MLS.  Now standard operating procedure for a loan into MLS is to include an option for MLS to buy the player but its not a requirement.  I;m really hesitant to go after a player that only plans to be here a year.  That's not the long-term plan we need to rebuild this team.

If they pull this off and get a significant player alongside Pulido with a long-term plan then then will be a day of great moves.  Make no mistake though this is a must deliver move for Hinchey, Bravo, and Mastroeni.  Even with their apparent job security if they can't being in Pulido and an allocation-level player before the season starts then that's the end of the road.  Today they bet everything on this plan and they better not bust.

Pulido Coming, Maybe?

Two articles about Pulido today point to him joining the Rapids but the deal isn't done yet.

This, from a Mexican news site, says (assuming Google Translate didn't fail me) that Pulido is interested in MLS and the Rapids but he might also be interested in a Turkish team.

Then ESPN FC reported on the issues around Pulido's ITC and the on-going saga with Tigres.  The tl;dr version is that Pulido and Tigres disagree that Pulido's contract expired before he moved to Greece and while provisionally FIFA has backed Pulido there's a chance that Tigres may win the case.  If that happens the loan of Pulido to the Rapids would be immediately cancelled, though the Rapids would not be on the hook for any wrongdoing.

The article also says that MLS's lawyers met with FIFA yesterday about Puldio's status so that's a pretty good sign that a deal is done as long as this ITC status issue gets resolved.

I think bringing in Pulido on loan with (presumably given MLS's standard policy) an option to buy is the right move for acquiring him.  The question mark around his status means we don't want to invest in a asset that may be taken away from us at a moment's notice.  Also given some reports about Pulido's attitude this gives us a chance to see if he's going to work out ehre before being on the hook.

Overall though I'm concerned that we are going for the high-risk/high-reward move over finding a more solid target that we can build around.  If Pulido works out its probably the best non-draft move since we got Casey from Toronto.  If he doesn't work out though we'll be right back here next year trying to figure out who we're going to build our team around in 2017.