Sarvas To DC

Stevben Goff is reporting and I've heard the same from other sources that Marcelo Sarvas has been traded to DC United for allocation money.  Expect an announcement today or tomorrow it sounds like.

This leaves Powers, Cronin, and Powers to power (no pun intended) the center of the midfield.  That's not a bad center of the park but that assume's Pappa will be available (not suspended) and there's no depth.  If we put Serna and Pfeffer(?) on the wings that leaves Azira and Watts as our only midfielders on the bench.

You would assume that will all the allocation money we're gathering we've got a couple of signings in mind but those need to happen NOW.  Right now in camp we have 18 players (of a possible 28) under contract and with Pappa and Serna recovering only 16 available to train (that's assuming St. Ledger has arrived).  We need to have our whole team in camp right now and learning how to work together.  We can't find a couple of high priced signing in three weeks and expect to be ready by the season that starts five weeks from tomorrow.

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 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

Sarvas Out 4-6 Weeks

Marcelo Sarvas had his knee scoped today and will miss 4-6 weeks.  For a team that can't score losing its one significant established MLS offseason offensive upgrade is a big blow.  Presumably we'll see Cronin and LaBrocca filling the hole this creates.  In a perfect world (like one where we had an actual striker on the roster before July 1) we could drop Powers back, put Torres underneath the missing striker, and move forward but that's not really an option with our lineup.

If we're lucky we could see him back in time to help with our 3 Cascaida games in a wekk the last week of May.  More likely we're hoping he's available for the first RMC match on June 7th.  That's 8 games from now.

Sarvas Out (Temporarily), Solignac In?

As expected the MLS Disciplinary Committee suspended Marcelo Sarvas today for two games for the stomp on Dempsey he committed last week.  Chad Marshall was suspended one game for his tackle on Sanchez.

Those seem reasonable, though i would have gone an extra game each.  Sanchez had a similar foul to Marshall's last season and got 2 games so I would have used that as the standard for Marshall and then given Sarvas a game more because what he did was worse than Marshall.

Where the DisCo completely dropped the ball was on this play.  Ramos will be suspended the standard one game for a red card and no more.  That's unbelievable.  The same league that gave Mullan 10 games lets that go with only 1?  I wish I could say I was surprised but, well, I predicted this 4 years ago.  I stand behind what I said then and this tackle is a good example of it.  Ramos is very lucky no not have seriously injured Francis, but a 1 game suspension for the red card isn't much disincentive not to do it again.  This is how players get hurt from tackles that don't belong in the game.

On to better news.  There's a report out of Argentina that forward Luis Solignac has bought himself out of his contract with Nueva Chicago to join the Rapids.  I know nothing about Solignac other than what's on his Wikipedia page but we need forward depth and a 24 year old who scored 20 times in 40 games in Finland is nothing to sneeze at.  Yeah, its Finland, but it show he has a nose for goal.  If this report is accurate it appears to be another case of the influence of Claudio Lopez helping the Rapids.

Colorado has one open roster spot and one open international spot once Doyle joins, so we do have room for him.

A Mustache, A Draft, and a Trade

A big day for the Rapids with their first "difference-maker" move of the offseason.  But first, the look that most say won the draft.

In Mustache We Trust!

Pablo going all musketeer on us this offseason.  Well one for all and all for one!

As you saw in my earlier post the Rapids drafted two big defenders today in Sjoberg and Greenspan.  Some think Sjoberg is MLS-ready now so at worst he should be able to contribute at some point this season.  6' 7" in the back means we shouldn't get beat on crosses and free kicks.  Greenspan is a more unusual case.  As a Midshipman he's first responsibility is to the U.S. Navy.  He's not the first athlete out of a service academy good enough to be drafted though.  In the past the services have sometimes agreed to take the player's 5 year service commitment and reduce it to 2 years of active duty combined with an extended time in the reserves after that.  So a best case scenario is that Greenspan will be available to us mid-2017.  I think what he's doing is a great service and I hope he can also pursue a professional career.  I do wonder though if we could have made a different pick that could contribute right way.

The big news of the day was a trade for one of the "difference makers" we needed to find this offseason.  We sent our #3 spot in the allocation order and allocation money to LA for Marcelo Sarvas and an international roster spot along with moving into LA's 18th spot in the allocation order.  Sarvas is a 33 year old midfielder who was responsible for 3 goals and 11 assists for the Galaxy last year.  Most LA fans considered him the heart and soul of the team and are sad to see him go.  LA traded him to make room for the summer arrival of Steven Gerrard.

The Rapids are now up to 7 international players (if you include Sjoberg) and 8 international spots.  Sarvas will be a natural partner with Powers in midfield and gives us the MLS-quality starting mid we needed.  There's still work to do but this is a good start.