Defense Inbound

With the transfer window closing tomorrow the Rapids made a move for the summer window today and are hinting at another move tomorrow, which sources have already revealed.

First the Rapids made the rumored acquisition of Loïc Williams official today.  Williams is a 24 year old Spanish central defender currently playing with Granada CG in the Spanish second division.  His father is DR Congolese so he would be eligible for them as well.  Williams is in his 5th year as a pro having played for Girona B (3rd division), Atletico Paso (4th division), Tenerife (2nd division), and Granada.  He's been a pretty regular starter the last two seasons for Granada and his career grown is that of a player on his way up.

Williams will join the Rapids in the summer window after the end of the Liga 2 season.  His contract is through the 2029-30 season with an club option for the 2030-31 season.  He will, obviously, take an international slot.  Transfermrkt values him at a million Euros and sources told Burgundy Wave this would be a TAM deal, but no details were officially released.

This move is a good sign that at least one of Herrington or holding is on their way out by the time the sprint season starts.  Holding will be out of contract after this season and there's interest in Herrington (more on that later this week).  I would be surprised if he came in and hit the ground running like the later but he appears to be solid depth for this season.

Later today Tom Bogert reported, and BW confirmed, the Rapids have made a deal with Toronto to bring in Canadian RB Kosi Thompson for $200K of GAM, with another $200K of GAM in performance goals.  Thompson is 23 years old and came through the TFC academy so he won't require an international slot as a homegrown player.  The reviews on Thompson from Toronto fans are mixed with the best being that he's a MLS spot starter and could grow into something a bit more.  It sounds like efforts to use him at center back were particularly disastrous.

This is clearly a depth move and may indicate Cannon's injury is worse than first thought.  Regardless its not a good look for Travis after stating last week at right back.  This is likely the move the Rapids are teasing for 10am tomorrow.  The window closes tomorrow afternoon/evening and 2 months ago when Bassett was sold Matt Wells challenged the fans and media to judge the club at the end of the window.  We'll do that tomorrow.

International Duty Report

Three Rapids were out on international duty over the break:

• Tim Howard - USA: Howard started both World Cup qualifiers for the U.S.  After not being particularly challenged in a shutout against Honduras he had more to do against Panama last night.  While he did allow one goal there wasn't much he could do about it and otherwise he put in a man of the match contending performance the rest of the way.  With the 4 points the Yanks are in 4th place in the Hex. 

• Mekeil Williams - Trinidad & Tobago:  Williams also started both qualifiers for T&T.  Reportedly he had a solid performance in both games.  With the 1-0 win over Panama and the 1-0 loss to Mexico T&T is currently in last place in the Hex.  Next up, T&T will travel to the U.S. to face the Americans in a game that is highly rumored to be held at the Dick.  Easy travel for Howard and Williams.

• Kevin Doyle - Ireland: Doyle was an unused sub in Ireland's scoreless qualifier against Wales.  He then started their friendly against Ireland where he had a good 90 minutes.  Ireland loss 1-0.

Williams Stuck In Trinidad, Backups Injured

Some less than great news from the Post today.  The reason Mekeil Williams missed the Toronto game last weekend is that he's stuck in Trinidad due to a visa issue.  It sounds like tverything is fine at this point, he's just waiting for the slow Trindadian mail service to get him the final paperwork before he can come back Denver.  Hopefully that arrived today and he can flight straight to SLC to meet the team for Saturday's game because we're going to need him.  The article in the Post also mentions that Watts, Hairston, and St. Ledger are not expected to be available to to injury.

Without Williams that leaves us with a backline of Miller - Burling - Sjoberg - Burch and our only defensive option on the bench being Serna (who plays LB for the U-23s though he prefers right mid).

Once again that lack of center back depth is killing us.  I don't understand how we haven't solved that  issue yet.  We have an open player spot and an open international spot, yet we haven't signed anyone, not even draftee CB Dennis Castillo who is still training with the team.

Hard to blame the roster construction for a lack of fullback depth though.  You don't expect 2 injuries and a visa issue to happen at the same time, and even with that we have two natural fullbacks and Serna as a backup.

First Action Of The Preseason

The Rapids played their first "real" scrimmage today against Seongnam FC of South Korea.  Here's the lineup for the first half (assuming we stuck with the 4-2-3-1 we've been using):

(t) - Trialist
(d) - Draftee

Calvert

Pfeffer - Ekra(t) - Badji

Watts - Cronin

Castillo(d) - Burling - Sjobeg - Kamdem(d)

Froschauer(d)

At halftime it was 1-1 with this goal from Ekra:

Full substitutions in the second half:

Doyle

Solignac - Powers - Ownby(t)

Azira - Appiah(d)

Burch - Torre(d) - Keel(t) - Hairston

MacMath

(I flip-flopped Appiah and Powers from the way the lineup was presented by the Rapids.  It seems more likely to how the played)

Game ended 4-2 Rapids with all 3 second half goals coming fro Kevin Doyle, the first two in the first 5 minutes of the half off of headers.  Here's the third:

The other news today was that the Rapids, as expected, made the Mekeil Williams signing official.

Rapids Add Gashi As DP, Williams As Well

BIG news from Commerce City today that nobody saw coming.  Colorado announced their newest Designated Player, Shkëlzen Gashi.  Who?  Yeah, pretty much everyone had that reaction (and because of that ë I'm just going to refer to him as Gashi from now on).

Gashi is a 27 year old winger/striker from Zurich.  The last two years he's been the Golden Boot winner in the Swiss league.  He's also has played 10 times in the last 2.5 years for the Albanian National Team, getting the winner in a 2-1 comeback over Armenia in Euro 2016 qualifying.

Two years ago he won the Golden Boot with Grasshopper, scoring 19 goals in 32 appearances.  He was then purchased by Basel, the biggest team in Switzerland and a regular Champions League participant (making the round of 16 last year),  Last season he scored 22 goals in 31 appearances to win the Golden Boot again.

Last summer (the Swiss offseason) Basel had a change  in manager and the new coach changed the way Gashi was used, restricting his style more.  Also there's apparently an undercurrent working against Albanian players in Switzerland this year as both National Teams are in the same Euro group next summer.  In the half season he scored 3 times in 10 appearances.

Gashi is generally lined up at the left attacking winger spot but the prior two years was give a more free role in the attack, allowed to drift to where he could be successful.  He's described as a poacher, not a setup man, so we'll need somebody to get him the ball in dangerous locations.  He can also play up top in a standard two striker setup.

This is a great signing by the Front Office and really one of the moves we needed to make.  An attacking player in the middle of his career with a top goal-scoring track record.  Reports in Switzerland say we've signed him until 2019 which is a serious long-term deal so that's a positive s well.  The  move from the Swiss league to MLS won't be that big of a change in quality, depending on who you talk to the leagues are seen as slightly better or worse than each other but not a big difference.  Obviously with Albania in the Euros we'll lose him for June and maybe late May but unless Albania makes an amazing run it should only be a couple of games.  Hats off to Bravo and Co. for this signing.

Along with the larger news of Gashi today there was also this news from Antigua GFC of the Guatemalan league.  Defender Mekeil Williams has been transferred to the Rapids.  No official word from Colorado yet but I assume they didn't want to distract focus from today's big signing and we'll hear something tomorrow.  Williams can play left back and center back though it sounds like he mainly plays outside.  He's 25 years old and has played 10 times for the Trinidad & Tobago National Team since 2012.

The final bit of news is that the Sarvas deal became official.  We got Targeted Allocation Money and a conditional 2018 Superdraft pick in exchange.  According to reports we also picked up about half Sarvas' 2016 salary.  I don't love eating the salary but if it frees up enough room to make another couple of quality moves it will be worth it.

Current roster:

GK John Berner
GK Zac MacMath
D March Burch
D Bobby Burling
D Marlon Hairston
D Axel Sjoberg
D Sean St. Ledger
D Mekeil Williams
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 Shkëlzen Gashi
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