Smith Activated, Yamada Waived

Just a quick note that the Rapids just waived Yamada and activated Jamie Smith for tonight's game.  My guess is they were hoping to get Smith's green card papers in by today but since they didn't they needed to waive Yamada so that they had an international slot to activate Smith with.  Waiving Yamada also keeps the team with 10 non-salary cap players after yesterday's signing of homegrown player Shane O'Neill.

Rapids Get First Preseason Win

Colorado faced Chivas USA in a scrimmage at the HDC today.  A late Qunicy Amarikwa goal from a Steven Emory assist gave the burgundy boys a 1-0 win.  Of course its preseason so its meaningless but wins are always better than losses.  The starting XI (trialists makred with a *):

Angulo* - Cummings - Mullan

Larentowicz - Castrillon - Mastroeni

Zapata* - Marshall - Wynne - Kimura

Pickens

After subs the team finished with the the following lineup:

Cascio - Amarikwa - Akpan

Thompson - LaBauex - Emory

Freeman - Palguta - Guido* - Ababio

Joyce

Guido is a local player playing with the team while they're in California.  The starting XI is pretty close to the expected starting lineup.  Angulo is trialing in place of the injured Casey, Moor tweaked a hamstring in the scrimmage on Sunday so Marshall started in his place, and the left back spot seems up for grabs.  Otherwise that's the group I expect to see on March 10th.  Great to see Koz back and playing already!

Some roster notes, Kohei Yamada finally arrived today from Japan after getting his visa paperwork taken care of.

All the MLS Japanese players in one place!

Also Tim Hinchey tweeted that the visa paperwork for the new Argentine #10 has been completed and he's expected to join the team by the time they get to Hawai'i in a couple of weeks.

Player Status Updates

The Rapids had an article today about the trialists where they mentioned that Cascio and Yamada were signed to contracts with the league before the draft. Their statuses have been updated in my master list.  I've also changed the list so unsigned players are all in one group but I've added a note next to Helmick to note that he was drafted (as our only unsigned drafted player).

underline = unsigned trialist

Goalkeepers:

Steward Ceus

Steve Cronin

Joel Helmick (draftee)

Ian Joyce

Matt Pickens

Defenders:

Eddie Ababio

Issac Cowles

Hunter Freeman

Kosuke Kimura

Tyrone Marshall

Drew Moor
Daniel Navarro

Scott Palguta

Anthony Wallace

Marvell Wynne

Midfielders:

Davy Armstrong

Tony Cascio

Jaime Castrillon
Steven Emory

Josh Janniere

Ross LaBauex

Jeff Larentowicz

Pablo Mastroeni

Brian Mullan

Joseph Nane
Aaron Pitchkolan

Jamie Smith

Wells Thompson

Kohei Yamada

Forwards:

Andre Akpan

Quincy Amarikwa

Sam Archer

Conor Casey

Omar Cummings

Caleb Folan

Edrissa Jarra

Macoumba Kandji