Colorado Loses To Yokohama

Last night (well technically early this morning) the Rapids lost 2-1 to Yokohama FC of the Japanese 2nd division.  A 10 minute spell in the second half saw Colorado give up two goals and they couldn't climb back out of the hole.  The starting XI for the burgundy boys (seen above):

Cascio - Cummings - Mullan

Larentowicz - Castrillon - Mastroeni

Zapata - Moor - Wynne - Kimura

Pickens

With the exception of the injured Casey I think that's pretty close to our starting XI right now.  Reports from the game is that new signing Luis Zapata was man of the match for the Rapids and they the team generated a number of good chances but couldn't finish.  They finally got a goal from a Zapata corner kick that Moor headed home.  The subs were Amarikwa for Cascio right after the first Yokohama goal in the 57th minute, Thompson for Mullan after the 2nd Yokohama goal in the 64th minute, and Janniere for Mastroeni late.  Thompson got a straight red in the last few minutes for an elbow to the head.  It sounds like it was an ill-advised tough challenge but Thompson wasn't intentionally striking the player.  Right before the end of the game Colorado had a chance to tie it and force it to penalties but Castrillon's close-range header went wide.

Melbourne lost to Busan i'Park 1-0 in penalties after a scoreless game, so Colorado will face Melbourne's youth in the 3rd place game tomorrow.  Game time is 8pm MST and it will be streamed live on ESPN3.com. I expect we'll also see a number of our young players in this game.

Luis Zapata signed by the Rapids

I'm sure we'll see an official announcement tomorrow, but Tim Hinchey just tweeted this:

I would like to welcome Luis Zapata to the Colorado Rapids!

So add one more to the roster!  That puts us at 30 signed players and 6 out of a possible 6 internationals.  Now if any of the other trialists wants a job they'll have to beat out a signed player to do it.

Here's the updated camp roster.

underline = unsigned trialist

* = Requires or is expected to require an international slot

Goalkeepers:

Steward Ceus

Joel Helmick (draftee)

Ian Joyce

Matt Pickens

Defenders:

Eddie Ababio
George Breslen-Hall*

Hunter Freeman

Kosuke Kimura

Tyrone Marshall

Drew Moor

Scott Palguta

Anthony Wallace

Marvell Wynne
Luis Eduardo Zapata*

Midfielders:

Davy Armstrong

Tony Cascio

Jaime Castrillon*
Steven Emory

Josh Janniere*

Ross LaBauex

Jeff Larentowicz

Pablo Mastroeni

Brian Mullan

Joseph Nane
Martin Rivero*

Jamie Smith*

Wells Thompson

Kohei Yamada*

Forwards:

Andre Akpan

Quincy Amarikwa

Conor Casey

Omar Cummings

Rapids Play Yokohama FC NOT On ESPN

See that ESPN on the Hawaiian Islands Invitational logo?  ESPN is one of the organizing forces behind the tournament and originally announced all 4 games would be on ESPN International and ESPN3.com.  Sometime between then and now though ESPN, who again organized the tournament, decided they were only going to air the 2 games on Saturday and neither of the games today.  No, that doesn't make sense to me either.

So tonight Colorado faces Koz's hometown team, Yokohama FC, and nobody outside of Aloha Stadium in Honolulu can see it.  The game is at 11:30pm Colorado time and I was planning to stay up late to watch it, but I'm not staying up until 1:30am to follow Twitter updates.  I'll catch the result in the morning.  Before our game Melbourne Heart and Busan i'Park face off.  The winners of both games will play int he Championship match on Saturday, preceded by the losers of both games playing in the 3rd placed match.  Those games will be live on ESPN3.com.

Oscar Pareja says he plans to start close to our best XI, barring injuries and such, so it will be interesting to see how our best team does in our new style.

Rapids Beat Hawaii Pacific In Scrimmage

Colorado got its first game time in the islands today as the reserves scrimmaged against Hawaii Pacific and won 2-1.  Here's the starting XI:

Janniere - Akpan - Serna

Nane - Yamada - Emory

Brislen-Hall - Palguta - Ababio - LaBauex

Joyce

3 subs in the game were Helmick at half for Joyce, Armstrong in for Yamada with 15 minutes to play, and Amarikwa in for Brislin-Hall shortly after that right after Akpan scored.  Emory served up a nice ball to Armstrong for the second goal before Hawaii Pacific scored right at the end of the game.

This kind of highlights what I see as the two roster battles in camp right now.  The Rapids currently have 32 players in camp for a roster of 30 and one open international spot.  There are 3 unsigned players, GK Joel Helmick and left backs George Brislen-Hall and Luis Zapata.

I think there are two battles right now, one at goalkeeper and one at left back.  Colorado has 3 signed goalkeepers, Matt Pickens, Steward Ceus, and Ian Joyce.  Based on last season its pretty obvious that Pickens is the #1 and Ceus is the #2.  Joyce made 70K last year to be the 3rd string keeper and I think Helmick, who almost certainly would make the league minimum 34K, is pushing him for that role.  Based on the preseason playing time Helmick and Joyce seem to be the ones in a battle because I don't see the Rapids having 4 keepers on the roster.

That leaves one open spot and once international spot with two international left backs on trial.  With Freeman and Wallace both battling injuries the team does not have a healthy natural left back so they're obviously looking to fill that hole.  Until Brislen-Hall got here last week I thought Zapata was the most likely trialist to be signed but Brislen-Hall got all the playing time today.  We'll have to see who gets time in the tournament at the end of the week.

The silver lining in our injuries is that players who go on IR for a minimum of 6 weeks don't take up a roster spot (but do take up cap room).  Since Wallace and Smith are almost certain to start the year on IR we could theoretically sign Helmick, Brislen-Hall, and Zapata to short contracts to the staff can continue evaluating them into the season.  There's no hurry to make a decision yet.

Hawai'i Here We Come!

The team left for Hawai'i today.  My sister, brother-in-law, and cousins leave for Hawai'i this week (though not for the tournament).  Me?  I'm stuck in cold Denver.  Before they left the team made some cuts from training camp.  Aaron Pitchkolan, Issac Cowles, Sterling Copeland, Jefferson Angulo, Daniel Frias, Alanso Jimenez, and Masaki Hemmi were let go.  Trialists Joel Helmick, Luis Zapata, and George Breslin-Hall, along with Academy player Dillon Serna made the trip to Hawai'i with the team.

Conor Casey, Hunter Freeman, Jamie Smith, and Anthony Wallace remained in Denver to continue their rehabs.  Martin Rivero is expected to join the team in Hawai'i on Tuesday, while Omar Cummings will leave the team on Saturday to join the Jamaican National Team in New Zealand.

Here's the updated camp roster.  One mistake I made last time I posted it is that the Rapids only have 6 international slots, I forgot about the trade we made with Vancouver last month sending one to them.

underline = unsigned trialist

* = Requires or is expected to require an international slot

Goalkeepers:

Steward Ceus

Joel Helmick (draftee)

Ian Joyce

Matt Pickens

Defenders:

Eddie Ababio
George Breslen-Hall*

Hunter Freeman

Kosuke Kimura

Tyrone Marshall

Drew Moor

Scott Palguta

Anthony Wallace

Marvell Wynne
Luis Eduardo Zapata*

Midfielders:

Davy Armstrong

Tony Cascio

Jaime Castrillon*
Steven Emory

Josh Janniere*

Ross LaBauex

Jeff Larentowicz

Pablo Mastroeni

Brian Mullan

Joseph Nane
Martin Rivero*

Jamie Smith*

Wells Thompson

Kohei Yamada*

Forwards:

Andre Akpan

Quincy Amarikwa

Conor Casey

Omar Cummings