One Last Friendly To End the Preseason

The Colorado Rapids faced the Colorado School Of Mines yesterday at the Dick in one last preseason friendly before Saturday's season opener.  Not surprisingly the side in burgundy didn't find much of a challenge against a Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference school, winning 4-0.  Here's the starting XI:

Cascio - Cummings - Rivero

Larentowicz - Castrillon - Mastroeni

Zapata - Marshall - Wynne - Kimura

Pickens

Subs:
Amarikwa for Cummings at half
Mullan for Rivero at 58
Thompson for Cascio at 63
Akpan for Castrillon at 68
Palguta for Wynne at 70
Yamada for Larentowicz at 75

The only regular not to play was Moor, who I'm guessing got the day off to rest his tweaked hamstring.  I would expect him to be ready for Saturday in Marshall's place, and I would also expect to see Mullan starting where Rivero started in this game.

Cascio had the first 2 goals and Castrillon had the last 2 along with an assist on one of Cascio's.  Cummings had an assist on one of each of their goals, while Mullan and Thompson got the assists on Castrillon's last goal.    You have to like seeing the confidence from our new players and with the amount of playing time he's getting with the first team I expect Cascio to get the start in his first ever pro game on Saturday.

Final Roster Set

Earlier today draftee Joel Helmick tweeted this:

Thank you @ColoradoRapids for the great opportunity. Made some friends and learned a lot. Hope to return sometime in the future.

From this I think its safe to say that the Rapids didn't extend him a contract.  Not really a surprise since he was our pick in the final round of the Supplemental Draft and we already had 3 keepers under contract.  That's a big hill to climb.  He was the last unsigned player in camp so we now know the full 30 man roster we're starting the season with.  Colorado, surprisingly, only made 6 moves this offseason, plus re-signing Mullan and Emory to new contracts.

• Danny Earls out, Luis Zapata in - Pretty much a straight swap of an international left back for an international left back.  Zapata is a probable starter for the opener next weekend, which Earls was not going to be, so it appears at first glance to be an upgrade.
• Miguel Comminges out, Hunter Freeman in - Another left back swap, but this time we dropped an international for a domestic player.  When Freeman gets healthy he'll push Zapata for that starting spot much like Comminges would have done, but probably for a cheaper price.
• Sanna Nyassi out, Tony Cascio in - A winger for a winger swap.  Nyassi was a casualty of the expansion draft rules and I'm sure the Rapids would have wanted to keep him if they could.  Cascio showed some good skill in Hawaii though so he may not be a bad replacement.
• Caleb Folan out, Jamie Castrillon in - Not really a straight position for position swap, but they're both attacking players that are expected to carry a good part of the load this season.
• Macoumba Kandji out, Martin Rivero in - Again not a true position swap but Kandji was sort of a super sub once he got healthy last year, and that's kind of what I'm expecting from Rivero this year.
• Michael Holody out, Kohei Yamada in - Two players that don't really have much in common other than being young projects.

A unexpected low number of changes for a team with a new coaching staff and new leader at the top.  The stability, especially in the core starters, should help as we adjust to the new formation.  I'll have a full season preview sometime in the next few days.

Here's the final roster:

* = Requires an international slot

Goalkeepers:

Steward Ceus

Ian Joyce

Matt Pickens

Defenders:

Eddie Ababio

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 Live On Altitude...Most Of The Time

Colorado announced its TV plans today, and once again their on Altitude.  Not a surprise since KSE owns both the Rapids and Altitude TV.  28 games will air live on Altitude.  One game, April 1st, will be live on Altitude2 which is only available in SD on Comcast.  April 1st is a home game against the Fire though so I'll be seeing it live in person. ;)  3 games will air live on NBC Sports Channel and 1 game will be live on ESPN (later rebroadcast by Altitude).

That adds up to 33 of the 34 games this season.  The missing game?  April 7th @ FaKe SaLt LaKe.  At the same time as that game the Nuggets and Avs are also playing and being shown on Altitude and Altitude2.  The Rapids game will be shown tape-delayed on Altitude.  For a normal game I'd roll with that, but a Rocky Mountain Cup match against FSL?  That sucks.  Luckily I've heard that the Rapids are working on a number of options to make the match available live to fans.  I'm guessing this will be a viewing party with a direct feed somewhere in Denver and/or a lifting of the normal blackout restrictions on MLS Direct Kick and MLS Live. We'll see what they come up with.

The on-air talent this year will be Todd Romero doing play-by-play and Marcelo Balboa once again doing color.  Romero has no play-by-play experience outside of World Wrestling Entertainment, so I have my concerns that we're going to have yet another season of Balboa having to explain the game to his partner instead of having two experienced people calling the game.  This is particularly annoying since I know two play-by-play broadcasters with MLS experience contacted Colorado about doing games this year only to be passed over for a new guy.

On the bright side though, we get 32 of 34 games live in HD.

George Brislen-Hall Heads Home

George Brislen-Hall tweeted last night that he was headed home to London today, so we can assume his trial is over.  That leaves us with only draftee Joel Helmick in camp but not signed.  The Rapids site still lists Andres Sarmiento as a guest player, but since he didn't go with the team to Hawaii I'm guessing he's not a real candidate for a roster spot.

March 1st is salary compliance day, so I would expect the Rapids to make a decision between Helmick and Joyce in the next couple of days.

EDIT: Sarmeinto has also left the club, per the Rapids blog.

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

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

Colorado Controls Consolation Game With 1-0 Win

Last night the Rapids had an easy game against the Melbourne youth/reserves squad, controlling the game from end-to-end in a 1-0 win.  The starting XI:

Cascio - Amarikwa - Mullan

Larentowicz - Castrillon - Mastroeni

Zapata - Wynne - Moor - Kimura

Ceus

Other than Ceus and Amarikwa I wouldn't be shocked to see that same lineup on opening day in two weeks.  The goal was scored on a 20-yard rocket from rookie Tony Cascio in the first half.  Cascio was the best player in the game, hitting the post and crossbar and putting a good chance just into the side netting.  He could have easily had a hat trick.

The two negatives from this match were Mastroeni leaving the game just before half with a possible slight concussion and Colorado's lack of finishing.  With Pablo's season ending early last year due to a concussion the last thing we want to see is another one.  The Rapids finished 2011 having a hard time finishing and it seemed to continue last night.  We had chance after chance but couldn't put it away.

Its hard to draw many conclusions from a preseason game against a youth squad just 48 hours after the last game.  That said there were a few bright spots.  Kohei Yamada got 15 minutes at the end of the game and stood out with some good ball movement and passing.  Castrillon had a couple of dangerous chances (one called back for an earlier foul on Melbourne instead of playing advantage) and some nice passing.  Of course getting a strong game out of a rookie is always nice as well.

The Rapids return home to Denver tomorrow for the final days of training camp.  The team has to be salary cap compliant by Thursday so we can expect some cuts in the first half of the week.