New Jersey Unveiled

Colorado unveiled their new jersey today and it matches the leaked version from a week or so ago.  They'll have a live showing it at the 'Cheers to the Rapids' event on March 19th.

Good solid jersey this year, though I'm still not thrilled with the color change on the stripes.  I'll probably pass on a new kit this season as I bought last year's but if I hadn't I wouldn't object to buying this one.  Unlike the blue flag kit which hasn't improved with time.

Rapids Sign One, Cut Two, Keep One?

A number of player announcements today.  The big one is that, as expected, Jose Mari was officially signed today.  Mari has returned to Spain to work out his paperwork for his permanent move to Colorado and is expected to rejoin the team later this week.  He'll be eligible to play once his visa and ITC come through.

Today the Rapids also announced that trialist Juan Guzman and draftee Albert Edward have been released from camp.  This leaves Arsenal youth player Samuel Galindo as the only unsigned player in camp.

Thanks for this one go to regular reader and frequent commenter Jester who noticed that Michael Stephens just signed with Stabaek, filling their last international spot.  That means that Matt Pickens won't be moving there, so presumably he'll be returning to Colorado and the Rapids will have to figure out what Plan B with him is.

One last non-player note.  C38 has announced that Pablo Mastroeni will be the special guest for Saturday's season kickoff party at the Celtic.  They have also said the Rapids will have a big announcement at the party, with the leading fan theory being the official announcement as Pablo as head coach.  We'll see what happens.

So now that preseason is wrapping up, here's our roster.  We've got 29 players signed against a cap of 30 and 6 of our 8 international spots filled.  We've got probably 1 too many goalkeepers, so you have to assume something is going to be done with Pickens, and probably too many attackers, though a number of them can drop into midfield.  The big depth issues are at right back (Wynne and then...?) and target forward (Buddle and then...?).

Goalkeepers:

John Berner

Clint Irwin

Joe Nasco

Matt Pickens - On "Excused Absence"

Defenders:

Davy Armstrong - Homegrown Player - Will start season on IR(knee)

Mark Burch

Brenton Griffiths - International

Chris Klute

Drew Moor

Brian Mullan

Shane O'Neill - Homegrown Player

Grant Van De Casteele

Marvell Wynne

Midfielders:

Samuel Galindo - Unsigned trialist, International

Marion Hariston - Generation Adidas

Nick LaBrocca

Jose Mari - International

Dillon Powers

Dillon Serna - Homegrown Player

Nathan Sturgis

Jared Watts

Forwards:

Deshorn Brown - Generation Adidas, International

Edson Buddle

Martin Chavez

Charles Eloundou - International

Kamani Hill

Danny Mwanga

Vicente Sanchez - International

Gabriel Torres - Designated Player, International

Preseason Playing Time Analysis

I've added up the playing time in preseason for everyone who played for the Rapids.  Its a bit like trying to read tea leaves, but here are some interesting conclusions.

• Removing injured players, cut players, and goalkeepers, the player with the least playing time was Marc Burch at 185 minutes, followed by Edson Buddle at 190.
• Mari was the only other field player still with the team under 250 minutes, probably due to his late arrival into camp.
• Berner got about 20 minutes more time than Nasco, but that was probably affected by Nasco's return home for a family issue.  I expect Nasco to be Irwin's backup to start the season.
• The 4 remaining trialists:
• Mari - 215 minutes
• Galindo - 265 minutes
• Edward - 340 minutes
• Guzman - 340 minutes

• The player with the most playing time was Serna at 425 minutes, 30 minutes more than Klute in 2nd place.
• After Klute were Moor and Wynne, so safe to say 3 of the back 4 have been decided.
• If we were to pick a starting XI based just on playing time, using the 4-2-3-1, it would look something like this:

Irwin

Edward(?) - Moor - Wynne - Klute

Sturgis - LaBrocca

Chavez - Sanchez - Torres

Brown

• About 330 minutes went to players who didn't make the team (Ayarna, Kindle, Ibikunle)
• Guzman and Edward tied Hill for 7th most minutes, the most by any players who might be new to the Rapids in 2014.

Rapids End Desert Diamond Cup With Draw

In a windy, rainy, ugly game in Tucson yesterday Colorado finished their preseason slate with a 2-2 draw against New England.  The starting XI:

Irwin

Sturgis - Moor - Wynne - Klute

Mari - LaBrocca

Serna - Powers - Hill

Buddle

After an early goal from the Revs the Rapids tied it up in the 25th minute after Serna capitalized on a defensive miscue.  His driving shot was blocked but the rebound fell to Buddle who finished the opportunity.  The weather kept things interesting but the teams went into the break deadlocked.  Sanchez took over for Powers in the middle of the field, in the 50th minute O'Neill got his first preseason work subbing in for Sturgis, and in the 56th minute Torres took over for Buddle.  A minute later, in the rain and wind, Irwin either spilled or just got beaten to a shot and New England cleaned up the mess to retake the lead.  In the 72nd minute the Rapids made a full lineup change of the remaining field starters, leaving them looking like this:

Irwin

Watts - VDC - O'Neill - Edward

Guzman - Hairston

Chavez - Sanchez - Eloundou

Torres

Berner subbed in for Irwin in the 81st.  In the 82nd the Rapids beat the Revs and the elements for a 2nd goal.  Torres got through on a breakaway but the Revs backup GK couldn't hold the shot and Sanchez cleaned it up for the draw.  To top off the game Chavez and the Revs' Imbongo both saw red for a scuffle 5 minutes before the end.

The Rapids returned to Colorado today and will be preparing for their season opener in NY on March 15th.

Not To Sound "Ridiculous" But...

We are now inside of 14 days until the opening kickoff of the season and we still have no head coach.  This can't be considered normal or a logical strategy.  I know the FO is focused on finding the right fit who will stay in Colorado a long time, but how much of the current team are they willing to sacrifice for that future?  There's really 4 scenarios I see.

1. Pablo is the guy and its already settled.  If so, why hasn't it been announced yet?  I can't think of any benefit to locking up Pablo for the job and not announcing it, so that leads me to believe they haven't locked Pablo up yet.  So either they don't know if he's the guy yet, or they haven't gotten him to agree to be the guy.  Neither one of those instill confidence that we've got a guy ready to lead the team into the season in 2 weeks.
2. Metgod is the guy and this scrubbing of the website has something to do with it.  Why you would try to downplay the presence of the guy who's going to lead the team in the next couple of weeks though?  And again, referring back to #1, if he's the guy why haven't you announced it yet.  If he's the guy, why isn't he taking more of a public leadership role in Tucson?  Right now Pablo is, publicly, the leader of the team at the Desert Diamond Cup which doesn't seem to mesh with the idea that somebody already on the staff has been picked to take over.
3. The team has picked an outsider for the job.  That's a disaster no matter how you look at it.  Bringing somebody in within the last two weeks before the season who hasn't spent any time with the team yet?  How would that work beyond spending the first half-dozen games of the season watching the new guy figure out his team?  And still going back to #1, if this is the plan then why haven't they announced this coach yet?
4. They don't have a candidate yet, so they're letting Pablo continue to run the team while they figure it out.  I don't need to explain why that's a bad situation to be in just 2 weeks out.

My guess is that its somewhere between #1 and #2.  They want Pablo or Metgod to be the guy, but there's something not completed yet that's preventing them from announcing it.  What could still be in the way more than 7 weeks after Pareja officially left is beyond me, most teams figure this out by now.  My fear is that its #4, which means we're in a world of hurt.  I highly doubt its #3, but that would be almost as bad.

At this point the FO needs to bite the bullet, get a deal with Pablo or Metgod done, and announce the coach.  Every day they don't is another day that points to them not getting the logistics done, which is a lousy way to enter a season.

BTW, the prior MLS record for hiring a coach was 29 days.  Well its about 6-8 weeks for a number of coaches, but last year Toronto FC announced Ryan Nelsen in January when he was still playing for Blackburn Rovers.  He didn't actually join TFC to start coaching until February 1st though, 29 days before their season kickoff on March 2nd.  I figured that was a good tiebreaker for the record.