2014 Salaries And A Trade

The union released the player salaries today, here are the Rapids.  The first number is the base salary, the second is the guaranteed 2014 salary.  The cap hit number is generally between the two.

Berner John               $36,500.00 $36,500.00
Brown Deshorn         $75,000.00 $123,000.00
Buddle Edson            $325,000.00 $325,000.00
Burch Marc               $85,000.00 $85,000.00
Chavez Marvin           $200,000.00 $200,000.00
Eloundou Charles       $48,825.00 $53,825.00
Griffiths Brenton         $36,500.00 $36,500.00
Hairston Marlon         $70,000.00 $93,000.00
Hill Kamani                $48,825.00 $48,825.00
Irwin Clint                   $75,000.00 $87,000.00
Klute Chris                  $75,000.00 $80,144.10
LaBrocca Nick           $135,000.00 $153,333.33
Mari Jose                    $230,000.00 $261,000.00
Moor Drew                 $235,000.00 $247,000.00
Mullan Brian                $48,500.00 $48,500.00
Mwanga Danny           $130,000.00 $171,250.00
Nasco Joe                   $50,000.00 $52,693.83
O'Neill Shane              $56,250.00 $67,750.00
Piermayr Thomas         $70,008.00 $74,429.56
Powers Dillon               $95,150.00 $127,650.00
Sanchez Vincente         $210,000.00 $286,666.67
Serna Dillon                  $52,500.00 $65,500.00
Sturgis Nathan              $114,000.00 $120,333.33
Torres Gabriel              $250,000.00 $262,500.00
Van de Casteele Grant $48,500.00 $60,000.00
Watts Jared                  $36,500.00 $36,500.00
Wynne Marvell             $200,000.00 $285,000.00

• Only 3 guys making the league-minimum $36.5K, Berner, Griffiths, and Watts.  No surprise given that they're 2 second round picks and a mid-season depth pickup.
• Mullan is only at 50K.  Apparently the Rapids have set aside a roster spot if needed each year for a player who's made a big contribution to the club and is transitioning to his post-playing career.  Last year it was Smith, this year its Mullan.  A loud round of applause for the FO for doing this.  #OneClub
• Buddle + Chavez + Mwanga = 700K who didn't play in last week's win in Vancouver.  I have hopes for Chavez and his 200K but Buddle and Mwanga continue to look like too much salary for not enough production.
• I'm surprised to see both Sturgis and LaBrocca making over $125K as they both tend to slot into the same spot next to Jose Mari and it will be odd to see them both on the field at the same time.
• Both Moor and Wynne we re-signed using the league's retention fund so their cap hits aren't as large as these numbers make it look.
• Last year's RapKids (Brown, Irwin, Klute, Powers) all got deserved raises.
• Our salary cap hit is somewhere between 2.5 and 3 million dollars, depending on how much of Moor and Wynne aren't counted against our cap.  That gives us some room to play with since the MLS cap is about 3.1 million this year.
• Because it was of interest, Hendry Thomas is making $180K in Dallas this year.  It appears that he wanted to leave Colorado to be with Pareja and it wasn't really about the money.

Along those lines we have another Pareja acquisition moving to join up with an ex-coach.  Wilmer Cabrera's Chivas USA has traded for the rights to Martin Rivero, giving us a 4th round pick next year in return.  With Powers' Rookie of the Year campaign and Sanchez's addition the pressure to sign him dropped so getting anything for his rights is a good move.  Maybe he'll turn into the DP we all hoped he'd be at Chivas, but it wasn't worth the Rapids investing the time in him when he was passed by Powers.

El Matador Spears The Whitecaps For Three Points

Last week I realized that readers of this blog probably don't need a full recap of the game.  By Monday you've probably watched it or seen enough of the highlights to make my recap redundant. Instead I'll just give my general observations of the game as a whole as well and revisiting my strategic consideration from my preview.  Let me know if you like the new model or want the recap back.

So my general observation of this game is that Vancouver was generally the better team but didn't dominate us.  They generally had the better chances and the stats back that up, with 7 shots on target to Colorado's 3 (and 2 of those were the goals).  Surprisingly to me Colorado actually had more possession but it felt like the Whitecaps did more with the ball when they had it, at least when it was 11 on 11.

My strategic consideration was how well the remixed back 4 did.  It wasn't as mixed as I expected, with Burch able to start, but Vancouver still got far too many good looks at the goal with only some great defensing form Irwin saving the game.

Other Observations:

• Great to see Irwin back in net, and he showed why he's the starter with a couple of big saves, including one huge one when Moor was starting down a 3 on 1 right after we gave up the goal.  Without Clint we don't win.
• There wasn't a whole lot of off the ball movement from either team in the first half.  That led to a bit of a disjointed mess.
• The Vancouver goal was a bit of poor play from the Rapids but a lot of good play from Vancouver.  Its not often that both Drew Moor and Shane O'Neill will be beat on headers on the same play, but Kenny Miller certainly took advantage of some poor positioning from O'Neill and Mattocks is just faster than Moor (and most other defenders in the league).
• Jose Mari's first goal should clearly win Goal of the Week and is a candidate for Goal of the Year.  ESPNFC picked it as the goal of the weekend from all the leagues they cover.  His 2nd goal was picked 10th on the weekend.
• We now have goals that didn't start as PKs!
• His bullfighting goal celebration has already gotten him the nickname El Matador from the fans, though El Torero is probably a more accurate name.
• Of course the elephant (or perhaps bull) in the room is the red card to Laba.  I agree with some Vancouver fans who are complaining that a foul wasn't called on LaBrocca, many refs would have called it.  It wasn't so obvious that a play on was wrong though.  That doesn't excuse Laba's decision to grab a live ball while already on a yellow though.  If he had grabbed it as he went down as we see quite often I think he would have gotten away with it.  instead he waited  a beat until he knew he wasn't getting a call and LaBrocca was already approaching the ball to go on the counter.  That makes it a yellow as he broke up a Rapids attack.  If the ref had it to do over with 20/20 hindsight I bet he calls LaBrocca for the foul to avoid that situation, but once Laba put him in that spot he had to pull the yellow.
• Oh, and there was a yellow on Laba in the 54th minute and then a second yellow for the hand ball in the 77th minute.  It was not two yellows for the same incident in the 77th minute as Fleming and Balboa kept repeating all the way through the post game.  Somebody off camera/mic really should have gotten them that info at some point in the final 20+ minutes of coverage.
• Of course their inability to tell that Jose Mari's second goal actually went in is another indicator that KSE really needs to give the Rapids enough money to send Richard and Marcelo to away games.  When they don't have any better view than we do at home it makes them hard to really enhance the broadcast. 
• Piermayr was quiet and solid in his first start for the Rapids, which is the kind of result you want from a new defender.
• Torres had a great overhead kick that put Brown in for a shot that he missed by that much (tm Maxwell Smart).  Had Brown finished it Torres' assit might have made it a Goal of the Year candidate.
• It feels like both Torres and Brown are this close to putting it all-together and going on a tear, hopefully they get over that hump soon.
• Charles Eloundou!  I liked his energy and effort off the bench.  I'd start him before I started Hill again, who was largely invisible.
• 4 points in our first 2 road games is almost a quarter of the points we got in 17 road games last year.  Nothing to complain about there.

Man of the Match: Jose Mari.  This really should be split between Irwin and Jose Mari, but you can't not give it to somebody who scores two goals of the quality he did.  That's a quick way to becoming a fan favorite.  Ole!

First Of A Canadian Doubleheader

Whitecaps-Rapids, wettest game in MLS

Colorado makes the first of back-to-back trips to Canada tomorrow, facing Vancouver almost a stone's throw from my childhood home in Oak Harbor, WA (Seattle is 18 miles closer to drive than Vancouver B.C.).  Game time tomorrow is 4:30pm, so you can have a nice dinner during the second half or you can join C38 at the British Bulldog.  The game is on Altitude, no word if Balboa will be rejoining Fleming this week.

Injury Report:

OUT: M Brian Mullan (L knee surgery)

QUESTIONABLE: D Mark Burch (L calf contusion); D Chris Klute (R hamstring strain); D Dillon serna (L ankle sprain)

Disciplinary Report:

SUSPENDED: D Marvell Wynne (red card against KC)

Well, at least we have Irwin back at 100%.  Not a pretty report for our back line.  Vancouver will be missing Nigel Reo-Coker and our old friend Mehdi Ballouchy.  Here's my guess at our lineup but who really knows what will happen....:

I'm assuming that with the turf in Vancouver neither Buddle or Sanchez will start.  Sanchez had a pretty bad reaction when he tried Portland's turf last season and Buddle avoided it last season due to his knee issues.  Torres and Chavez seem like the obvious replacements, but an Eloundou or Hill could be in consideration.  On the back line I assumed the reason we signed Piermayr was so he would start this week, while VDC seems the most likely to fill in for Wynne.  Or they could move O'Neill inside and use Watts and Piermayr on the outside.

Strategic Consideration: Defensive back 4, obviously.  No matter who we put out there it could be ugly.

Prediction: 2-0 loss.  I don't see a whole lot of opportunity in this game.  Even a draw should be considered a good result.  But maybe this is where Pablo shines.  I remember a game close to 10 years ago where he and a an iffy back-line defended a 1-0 lead against LA while down 2 men to get the win.

Odds And Ends

A couple of "real" news items and a couple of fun items today.

The big one, the Rapids signed Austrian defender Thomas Piermayr today.  He'll be eligible to play right away.  Piermayr is a 24-year old outside back (both right and left) and can apparently play in the midfield as well.  This is probably an indicator that Burch's injury will make him unavailable in Vancouver on Saturday and Pablo may be considering the Austrian to fill in since Klute is also still injured.

The Rapids have added the Black Hills Soccer Club in Rapid City, South Dakota to their list of allied youth clubs.  They club will now be known as the Black Hills Rapids.  This gives the Colorado Rapids partner clubs in Charlotte, Rapid City, Las Vegas, and Albuquerque to go with the main youth club here in Denver.  That's a nice area to cover for the team and will hopefully allow them to find some more homegrown players.

Drew Moor will not be suspended for his elbow, but the Disciplinary Committee did fine him today.

Have we found the long-lost Rapidman?  The Ottowa fury's new mascot looks like Rapidman by a different name...

And last, but certainly not least, a standing ovation to the Rapids Media Relations Department for their entertaining April Fools prank yesterday.  I don't think anyone actually fell for it, but the idea and the work put in make it the best of the sports-based attempts yesterday, certainly better than Orlando City's supposed re-imaging to the Manatees.  Links here, here, here, and here.  Hard to pick a favorite picture but I think I've narrowed it down to these two.  Of course there's now a push from some fans (and the Vancouver Whitecaps) to actually wear these for real.  That would be scary enough that they'd have to save it for a Halloween prank!

Rapids Lose Composure And Three Points

Finally feeling better so I'm getting back to the blog.  I'm going to dispense with my normal recap, as I assume everyone is up to speed by this point.  The bottom line is that the Rapids fought back from a 1-0 deficit to take a 2-1 lead with 12 minutes to play, then lost 3-2.  Not the way you want to end a game.

Other Observations:

• Seriously, up 1 with 12 minutes to play and we give up two goals, take 2 yellows, and 1 second yellow/red.  Complete lack of focus and composure to finish off KC and we paid for it.
• After Wynne was ejected and we brought Hairston in, we had 5 draftees from the last two drafts (Berner, Watts, Hairston, Powers, Brown) and 1 homegrown player (O'Neill) on the field, 6 of the 10 players.  That a great sign for the future.
• You'd think that might have led to our lack of composure, but it was one of the senior players (Wynne) who broke down the most and the other two players who got yellow cards were LaBrocca and Sturgis.  All in all, the kids did OK.
• Wynne had a horrible, horrible game.  The first KC goal sequence starts by Wynne trying to volley a chest pass only for it to have easily intercepted by Zusi.  Zusi passes it and breaks towards goal from the midfield strips.  Wynne, probably the fastest player in the league, lets him go while ball-watching and then doesn't close him down when he gets into the box, leaving Zusi wide open for the tap-in.
• On the second goal, right off the kickoff from the Rapids 2nd goal, Wynne and O'Neill get split by the KC attacker.  Wynne then drifts into the middle of no-mans land, once again ball watching, and is not in any position to help defend KC's attack until its too late.
• Finally, 5 minutes later, he comes in way late on a tackle a good 70+ yards from goal and on the sideline, picking up a second yellow for a foul that was completely unnecessary and leaving the team a man down to defend the draw.  If he wasn't suspended next week I'd suggest benching him.
• Berner looked tentative and unsure in this game.  time for Irwin to get back between the pipes.
• Generally Pablo seemed to go with a "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" strategy for the lineup in this one.  I understand it, but I think we saw in this match that the lineup needs some tweaks.
• 2 more PKs makes 5 for the season in the first 3 games.  I'm not real worried about our lack of goals without PK help, with the exception of the one in NY they all came when the Rapids were making dangerous attacks.  The goals will come if we keep that up.
• That said, the first PK was a tough call against KC.  Probably a good no call there but I can see what the ref saw with hands hitting the ball while falling.
• KC got their own benefit of the doubt though early in the game.  Kronberg collapsing on Sanchez to keep him from stealing the ball just outside the box could have easily been a red card.
• Drew did get beat on KC's third goal and admitted so after the match, expecting Dwyer to go to his right foot.  Still that was a hell of a blast from the KC striker.
• LaBrocca, you get the ball inside the 6 with the goalkeeper beat, don't soft foot it!  Pick a spot and hammer it home!
• Buddle had a nice shot in the first half and generally was ok, but still not getting enough out of him for his salary.
• No Wynne, possibly no Burch, and possibly no Moor (rumor circulating he might be suspended for his elbow in the 1st half) will make a very ugly defensive line in Vancouver on Saturday.

Man of the Match: Vicente Sanchez.  Honestly he could have been MOTM for all 3 games.  2 more goals, both from PKs, making him 4 for 4 already this season.  Generally he was the best guy out there for the home team.  In fact, any Rapid showing the ball skills he did on Saturday should have a big yellow afro.