New Rumor And Final Preseason Game Wrap-Up

Interesting rumor reported by Steven Goff tonight:

. @Wolves forward Joe Mason, 26, close to reaching deal to join @ColoradoRapids on loan. 42 goals in English Championship since 2009. Former teammate Jack Price signed at Colorado last month. #wwfc #mls

— Steven Goff (@SoccerInsider) February 18, 2018

Mason is under contract with Wolves through 2018 so any loan with an option to buy would have to buy him out of his final year.  He's a serial loanee, having spent time on multiple loans to Bolton when signed with Cardiff and most recently he just got back from Burton Albion while signed for Wolves.  That said, those are all Championship (or better) teams, so the quality is there.  I'm not sure this is a the "big striker" signing we need but he would be a good signing as a secondary striker to push Badji.  Regardless we need some sort of striker signing so its good to see something on that front.

Catching up from earlier in the week the Rapids played Phoenix Rising FC in Arizona for their final preseason game before coming home to prep for Tuesday's Champions League match.  The lineup for the game:

Apparently no subs for this one, at least for the Rapids.  Phoenix subbed out the whole lineup after about 60 minutes.  Both Rapids goals came after that, both headers, one by Badji and one by Smith off a corner from Price.  Trialist Enzo Martinez looked really good in this one and I wouldn't be shocked to hear he's been signed before the CCL match.  Somebody will need to tell him the 38 he's wearing in camp has special meaning though.  Jack Price bossed the game around but did had a nasty tackle that probably could have been red.  Regardless he's already on his way to being a fan favorite.

Next up is the CCL match on Tuesday against Toronto.  With the forecast though (high of 12, low of 2, and snow showers) I wouldn't be shocked if they reschedule it for Wednesday when its supposed to be sunny and not threat-of-frostbite cold.  We'll see what Monday brings.

Rapids Trade General Allocation Money For International Slot

Today Colorado sent $100K of GAM to KC for an international slot for the 2018 season.  An expected move as we were two over our total of slots.  Now if Wynne goes on loan to Charlotte or somebody like Badji gets a green card we'll be in compliance on the international front.

Some fans thought this might be a precursor to finally signing a striker, but no, this was just something that needed to happen based on our existing signings.  I've pretty much resigned myself to the fact we won't sign a significant striker until the summer window.  The one possibility is that the EFL season (everything under the EPL in England) ends 2 days before the window closes so if we're targeting somebody who doesn't make the promotion playoffs they could come over in May.

Preseason Results and Players Heading Out

Time to catch up on the last couple of preseason games, but first a couple of pieces of player news.  Draftee Alan Winn was signed yesterday by Nashville SC of the USL.  Nashville is coached by former Rapids manager (and MLS Cup winner) Gary Smith and also features two members of that Cup winning team, Kosuke Kimura and Matt Pickens.  The Rapids now have only two draft picks in camp, GK Thomas Olsen (who's path to a roster spot was presumably blocked with the acquisition of Dykstra) and F Niki Jackson, who will feature later in this post.

Today the Rapids announced they had loaned Miked Da Fonte to Phoenix Rising FC of the USL.  The Rapids announced when they made their year-end roster moves that Da Fonte would be loaned out for 2018, the last year of his contract, so I'm going to remove him from the roster list now as while on loan he doesn't count against roster or salary caps.  Its safe to say we've seen the last of him in Colorado.

Now, on to the games.  I actually never got around to writing up last weekend's scrimmage with the KC, so lets start there.  These lineups are my best guesses at formation based on the box scores:

The starting XI:

KC scored twice on this lineup in the first half.  The second half lineup looked like:

Winn would get the last 15 minutes of the game.  This lineup played a scoreless half.

After a quick trip back to Colorado to pick up some new players and do laundry the team was back in Arizona for a game against UPSL side Sporting AZ yesterday.  The starting group:

Good to see signings Price and Smith with the team now.  This group would go 60 minutes and score twice, first from Castillo in the opening 2 minutes and then McBean got one 25 minutes in.  At the 60th minute mark the whole lineup swapped out for this group:

This group would also play 60 minutes (for a total of 120) and they ran rampant over the lower league side, as you would expect.  Calvert, Aigner, and Perez all got goals and Blomberg and Jackson each got 2, for a final score of 9-0.  Hard to draw a whole lot from a game against that level of competition but the team did what it was expected to do, so that's a good thing.

The next match is Wednesday against Phoenix Rising FC (now featuring Mike Da Fonte!) at 6pm and it will be streamed online, if you don't have Valentines Day plans and you're not watching the Olympics.

Signed Players:
* = international
HG = homegrown
DP = designated player

GK Andrew Dykstra
GK Tm Howard - DP
GK Zac MacMath
D Edgar Castillo
D Kip Colvey
D Kortne Ford - HG
D Marlon Hairston
D Eric Miller
D Axel Sjoberg
D Tommy Smith*
D Jared Watts
D Danny Wilson*
D Deklan Wynne*
M Bismark Adjei-Boateng*
M Stefan Aigner*
M Michael Azira
M Johan Blomberg*
M Shkelzen Gashi* - DP
M Sam Hamilton
M Ricardo Perez - HG
M Jack Price*
M Dillon Serna - HG
F Dominique Badji*
F Caleb Calvert - HG
F Jack McBean

Unsigned Draftees:
GK Thomas Olsen
F Niki Jackson

Trialists:
D Joel Johnson
M Enzo Martinez

New Shirt, New Player, But Still No Striker

Two announcements from the Rapids today.  First the 2018 home jersey was unveiled:

Pretty straight forward.  Paired with light blue shorts and the burgundy socks it will look good on the field.  If I needed a new jersey I'd be happy to pick this one up but right now I've got a few others in the queue, namely Blackburn's road jersey and a Swedish National Team jersey before the World Cup.

One interesting note, with this burgundy kit the Rapids will have played in burgundy for 12 seasons.  They played in the original green for 7 seasons and the black and blue for 4 seasons, which means as of this year we've played in burgundy for a majority of our existence.

The other announcement was a bit of surprise, we traded our 2020 2nd round draft pick to KC for goalkeeper Andrew Dykstra.  He's 32 year old journeyman keeper that's spent time with Chicago, DC, and KC, as well as some USL teams, with 34 MLS starts in his career.

I'm a little surprised at this move as I expected that draftee Thomas Olsen had the inside track on the 3rd keeper spot.  This means that either Olsen isn't working out, or that this is the first move in a plan to trade MacMath.  Dykstra could be a backup keeper, he's done that successfully in his career, and MacMath is a nice trading chip for a team looking for a big upgrade at striker.  I kind of hope that's the plan because if we're keeping both Howard and MacMath I'd rather we take a shot on Olsen or another young keeper that might develop over Dykstra, who will probably never play a game this season barring simultaneous injuries to MacMath and Howard.

Signed Players:
* = international
HG = homegrown
DP = designated player

GK Andrew Dykstra
GK Tm Howard - DP
GK Zac MacMath
D Edgar Castillo
D Kip Colvey
D Mike da Fonte
D Kortne Ford - HG
D Marlon Hairston
D Eric Miller
D Axel Sjoberg
D Tommy Smith*
D Jared Watts
D Danny Wilson*
D Deklan Wynne*
M Bismark Adjei-Boateng*
M Stefan Aigner*
M Michael Azira
M Johan Blomberg*
M Shkelzen Gashi* - DP
M Sam Hamilton
M Ricardo Perez - HG
M Jack Price*
M Dillon Serna - HG
F Dominique Badji*
F Caleb Calvert - HG
F Jack McBean

Unsigned Draftees:
GK Thomas Olsen
F Niki Jackson
F Alan Winn

Trialists:
D Joel Johnson
M Enzo Martinez

Recap Of First Scrimmage Under Hdson

Yesterday the Rapids held their first scrimmage under new coach Anthony Hudson, a 2-1 loss to Columbus.  Here's how they lined up at kickoff:

After 60 minutes the lineup shifted to:

Note, these formations are a best guess based on the lineups.

Zardes scored two minutes in but Ford leveled in the 26th by heading in a corner kick.  The Crew would get the winner in the 58th minute.

Gashi was held out as a precaution due to a tight calf, players like Price, Smith, and Wilson haven't yet arrived in camp though they were expected in the latter half of this week.  The next game is Saturday against KC.

Also today we found out the Charlotte Independence's Joel Johnson is also in camp.  Johnson is a 25 year old Liberian/Spanish right back who was born and raised in Spain, spending time with Valencia B and Real Madrid C before coming toe the States and joining Charlotte last season.  The camp list has been updated below.

Signed Players:
* = international
HG = homegrown
DP = designated player

GK Tm Howard - DP
GK Zac MacMath
D Edgar Castillo
D Kip Colvey
D Mike da Fonte
D Kortne Ford - HG
D Marlon Hairston
D Eric Miller
D Axel Sjoberg
D Tommy Smith*
D Jared Watts
D Danny Wilson*
D Deklan Wynne*
M Bismark Adjei-Boateng*
M Stefan Aigner*
M Michael Azira
M Johan Blomberg*
M Shkelzen Gashi* - DP
M Sam Hamilton
M Ricardo Perez - HG
M Jack Price*
M Dillon Serna - HG
F Dominique Badji*
F Caleb Calvert - HG
F Jack McBean

Unsigned Draftees:
GK Thomas Olsen
F Niki Jackson
F Alan Winn

Trialists:
D Joel Johnson
M Enzo Martinez