Pre-Holiday News Dump

I take a day off and in the 48 hours since I last posted the Rapids sign 3 players, draft 6 others, drop the 2024 schedule, and Burgundy Wave announces info about Armas' contract.  Oh, and the USSF says no to MLS's idea to skip the Open Cup.  So buckle in, this is going to be a large post going over all of it that will likely wrap up 2023 for Rapids news (I hope!).

Lets start with the singings.  First Colorado re-signed homegrown players Seb Anderson and Oli Larraz to one year deals with team options for a second season.  Anderson's deal also has a team option for a third season.  Pretty clear that this is a make it or break it season for both of them, I'm really hoping to see Larraz get some time with the first team after a strong season in MLS Next Pro in 2023.

Then last night the Rapids signed free agent winger Omir Fernandez,  He came up through the RBNY Academy and has made over 110 appearances for the Red Bulls in the last 5 seasons.  Fernandez is 24, making him one of the youngest free agents in MLS history.  He is likely to become the starter ont he right wing but he can also play more centrally or up top.

Yesterday Colorado drafted 5 players and traded for a 6th draftee.  They started the day with the #2 and #4 picks which the club used to select sophomore midfielder Wayne Fredrick out of Duke and Generation Adidas forward freshman Kimani Stewart-Baynes out of Maryland.  Fredrick has the option to return to school while the Rapids keep his rights while Stewart-Baynes, as a GA player, has already signed a contract with the league and will be turning pro.  Both of these picks are long-term picks, though you would hope that Stewart-Baynes could contribute a little in 2024.

Then the wheeling and dealing started.  By the end of the first round the Rapids had acquired $300K in GAM, an additional second round pick and the rights to the #5 pick in exchange for their other two first round picks and moving down in the second round.  The #5 pick was defender Nate Jones out of my alma mater, the University of Washington.  Jones is a junior and is the most likely of our six picks to get notable playing time in 2024.

With their two second round picks and their third round pick we selected sophomore forward Palmer Ault out of Butler, senior defender Anderson Ross out of Central Florida. and junior forward Gunnar Studenhofft out of Manhattan College.  Studenhofft has also debuted for the Cayman Islands National Team, playing in a World Cup qualifier already.

Since none of these players are seniors they can all return to school if they want, other than Stewart-Baynes.  I expect Jones at least to come out of school and the others may depend on what kind of feedback they get from the Rapids on their chances of making the team vs. making Rapids 2.  I assume there's already a plan of what they want to do with Fredrick as you wouldn't use the #2 pick on him otherwise.

If you combine the trades last season with the trades made yesterday, the Rapids traded Michael Barrios, Anthony Markanich, a first round pick in last year's draft, and the #31 pick this year.  In exchange they got the #4 pick, the rights to the #5 pick, the #34 pick, the #42 pick, and $300K in GAM.  No matter how you look at it, that's good business.

Today started with the U.S. Soccer Federation telling MLS that their plans to play MLS Next Pro teams in the Open Cup instead of the first teams was not allowed.  MLS responded that they could continue to work with the USSF on their Open Cup plans.  In the end what will likely happen is that teams will play in the Open Cup but they'll be given more liberal rules for calling up '2' players for those games.  Still its a positive step by the USSF to protect the Open Cup.

Then this year's schedule dropped.  For the first time the Rapids will face Inter Miami, but in Miami.  Messi is not coming to Commerce City.  That will be April 6th in Florida.  Colorado will start the season on February 24th in Portland and then have their home opener a week later on March 2nd against Gary Smith's Nashville side.  They then jump across the Divide for the first of three Rocky Mountain Cup matches the next week.  The second RMC match is in Sandy on May 18th, and the competition will finish on July 20th in Commerce City.

That's also the last match before the Leagues Cup break, and Colorado won't have another league home match for almost two months, when Portland comes to town on September 14th.  We have our home finale on October 5th against Seattle before finishing the regular season the next week in Austin.

Along with Miami we travel to NYCFC and Cincinnati, while welcoming Nashville, Montreal, RBY, and Toronto at the Dick, along with home and aways against all the Western opponents, plus the extra 3rd match with FSL.    We never have more than two road matches in a row, but 3 of our first 4 are on the road.  We have one run of three home games in early July, starting with the 4th of July home match against SKC and then St. Luis and RBNY over a total of 9 days.  We do have multiple 3-game weeks, but only one of them involves two road matches.  Memorial Day week we play at home on Memorial Day Saturday and then go to Houston midweek and Vancouver the following weekend.

Last, but not least, tonight Burgundy Wave is reporting that Chris Armas' contract is a two year deal.  Unless we have an Anthony Hudson situation I expect him to essentially see out that deal even if we don't see great improvement in 2024.  Coincidentally, or not, Robin Fraser's contract was also through the end of the 2025 season so one way or the other by 2026 there will be no legacy contracts on the books.

And with that, I'm calling a wrap on this post and hopefully 2023.  If anything happens over the holidays, unlikely as that is, I'll be back but I'm expecting everything to be pretty quiet for the next week and a half.  Happy holidays to all of my readers and I'll be back after New Years with hopefully enough time to do a piece on Soccernomics and the Rapids I've been hoping to do before the start of camp.

SuperDraft Tomorrow!

Before we get to tomorrow's SuperDraft a word on MLS's decision to pull the first teams out of the Open Cup and play only MLS Next Pro rosters.

Disappointing

I understand the realities of the schedule and the fact that its a financial loser, especially compared to the Leagues Cup, but the USOC is the one competition all American teams play in and MLS bailing on it is short-sighted.  If I weren't already not renewing my season tickets this decision would push me towards not doing it.

Now, on to tomorrow's SuperDraft which may be more significant than most for the Rapids.  As of tonight the Rapids hold 5 picks in the 3 rounds:

2nd Pick in the 1st Round - Natural pick

4th Pick in the 1st Round - Barrios trade with Galaxy

12th Pick in the 1st Round - GAM/pick trade with Charlotte

21st Pick in the 1st Round - Markanich trade with St. Louis

2nd Pick in the 2nd Round (31st overall) - Natural pick

2nd Pick in the 3rd Round (60th overall) - Natural pick

Three picks in the top 12, 4 in the top 21.  Even in a SuperDraft that's lost a lot in recent years, that's significant.  And the league made a change to the draft rules this year, for the first time sophomores and juniors are eligible to be drafted.  Those players can choose to return to school rather than enter the league but they can't re-enter the draft until their rights expire (after two seasons).  So there are approximately 400 players eligible for selection tomorrow.

Recent history has shown Padraig Smith targeting one player in the draft, making moves to get him, and then really letting the rest of the draft go.  This year, with so many high picks and the added depth in the draft, I'm expecting to get at least two solid players, either two draftees or a draftee and trading a combination of picks and xAM for an already established player.

Normally I'd try to update here in real-time on draft day and a recap tomorrow night, but my work schedule and the fact that I have tickets to Godzilla Minus One means I might not get it all written up until Wednesday.

Football In Paris, And A Rapids Move

Things have been quiet here largely due to the fact that I've been on vacation.  Part of that vacation included a chance to catch a match but before we get to that we do have one piece of Rapids news, namely a trade.

Colorado sent Andrew Gutman to Chicago in exchange for $450K in GAM and left-back Miguel Navarro.

From a bottom line that's a decent move.  We traded $400K of GAM plus an international spot for the rest of last season to Atlanta to get Gutman in July.  So essentially we broke even on GAM, got 1000 minutes out of him, and got Navarro for free.

Overall though, moving one of the few pieces that looked like a MLS starter is not the way I wanted to see the offseason moves start.  Our track record for using GAM recently isn't great, and Navarro seems like a bit of a loose cannon in defending so I don't see how this made us better.

Now on to a more interesting discussion.  I spent last week on vacation in Paris, and on Tuesday night I made time to go see Paris FC play Rodez.  Paris FC is currently the second most successful club in Paris metro, behind the powerhouse of Paris Saint-Germain (and the only other professional team other than PSG to be playing inside Paris' city limits).  Interestingly the original Paris FC merged with Stade Saint-Germain in 1970 to form  PSG.  Two years later Paris FC split off from PSG after the latter was not getting support from the city of Paris due to being based outside the city limits in  Saint-Germain-en-Laye.  Paris FC originally kept the first division status and the professional players, but in the 50 years since PSG has gone on to become a top 10-15 team in the world while Paris FC has struggled in the lower divisions.  Paris FC first started playing at Parc des Princes but surrendered that ground to PSG when they were relegated (at the same time PSG was promoted to Ligue 1).  Paris FC would get back to Ligue 1 for one season in the late 70's but has not seen the top-flight since then while PSG has never been relegated since they made it to the top tier.

Paris FC has been as low as the 5th division but has been in Ligue 2 for the last seven seasons.  This year they're sitting in 10th, 5 points from a playoff spot.  Their opponents last week were Rodez who sit right above them in 9th.  PFC play at Stade Charléty in the 13th arrondissement of Paris, a 20K seat venue that's best known for hosting multiple Rugby World Cup games.  There's also a venue below the stadium where Paris' top pro volleyball teams plays.

For this season Paris FC is the first European team to give away essentially all of its tickets.  In order to increase support everything but the VIP level tickets are free for all league matches.  About a week before the game I just went on the website and picked my seat and paid absolutely nothing.  It also worked out that where we were staying in Paris was around the corner from a bus route that terminated at the stadium so all I had to do was take a 12 minute bus ride to get to the game.  Here's the view walking up to Stade Charléty:

Once I got in the gates I found a nice stadium that had been recently renovated, but it was clearly a municipal stadium that PFC uses, not a PFC stadium.  Everything Paris FC related was in the form of things that could easily be put up and taken down as the stadium is used for other events.  There was no club shop, just a club van that sold kits, jackets, and scarves (I bought a kit and a scarf for my collections).  The pregame fan zone was all portable things that could easily be set up and taken down, and the banners and logos in the main arena weren't permanently attached.  That said it was a good family friendly environment and everyone was having a good time.  Plus I found somebody that clearly shares an ancestor with Rapidman:

Once I got to my seat I found that it had a similar feel to a midweek Open Cup game at the Dick.  A small but loyal fanbase in a much larger stadium.  With the exception of the travelling Rodez supporters all the fans were on one sideline (looking at the highlights later I realize we were all facing the camera used for the streaming coverage).  There's also a track around the field so fans are a bit of a distance from the field.  Here's the view from my 4th row seat:

There was a vocal supporters group in the second deck, as well as a decent travelling contingent from Rodez:

The game itself was enjoyable to watch, with the home side scoring in the first minute, then following up with one of the great goals I've seen live.  Pierre-Yves Hamel scored the first goal and in the 23rd minute he dispossessed Rodez at midfield, looked up and saw the keeper off his line, and took a shop from the midfield stripe.  He managed to place the ball just under the bar to give the Parisians a two goal lead, which they would hang on to through the end of the match.

This makes the third European country that I've seen a lower-league game in (Spain, Tenerife vs. Malaga; England, Blackburn twice and Wealdstone vs. Dulwich Hamlet) and I've enjoyed everyone.  Obviously the big spectacle is a PSG game (they didn't play at home while I was in PAris) but I prefer seeing the smaller teams.  Plus its cheaper!

Here's the highlights from the game.  If you pause it at 9 seconds that group of white seats on the right, 3rd row, I'm the one on the aisle.

Colorado Finally Announces Roster Decisions

Friday was the deadline to pick up player options for 2024 and the Rapids made their announcements today:

Options exercised: Andrew Gutman, Calvin Harris, Ralph Priso

Options declined: Sebastian Anderson, Steven Beitashour, Oliver Larraz, Jack Price, Abraham Rodriguez, Gustavo Vallecilla, William Yarbrough

Out of contract and leaving the team: Luis Diaz, Diego Rubio

Loan ending: Danny Leyva

Option triggered earlier this season: Danny Wilson

Currently signed for 2024:

Lalas Abubakar, Max Alves, Cole Bassett, Moïse Bombito, Kévin Cabral, Daniel Chacón, Michael Edwards, Braian Galván, Alex Gersbach, Andrew Gutman, Calvin Harris, Marko Ilić, Aboubacar Keita, Jonathan Lewis, Andreas Maxsø, Rafael Navarro, Sam Nicholson, Ralph Priso, Connor Ronan, Keegan Rosenberry, Sidnei Tavares, Jackson Travis, Danny Wilson, Darren Yapi 

The Rapids are negotiating to bring back Seb Anderson, Olli Larraz, and William Yarbrough on new (presumably cheaper) contracts.  Beitashour, Price, Rodriguez, and Vallecilla will not return.

A couple of notes.  Danny Wilson's contract had a clause that automatically triggered when certain metrics were achieved, which he met earlier this year.  Hat-tip to Matt Pollard at Burgundy Wave and Brendan Ploen with the Denver Post for finding that out.  The team has an option on him for 2025 that sounds like doesn't automatically trigger.

Max is still listed on the roster for 2024.  My assumption is that there are legal reasons that his contract can't be terminated for cause yet, my guess is that they can't do it until the legal process plays out in Brazil.  They could buyout his contract but each team only gets one buyout without taking a salary cap hit and they would still have to pay him if they bought him out, while terminating him for cause means the league isn't on the hook.  Unless he gets an absolutely clean pass from Brazilian authorities he'll never play here again and I'd be surprised if the contract is still in effect by the time the season starts.

There were really no surprises with the decisions today.  Gutman was an obvious pickup and while Harris wasn't particularly notable last year he's young and cheap so bringing him back makes sense.  Priso is really the only player I wouldn't have brought back, I'm not sure he adds anything but being a warm body at this point.

As far as who we let go, we knew Rubio and Price were leaving, and just yesterday news came out that Diaz was looking at European options.  We also knew about Leyva already.  

Vallecilla goes down as, so far, the worst trade Smith has ever made and potentially a top 3 worst trade in team history.  $800K of GAM and reportedly paying of his remaining transfer fee for 568 minutes of play.  We did get $185K of that GAM back by loaning him to Columbus this season, but even with that you're looking at a guy who made 12 appearances and had 2 red cards (in fact, he has a foul-to-card ratio of under 4 to 1 in his 49 MLS appearances).  Just a debacle of a knee-jerk move when Keita went down injured last season.

Beitashour is likely to retire and Abe Rodriguez seems to have been passed by Adam Beaudry for the "keeper fo the future" role so no surpises or real loss in letting them go.  Hopefully AbeRod can find a starting job either in MLS or the USL Championship.  Brining Seb Anderson and Olli Larraz back makes complete sense, especially the latter.  I hope they get that done.  I'm a little surprised that they're talking to Yarbrough, I don't know that paying him what he's worth makes sense as a backup, but we'll see.

Not counting Max there are only 23 signed players, and that includes Chacon who's out on loan in Costa Rica and Tavares and Navarro who are only here on loan through midseason.  So its really 20 players who are available to Armas for the whole 2024 season, and that assumes guys Lewis isn't traded.  There's a lot of holes to fill.

Rapids Make Armas Signing Official

The Rapids made it official this morning, announcing Chris Armas as the 10th permanent head coach in team history.  A full press conference will be held in almost two weeks, on November 30th.  We've covered my opinion of the hire last night so I won't get into that but there are a couple of more details that came out today that I want to mention.

First the timing of all this is odd.  Announcing the biggest hire a team will make on a Friday, and one going into the very busy Thanksgiving week, is a good way to see the announcement lost in the typical weekend and holiday chaos.  That leads me to believe that either they weren't originally planning to announce the hire today and last night's leak forced their hand or they knew the reaction to this hire would be extremely negative and they want it to get lost in the holiday.  Or they just have a very strange media strategy.  None of those options fill me with a lot of confidence.

Secondly Burgundy Wave is reporting that it wasn't a final 4 but a final 5, but Wilshere still wasn't one of those 5.  I'm curious who the 5th name is but it sounds like it doesn't matter as BW is also saying that coming out of the final round interviews Armas was the top choice.  This isn't a case where they had one or multiple other candidates turn them down and they settled on Armas.  It's mind-boggling to me that somebody with Armas' track record could be the front-runner for a team in such desperate need of taking a public positive step.  Instead they stepped on a rake, again.

Maybe in the end Armas will prove us all wrong.  I truly hope he does.  But there is nothing in his history or in the recent actions of the Front Office and KSE that makes it seem like 2024 will be anything but a completely lost season.

On a semi-related note Jeremiah Oshan tweeted from Sounders practice today that Danny Leyva was there and training with the team.  If you remember we loaned him in from Seattle this season with no purchase option.  It always looked like he'd go back to the Sounders but this seems to make that official.  Based on his play here its no loss to Colorado, he wasn't very good.  Sounders fans have a much higher opinion of him though.  Note that because of the roster freeze he can't play for the Sounders in the postseason, but it makes sense that he continues to train with them now that the Rapids season is over.