CCL Ends Not With A Bang, But A Wimper

As expected nothing much came out of last night's CCL game.  We saw a few different players, had a good run out, and went home with our CCL campaign complete.

The Rapids looked better this week, having some good chances and really controlling the game for all but about the last 20 minutes when they tired.  That said, TFC had a 2 goal lead coming in and never really seemed to get out of third gear.  Maybe an early goal by the Rapids puts the pressure on TFC and they break, but its equally possible an early goal wakes them up and they go on to beat us.

Now we have a week and a half break before league play starts in New England on the 10th.  Consider this, in 4 games against MLS opposition this season we've scored 1 goal.  Not good.

(Oh, and for all the talk about how TFC is an all time great MLS team, they've beaten Colorado once in the 4 times they've faced them going back to 2016.  I'm not impressed.)

CCL Round 2

Last week I did a full game preview for what amounted to a preseason game.  Fool me once and all that so just a quick write up this week.  From the talk it appears will swap out most, if not all, of the starting XI tomorrow night and play them all a full 90 again.  We know Boateng and Aigner are out of the country and Azira's wife gave birth this weekend so I'm assuming he's not available.  Gashi and Colvey are still listed as probable with injuries.

Kickoff is 6pm MST and it looks like streaming is your only option, either through Univision Deportes or go90.

Prediction: 1-0 loss.

Rapids Sign Youngest Homegrown Player In Team History

Big news out of Commerce City today as the Rapids signed 18 year old Sam Vines as their newest Homegrown Player.  Vines is an outside defender that has played at every level of the U.S. youth teams other than the U-23s and was named to the National Development Academy Best XI last year.  He is expected to play wingback in Hudson's system, adding some extra depth at that position.  At 18 he's also the youngest Homegrown Signing in team history.

Also today it was reported that Nana Boateng and Stefan Aigner have returned home (to Ghana and Germany respectively) to complete the process of gaining their green cards.  This is a big move for the club in two ways.  First of all for 2018 this immediately puts us into roster compliance once the process is complete as the team is two over on internationals.  That means the team has the option to not loan Wynne out if they want.  If Badji is also able to get his it would give us an open spot.  In the past MLS has shown some willingness to bend the rules around roster compliance and internationals as well if a chance in status is imminent.  That means that even if these cards aren't complete by mid-next week when the roster compliance date is hit the Rapids will likely not be forced to make any move to become compliant.  The one downside is that with them out of the country they won't be available for Leg 2 of the CCL in Toronto on Tuesday.

The other reason this is a big move for the club is that Aigner has been here barely 6 months and Boateng a little over a year.  We've seen other teams, notably Seattle, move quickly in getting green cards for players but these would be the fastest green cards in club history I believe.  The green card process does not require a minimum amount of time but it does take several months to process and, in the case of applying for one through employment and not family, support from the employer.  This quickness of these two applications is another indicator of the change in the Front Office.  I wonder if the addition of Ena Patel has helped with this as this seems to fall into her sphere as Director of Player Personnel (obviously to be at this point already the process had to have started before her hiring but I'm sure her presences has helped).  Regardless its a positive sign that the club is taking this step now, especially compared to the past when there were cases (such as Ballouchy) where we'd see paperwork issues never prioritized for fixing/completing.

The roster list below has been updated with both pieces of news today.  We now have 29 of 30 roster spots filled (not counting Da Fonte) and all 8 international slots filled.  We do have an open DP slot.

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 Sam Vines - HG
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 Enzo Martinez
M Ricardo Perez - HG
M Jack Price*
M Dillon Serna - HG
F Dominique Badji*
F Caleb Calvert - HG
F Niki Jackson
F Joe Mason*
F Jack McBean

FC Denver Needs Your Help

Local amateur side FC Denver qualified for the 2018 U.S. Open Cup.  This will almost certainly require them to travel out of state if they advance at all.  To help with those costs they've started a fundraiser here.  Hopefully they can put everything they need together.

Colorado Offense As Frozen As The Fans

Wow, that was cold.  An official kickoff temperature of 3 degrees set a new MLS record, one that won't be broken any time soon.

As we expected from the pre-game comments the Rapids treated this like a preseason plus game while TFC came in looking to make this the first step on their run to the CCL title.  Not surprisingly, TFC won 2-0.  The first half was actually fairly even, with some positive things to build on in 2018.  The second half was 2017-level dreck and TFC took advantage for both goals.  Colorado used no subs and after the game Hudson said that was intentional to build fitness (and probably, to minimize the risk of injury).

Because the goal of this game was largely not on winning its hard to draw many conclusions from it.  Jack Price looked good, he's quickly going to become a favorite I think.  Tommy Smith seems to be a good organizer on the back line.  Jack McBean brought nothing to the game and a front line of Badji & McBean is not going to get the job done in league play.  Finally I had carried the torch for a renewed Howard this offseason.  After his performance last night I regret it.  I hope it was just the cold because he looked slow and barely reacted on either TFC goal.  If its not just the cold and he really is struggling, Hudson is going to have his first big decision of his Rapids career as MacMath waits in the wings.

We've got TFC again in Toronto next Tuesday but it will take a miracle to advance.  After that its a bye the following weekend, a trip to New England on the 10th, another bye, and then the home opener on the 24th.  Kind of a start-stop month ahead, it will be important to stay focused.