No Fan Alone Colorado Rapids Supporters

The Rapids waived Pat Noonan today.  He’s probably a victim of the new guaranteed contract language in the new CBA.  This leaves the Rapids with an open senior and an open developmental spot, based on the current understanding of the new CBA. 

Andy Lorei is still likely to take the developmental spot in my opinion.  The concerning thing is that there are only three forwards on the team (Casey, Cummings, and Akpan) and no midfielders that have ever really played forward.  I’m assuming that the open senior spot is already being offered to a forward with professional experience, because going into the season with the only backup to the Dynamic Duo being a MLS rookie is probably a bad idea.

On the heels of my post yesterday about Gary Smith having a set 24 in mind at the moment comes news from Steward Ceus that he’ll be returning to the USL-2 Charlotte Eagles on loan this season.  Ceus joined Charlotte in June last year for the remaining part of their season, playing 10 times for them and helped to lead the Eagles to a 4th place finish and runners-up in the Championship game.  With this move the Rapids now have 24 contracted players who count against the expected 24-man roster cap, plus a player on loan and a player on the DL (Schunk).  The fate of the two trialists, Andy Lorei and Jure Travner, is still up in the air.

Hi all!  The Grand Poobah asked if I’d be willing to share some of my on-field analysis of the team.  For those who may not know me I’m Jason Ma on BigSoccer, and before I started the View From the Couch blog I wrote under the same title at Rapidsfan.com.

On to current news.  Today the Rapids Undercurrent had some notes from Gary Smith. One in particular stood out to me:

Based on the announcements from the team, the Rapids have 26, not 24 on the roster. Ross Schunk’s torn ACL means he’ll be able to stay on the roster above the expected 24 limit. It sounds like Smith already has an idea of who the odd man out is at this point.

Given that Dalby has played two 45 minute halves in the first two preseason games and nothing since then, I’m still putting my money on him being the odd man out.

The other option is that Palguta’s injury is worse than expected and he’ll start on the DL as well, leaving the 24 signed healthy players as the 24.

(This all assumes that neither of the trialists are signed)

It’s tough to say goodbye to a friend, and to Class VI – Terry Cooke was truly our friend.

Already getting flooded with emails that are upset by the waiving of Terry Cooke for Scottish winger Jamie Smith and I can see that we’re close to another Kyle Beckerman situation.

Of course as Rapids fans, we hope Coach Gary Smith has made the correct decision and he shows us an improvement in the team and on the right flank with this move, but my inbox and telephone are telling me that Coach Smith has really put his standing with fans on the line with this move.

Please Note: This is just one man’s opinion. This doesn’t reflect the opinions of the supporters.
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I’m asking the above question to the Rapids players, because I don’t recognize them. I’ve been attending Rapids games since 2001 and a season ticket holder since 2002 and not since John Spencer, Chris Henderson & Mark Chung prowled the depths of Invesco have I felt as confident and proud of the Rapids. Saturday night’s game was a sight to behold. The Rapids held the best team in the Eastern Conference scoreless. They scored three goals and showed some entertaining, creativity all over the park. Cummings was lethal and bagged two goals and league wide Player Of The Week honors.
The biggest thing for me right now is in the table. The Rapids, who for the past two season started their summer tailspin sometime around now, are sitting in 4th place in the West on 20 points from 12 matches. The closest team behind them, Fake Salt Lake, has 16 points from 14 matches. So we have four more points and two games in hand. The closest team above the Rapids, Seattle, has 22 points from 15 games. The best team in the West, Houston, has 28 points from 14 matches. So, if the Rapids can string together some more home wins over the coming weeks, they will be knocking on the door at the top of the Conference and the League.
What? League Leading Colorado Rapids? Can it happen? I certainly hope so, and if the Rapids continue to play the way they did on Saturday I feel confident about it. I am a little worried about them slacking off, missing Conor Casey too much, etc. But at least I have hope. Many of you will remember my rants when I didn’t have hope. I think there is a good contrast between the two.
So let’s get out there and support these ‘Pids. Hopefully they can keep things going and be a serious contender when playoff time comes. Hopefully they’ll be able to qualify for some continental competitions this time around. Hopefully they’ll get into the US Open Cup without stupid qualifications. Hopefully there is something there for the marketing department to latch onto now instead of heritage nights and festivals that have nothing to do with soccer. Oops, did I say that out loud?

Hello from soggy Uptown, Rapids fans. On this beautifully rainy day I had visions of Conor Casey scoring goals galore running through my groggy head. Did I really see him net two sweet scores over the weekend? After 10 games do I really see Casey atop the leader board with 8 goals? Surely all this day-quil and ny-quil I’ve been taking for this stupid cold are making me see things. Right?
Seriously Rapids fans…can you remember the last time we had an outright goal scorer on the team? Can you remember the last time someone was on a hot streak scoring multiple goals in multiple games? Last thing I can remember we had Jovan “traffic cone” Kirovski stopping up the center of the park and leading the team in scoring with 6. Yes folks, while I’m sure your memory blocked this out as well as mine, in 2007 the high scorer on the team was Kirovski with 6 goals. The team scored a grand total of 29 goals that year. Pitiful.
But pitiful is what we’ve been left with since 2003, the last time the team had two players score over 10 goals. 2008 was a move in the right direction with Casey scoring 11, but the second on the list was Cummings with 6.
So I started thinking…what does the history of Rapids goal scoring look like? I did some digging and put together the info; 1998 was by far the most offensively productive year for the Rapids when they scored 62 goals, 2004 & 2007 were the most unproductive years where the team scored just 29 goals all year. In between there were totals from 36 to 50. Over the history of the team in MLS play, excluding the goals scored to date in 2009, the Rapids have scored 534 times. No, I don’t have league totals to compare…you can find those yourselves.
It was fun research to do, honestly. I enjoyed looking back and seeing names from the past like; Jean Philippe Peguero who led the team in scoring in 2004 with 7 goals, Jorge Dely Valdes who led things in 1999 with 10 goals, and Paul Bravo scoring the most in 1997 with 8 goals. I saw 2002 and remembered why I loved that season; Mark Chung, Chris Henderson and Chris Carrieri all scored 11 goals that year. Three guys got 33 goals. That was an exciting year. Then I remembered how we lost in the playoffs to LA and it brought back why I hate LA. I also saw that the season ended against Kansas City at Invesco with over 25,000 in attendance. What?
After 10 games Casey already has more goals than any single player on the team in 2004, 2006 & 2007 and he has tied 1997 when Paul Bravo led the way with 8 goals. If Casey can make the 12 goal mark he’ll be tied with Jeff Cunningham as the third best goal scorer in a single season in Rapids history. That is just four more goals. If Casey can score six more goals he’ll tie the record for single season goals which is held by the Super Scot John Spencer. Spencer scored 14 goals in both 2001 and 2003. 15 goals in a single season will make Conor Casey the most prolific scorer in Rapids history.
I don’t want to jinx him, but it seems like he can do it. Over the coming games I hope Conor Casey can score 7 more goals and if he does he’ll write himself into the Rapids history books.
Keep it going CC!

Just as I was typing my re-introduction blog entry the Rapids posted a Undercurrent blog post with the pre-season camp roster. With that released the fun of picking your starting 11 for opening day can begin, right? Right.
The way my mind works I usually start by looking at team salary. In 2008 the Rapids had a end of season salary total of $2.3M base and $2.5M guaranteed. Want to look for yourself?
We don’t have the new numbers for 2009 but we can make some estimations based on what we know. If you take last season roster and subtract out the guys who the Rapids say aren’t reporting (Jose Burciaga Jr., Bouna Coundoul, Facundo Erpen and Tom McManus) you get a starting balance of: $1.7M base and $1.9m guaranteed or a new available balance of $550K if you assume the cap doesn’t go up. The cap will go up marginally in 2009 but nothing to write home about. I figure you’re safe assuming is doesn’t because we know Pablo re-negotiated his deal and is bring in more, a couple of the younger guys may be on senior deals now, etc. In other words, I assume the salary cap increase will be a wash when you account for salary inflation on the roster.
So, if you don’t move want away midfielder Christian Gomez, or you trade him while eating his entire salary you have roughly $550K to spend on new players. But, we already drafted a bunch of kids, brought a couple back from the 2008 SuperDraft and traded for a couple…
Who did we bring back from the 2008 Draft? Kevin Forrest and Mike Graczyk. We’ll assume if they sign they’ll make league min. $12,900.
We traded for Matt Picken and Ty Harden. In 2007 Pickens was at $33K but he didn’t come back from Europe to make youngster money. I’m penciling him in at $100K/$125K. Harden isn’t coming back for peanuts either. He was at $30K in 2007 and I’ll bet the Rapids have to pay him $45K/$50K for his services now.
The kids we drafted aren’t going to make more than the minimum since the roster got tighter in the off-season. I’ve got them in at $12,900.
Add that all together and you’ve got $1.7M base and $1.9M guaranteed, as I said above. The young guys who get cut from the 34 person roster seen on the Undercurrent today to the match 1 roster will be considered a rounding error. After all, we’ll probably sign a foreign player or two in the six figure range and then cut ten $12,900 kids for a net wash.
$500K in salary room can go a long way when you consider we don’t have a DP slot available. The most someone can get is $350K base I think without being a DP.
Needs? We’ve got a few. Look at this list and tell me who is your starting defense:
Cory Gibbs
Jordan Harvey
Ugo Ihemelu
Stephen Keel
Kosuke Kimura
Kwame Sarkodie
Ty Harden
Mike Holody
Henry Kalungi
Are you happy with a back four of Harvey—-Ihemelu—Gibbs—Kimura? I’m not. Didn’t Gibbs back in the day play left back for the nats rather well? What if you can sign a solid center back to get him on the wing? I imagine that could improve things. Time to find another Aitor Karanka. Smith and Guppy should be able to find someone like that through their scouting networks. That would be a sure improvement.
Midfield I feel like we’re set for MLS standards. No matter what happens with Gomez, you’ve got:
Mehdi Ballouchy
Colin Clark
Nico Colaluca
Terry Cooke
Greg Dalby
John DiRaimondo
Christian Gomez
Brian Grazier
Nick LaBrocca
Pablo Mastroeni
Ciaran O’Brien
Cesar Zambrano
Is this the year for Colaluca to kick Cookie to the bench? If not, we’ve still got the best crosser of the ball in the league ready to go. Pablo and LaBrocca proved serviceable in the middle. Maybe Dalby and DiRaimondo are ample back stops. Ohh, and there is Ballouchy. Clark has the left side tied up assuming he doesn’t go awol or something. There isn’t a lot of room left for Gomez in fact.
Keepers? We won’t have this many come day 1 of the season. Right now we have six on the list:
Preston Burpo
Justin Hughes
Steward Ceus
Mike Graczyk
Matt Pickens
Chris Sharpe
In 2008 Sharpe was the MLS pool keeper living here because he is married to a Denver girl…I think. He’ll probably remain a pool keeper. Pickens and Burpo will be shooting it out for starter and then Hughes has proven to be a capable backup when healthy. Ceus & Graczyk will be shooting for Hughes spot and if the coaches are happy with Pickens, Burpo & Sharpe I don’t see why all three of the young’ins don’t end up in the USL. We only need three keepers on a tight roster.
Forwards:
Conor Casey
Omar Cummings
Jacob Peterson
Kwame Adjeman-Pamboe
Kevin Forrest
Ross Schunk
Jordan Seabrook
This is where the Rapids need serious help. Conor Casey proved he is league class but only when healthy. Lose him and you’re staring at a major problem. Cummings is fast as heck and learning to score, Peterson is quick but has struggled and is in need of a real awakening to prove he belongs. The next four are total unknowns. A lot of draft pundits said Seabrook was a steal in the draft in the last round but who knows. Kevin Forrest came into camp injured last year, or hurt himself soon after, and went back home to Washington to rehab and then play for the USL Sounders. He played in nine games in 2008 without scoring a goal. Forwards who don’t score…the Rapids always have one or three of them laying around. This is where Technical Director Bravo and Head Coach Smith and Assistant Coach Guppy need to focus their attention…without a solid signing here the Rapids are in deep trouble in 2009. And no…we shouldn’t have held onto Tam Tam the Hitman…he wasn’t the answer either.
So there you have it Class VI members…roughly $500K in salary room to go out and improve this team. What would you do as GM/TD/HC?
**Edit – 1/27/09 – I just realized a mistake in my calculations. First it was pointed out that Chris Sharpe isn’t a Rapids keeper. So he’s out of the total. However, I wasn’t totally things correctly and the current total is $2M/$2.2. Depending on the salary “budget” for 2009 the Rapids have about $300K wiggle room. That is only one or two signings in the off-season. Not as much as the $550K I discussed above. The Rapids do have to pare down the roster to 24 players so some more salary can open up as that process takes place, especially if someone like Preston Burpo or Jacob Peterson is cut loose. Sorry for the mistakes.**