Rapids Trade Ty Harden to Toronto

No huge surprise with this one. The coaching staff said all the right things about Harden when he was signed last year but his fate was somewhat sealed when he got injured in the early season game against Columbus and was replaced by Scott Palguta. Palguta cemented his place in the team thereafter and there was no room for Harden. His trade also frees up some space for the expected signing of central defender, Oscar Murillo, from Colombia. Harden was traded in exchange for a draft pick.

Jordan Harvey Philadelphia Bound

A bit odd to see the only player who played in all 30 games for the Rapids last season to be leaving, no? Scott Palguta and Drew Moor are going to be busy at left back next season.

Press release from the Colorado Rapids:

COMMERCE CITY, Colo. (Wednesday, November 25, 2009) – The Colorado Rapids announced today that defender Jordan Harvey was selected by the Philadelphia Union with one of their 10 selections in the 2009 MLS Expansion Draft.
Each of the League’s 15 teams was allowed to protect 11 players, leaving all others unprotected and available for selection by the Union.
Harvey was originally selected with Colorado's first pick, ninth overall, in the 2006 MLS Supplemental Draft. In five seasons with the Rapids, he appeared in 45 games with 42 starts for 3,793 minutes and recorded four assists. Harvey is coming off a career season in 2009 where he was the only Rapids player to appear in all 30 games, while also registering a career-high three assists. His 2,613 minutes played last season were 8th most in MLS.

Rapids Announce Protected List Ahead of Draft

Press release today from the Colorado Rapids re the Philadelphia expansion draft. A few notable players not included in the protected list such as Jordan Harvey, Mehdi Ballouchy and Pat Noonan. Scott Palguta was another first team regular this season but his exclusion is more understandable given it was his rookie season. Only one player can be drafted by Philadelphia from each club.

COMMERCE CITY, Colo. (Monday, November 23, 2009) – The Colorado Rapids announced their list of 11 protected players for the 2009 MLS Expansion Draft, which takes place this Wednesday, November 25 at 11 a.m. MT.

With the Philadelphia Union, the league’s 16th club, entering the league for next season, each team in MLS must make a certain amount of their players available for the draft.

Philadelphia may not claim more than one player from any given team in MLS, and will select 10 players, meaning that five teams will not have a player taken in the Expansion Draft.

COLORADO RAPIDS PROTECTED PLAYERS

Goalkeeper: Matt Pickens
Defenders: Julien Baudet, Cory Gibbs, Kosuke Kimura, Drew Moor
Midfielders: Colin Clark, Nick LaBrocca, Pablo Mastroeni, Jamie Smith
Forwards: Conor Casey, Omar Cummings

In addition to this list, Rapids midfielder Ciaran O’Brien and defender Rob Valentino are automatically protected by the Rapids due to their Generation adidas status.

COLORADO RAPIDS PLAYERS AVAILABLE FOR SELECTION

Goalkeepers: Preston Burpo, Steward Ceus
Defenders: Ty Harden, Jordan Harvey, Scott Palguta, Michael Holody
Midfielders: Mehdi Ballouchy, Greg Dalby, Jacob Peterson
Forwards: Facundo Diz, Pat Noonan, Ross Schunk

Do We Know The Way to (Beat) San Jose?

The Colorado Rapids traveled to California yesterday to prepare for tonight's game against San Jose before, bizarrely, playing the same team again next Wednesday at DSG Park. What an important game tonight's game is. After losing at Toronto to record their fourth straight away defeat, the Rapids know that a point tonight against a struggling team will be the least they can come away with before, hopefully, picking up three points at home next week. If they can manage all three tonight plus a win next week, that would take them to 42 points, a figure that Gary Smith thinks now is the benchmark for reaching the playoffs.
If, if, if. The trouble with the MLS is that you can never tell what the results are going to be. If a contending team in the Premier League played a basement team, you are pretty much going to know the result, Burnley v Man U gloriously excepted. In the MLS, who knows? Yes, San Jose may be poor but they did beat Seattle 4-0 at home this season and I seem to remember the Rapids losing 2-0 to them at DSG Park last year. A point would be good, a win even better and a loss very disappointing. Point to me for stating the bleeding obvious.
My best guess on the line-up would be pretty similar to how the second half against Toronto started. Scott Palguta, who came on for a poor Pat Noonan after 45 minutes last week, is fully recovered from injury and illness and looks likely to start at left back. That would mean Jordan Harvey moving up more to left midfield as he did in the second half in Canada. Mehdi Ballouchy is back and will take a central midfield role with Greg Dalby whom Smith has praised on www.mlsnet.com for last week's performance. I think Noonan will pay the price for his form last week and drop to the bench. That's my guess, anyway. All I know is that Smith wasn't happy with Noonan's form and he doesn't have all that much patience with poor performances. Matt Pickens and Cory Gibbs continue to rehab from their injuries and will be out for at least the next two weeks.
The key to tonight may be how clinical the strike pairing is upfront. Conor Casey has been incredibly consistent all season and, if he can be at his bullish best, he could give a fragile San Jose back four all sorts of problems. So could speedster, Omar Cummings. We just need Omar to be on the type of finishing form he showed in Chicago rather than last week. I don't know how Omar gets into some positions to score. He is one of the best in the league at doing that. The downside is that he can still miss seemingly certain goals once he gets in those positions. He is so close to being a complete player. Let's hope he bangs them in tonight if he gets himself into scoring positions.
Kickoff is at 9pm Mountain Time with the official viewing party at Fado's.

Rapids Brace Themselves for Final Road Effort

Shades of last week for the Colorado Rapids as they take on Houston in the heat and humidity of Texas tomorrow afternoon. The Rapids will be taking on recent MLS champions who have struggled so far this season without a win to their name. Just like Columbus last week and the Rapids got a draw out of that. A similar result tomorrow would cap a very fine achievement for Gary Smith's men as it would mean five points in an undefeated three game away series plus the win against LA Galaxy in the Open Cup.
It sounds like Smith is preparing for a physical battle with not much pretty soccer going on. Last week, he bolstered the physicality of the back line by introducing Ty Harden into the mix, an experiment that did not work out too well given Harden's injury in the opening 20 minutes. His replacement last week, Scott Palguta, looks set to make an MLS start for the first time, especially considering Cory Gibbs is doubtful to make the team because of injury. It could be that Ugo Ihemelu will slot back into the center of defense to join Palguta with Kosuke Kimura playing at right back. The midfield would appear to be pretty predictable with Jacob Peterson and Terry Cooke unlikely to be starting so, as it has been for much of the season so far, the starting four looks to be Mastroeni, LaBrocca, Clark and Ballouchy. Conor Casey will need to be at his physical and opportunistic best upfront along with Omar Cummings. The big question is who will start between the posts. Smith has been keeping his cards very close to his chest on that one this week. Both Preston Burpo and Matt Pickens got on the coach going to the airport this morning at DSG Park. I get the feeling, though it's no more than a hunch, that Burpo will continue to start tomorrow to see off this road trip stretch.
It's going to be a very difficult game for the Rapids and a baptism of fire for the likes of Palguta who will have to keep an eye and the rest of his body on one of the best forwards in the MLS in Brian Ching. If the defense can neutralize Ching and control the midfield - much easier said than done - there could be opportunities for Casey and Cummings upfront. But I don't see there being much for the strikers to feed on. If the Rapids can come away with another gritty point, those next two home games, with temperatures returning to what we are more used to in Colorado, will look so much more appealing. Tomorrow's game kicks off at 1pm Mountain Time with the official viewing party at Fado's in downtown Denver.

Rapids Take Another Step Forward

Another big step on the road to playing with real confidence. The Colorado Rapids picked up a brave point away at Columbus, riding their luck against the defending MLS champions, especially in the closing minutes, but coming away with a precious 1-1 draw courtesy of a Conor Casey equalizer in the 82nd minute. Casey took his chance very well following a nice pass over the top of the defense from Pablo Mastroeni. Casey and Omar Cummings, who posed plenty of challenges all night for the Crew defense, are really establishing themselves as a very fine attacking partnership.
Coach Gary Smith sprung a surprise or two with the starting line-up, relegating Kosuke Kimura to the bench and playing Ty Harden in central defense with Cory Gibbs and moving Ugo Ihemelu out to the right. In truth, this was an option that Smith had readily discussed at the beginning of the season. Unfortunately, it did not last long in this game as Harden limped out with an injury within the first 20 minutes and was replaced by the inexperienced Scott Palguta. Palguta did well, forcing Alejandro Moreno out wide in the second half at one point and cutting down the angle for the dangerous striker. It makes perfect sense to try the experiment at this early stage because you don't want players coming in solely in emergencies and not having had any experience during the season. Kimura will play many times more for this team, of that you can be sure. Harden may not have had much time on the field but at least it did give the opportunity to Palguta who will surely be called upon again. In another slight surprise, Preston Burpo maintained the starting goalkeeper spot ahead of Matt Pickens who looks to be recovering from his back injury. It will be very interesting to see who plays in goal against Houston next week.
The Rapids will be mighty relieved after their game against Houston because it will mean the end of a big road trip and two home games in a row against LA and Real Salt Lake. If they can get something out of the Houston game next weekend, those two home games will look increasingly appealing.

Club v Country; Mastroeni Called Into US Squad

Pablo Mastroeni, club captain of the Colorado Rapids, will not be playing in the home season opener next Saturday because he will have the small matter of marshalling the midfield for the US national team in deepest El Salvador. Mastroeni has been called up by national team coach, Bob Bradley, for the vital World Cup qualifying games against El Salvador and then, four days later, at home in Nashville against Trinidad and Tobago. I wouldn't mind betting that Pablo will be released for the Trinidad game. There seems to be a pattern emerging of picking him primarily for the really difficult games away from home where his experience and toughness are perhaps most needed. Granted, he was not able to play in the Mexico game last month because of suspension but there does seem to be this trend emerging. It begs the question as to whether Mastroeni will simply be a convenience in the US set-up while they aim to qualify for the World Cup and would then promptly be dropped for the tournament itself. Of course, if he plays out of his skin during the qualifying games, it could be that Bradley would have no option but to take him to South Africa. But there is this nagging feeling and it is not something that is lost on Mastroeni himself who has to weigh his loyalty to both club and country, two entities he both desperately wants to play for. "It is kind of difficult with the Rapids," he told me this morning. "Clearly, it is everyone's dream to represent their country. We'll just have to see where I am in the big picture." If I was a US fan, which I kind of am a very distant second to England, I know who I would like in my team as Didier Drogba came hurtling towards me with his Ivory Coast teammates. The US will need someone of Pablo's experience in midfield for what will be a very difficult tournament next year in unfamiliar surroundings.
In other news, the Rapids confirmed today that they have signed Gregory Richardson and Scott Palguta, completing the 24-man roster for now. Richardson could well be on the bench tomorrow as the Rapids face Chivas in the season opener.

Summer Striker From Abroad?

Gary Smith may be waiting until the summer for a big signing from Europe if unconfirmed reports of new signings for the Colorado Rapids turn out to be true. Last week, the Rapids signed draft striker Ross Schunk to the team, waiving defender Stephen Keel who has reportedly signed with the Portland Timbers franchise. That left them with one very inexperienced back-up forward to Conor Casey and Omar Cummings. Now, reports say that Gregory Richardson has inked a contract with the Rapids. The Guyanese player hit the headlines last year when he spanked the New England Revolution for a few goals. Head coach Smith may therefore be waiting until the summer for a bigger name, content to have Schunk and Richardson as back-ups until then and probably praying that neither of his frontline strikers get really bad injuries. Schunk and Richardson have zero MLS experience so it will be tough for them if they do get called in. There are also reports out of Rochester that Scott Palguta (see March 11 blog post) has signed a contract. He would be a back-up defender to Jordan Harvey and Ivan Guerrero as a left-sided back. Here's the link to a Guyanese report about Richardson.
http://www.stabroeknews.com/2009/sports/03/12/richardson-runs-onto-rapids%E2%80%99-roster/

Rapids May Sign Back-up Defender from Rhinos

An interesting piece of news out of Rochester, NY. It looks as if the Colorado Rapids may be signing another left-footed defender as a back-up to Jordan Harvey. Scott Palguta of the Rochester Rhinos is currently on trial with the Rapids. The Steve Guppy connection with Rochester is obviously alive and well. Looks like this guy is pretty highly rated. Look for some news from the Rapids in next few days.
Here's the link to a Rochester paper. The Rapids travel to Seattle today for a preseason friendly against the new Sounders team tomorrow.
http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20090310/SPORTS05/903100318/1007/SPORTS