RAPIDS PRESEASON ROSTER
The Rapids preseason camp starts today. The Rapids will be in Colorado for two weeks, then the team leaves for a 7 day camp in Ft. Lauderdale. I’m a little dissappointed that the Rapids aren’t going overseas to hold their training camp this year. The Rapids will take the pitch today for the first time and will start 2 a day training on Thursday. The Rapids training sessions will be closed to the public . . . bummer. Maybe the Green Army can get a press pass.
Who showed up?
Goalies: Preston Burpo, Steward Ceus, Mike Graczyk, Justin Hughes, Matt Pickens, Chris Sharpe
Defenders: Ty Harden, Jordan Harvey, Mike Holody, Ugo Ihemelu, Henry Kalungi, Stephen Keel, Kosuke Kimura, Cory Gibbs, Kwame Sarkodie, Cesar Zambrano
Midfielders: Colin Clark, Nico Colaluca, Terry Cooke, Greg Dalby, John DiRaimondo, Nick LaBrocca, Pablo Mastroeni, Ciaran O’Brien, Jacob Peterson, Mehdi Ballouchy, Christian Gomez, Brian Grazier
Forwards: Kwame Adjeman-Pamboe, Conor Casey, Omar Cummings, Kevin Forrest, Ross Schunk, Jordan Seabrook
These guys won’t be back:
Bouna Coundoul (GK) and Jose Burciaga, Jr. (DEF): Out of contract
Tom McManus (FWD) and Facundo Erpen (DEF): Rapids declined to pick up their contract options, McManus is on trial in Scotland.
Mike Petke (DEF) and Tim Ward (DEF): Waived, Petke has recently signed with the NYRB
I think these players not returning is a smart move. Bouna’s departure would have hurt more if Pickens was not in the picture. Burciaga, Erpen, and Ward never made an impact with the Rapids and their departure will not be felt. McManus had the potential to be a great striker in MLS but the team has decided to move in another direction.
Salary cap space:
Facundo Erpen never lived up to his $125,000 salary and his departure will give the Rapids salary space to play with. Similarly, Tom McManus leaves behind a $140,000 salary that was slightly more warranted, but ultimately too much for his production. Petke’s departure gives the Rapids another $133,000. Burciaga’s $80,000, Ward’s $54,000, and Bouna’s $33,000 give the Rapids a grand total of $565,000 in salary cap space. If they could offload at least some of Gomez’s $430,000 they would be a great position to start dealing for new players. I’m sure some of the money will be redistributed among existing players and some of the players already on trial, but $150,000 South American striker wouldn’t be such a bad move.
Christian Gomez?
Gomez was big question mark coming into this preseason. The interest in the player expressed by New England and Dallas never materialized. Goff at the Soccer Insider is predicting a move back to DC for the Argentinian playmaker. Dallas hasn’t completely taken their eye off Gomez, but Gomez’s salary demands make a move unlikely. I hope there is a way to get Gomez into the Rapids lineup because he is a talented player that still has a few years of soccer left in him.
Tryout Players:
No word on any potential tryout players yet. Smith has stated that there will be several joining the camp soon.
January 28th, 2009 at 12:05 pm
Great Article. Thanks for the Rapids update. Somewhat surprised about McManus and Erpen, but your salary cap explanation makes alot of sense. I already feel confident that Coach Smith with Technical director Bravo are going to do a better job than Clavijo had done.
January 28th, 2009 at 12:11 pm
So when are we elegible to have another DP? It think that Smith is making some intellegent choices about his squad. I don’t think they’re going to be an exciting team, but if they can all get on the same page, they should play some good soccer.
January 29th, 2009 at 10:40 am
That is a good question. I know they traded their DP to DC for Gomez. It was supposed to be for 2 years, which I think means we get it back in 2010. They used it to give Luciano Emilio a pay raise, so i’m not sure how that works when the time period expires. I’ll investigate it more.