The Rapids were back at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park yesterday after a week in London.  The guys had a day off on Monday and long travel day on Sunday, so Tuesday was mainly about getting the legs active again.  The guys were put through a couple drills and short sided matches.

The Rapids Undercurrent has some photos and a great interview with Coach Smith.

Training Observations (only few today, not much to report on during these types of practices):

• The outside-mids worked on beating their marker one on one and hitting a cross.  Danny Earls and Jaime Smith were the most impressive in the drills.
• Colin Clarke is slowly getting back into form but you could tell he was a little frustrated during the drills.

Notes:

• Lorei is still around but no word if they are going to sign him or not.
• Jure Travner had a solid trial while in London. The word is that he is a solid player but nothing out of this world. No word on whether they are going to offer him anything.
• Greg Dalby wasn’t at training and it doesn’t look like he’ll back.
• Schunk will be out for a while with his knee injury.
• Rapids beat the Air Force 6-0 on Wednesday afternoon.
• This Friday is the charity match between the Rapids and the Seattle Sounders. It should be a great game.

Conversation with Rob Valentino:

I caught up with Rapids defender Rob Valentino after training. Rob has been one of the bright spots in the preseason but, with the number of defenders on the roster, there is no guarantee that he’ll earn a spot. Rob is entering his third year in MLS and things haven’t gone as he expected. In two seasons, Rob has yet to debut in MLS but is working hard to change that.

“Its been very frustrating, I’ve had to learn a lot of patience, I haven’t gotten any time in my fist two years and i’m going on to my third year. I’m trying to have a better outlook on things keep postive and keep working on things. If its an opportunity that opens up here whether it is to back someone up or to start, thats what I want to try to do. If there is an opportunity somewhere else that is where I’m going to have to go. But right now, I’m just trying to work hard and get time where I can.”

Rob is setting his sights on a starting spot but understands that it won’t be easy considering the quality the Rapids have in defense.

“Hopefully I can get in off the bench right away, we have a good group of guys in front of me. If someone steps down with injury or Gary thinks I’m ready to start, I’m ready to fill in where I can.”

Rob thinks the trip to London was a postive step for the team. The trip was mainly about getting back to playing and figuring things out.

“London was great, a great environment . . . we really needed to get back to playing with each other. We staretd to figure things out as the games went along. I think, against Arsenal, we started to figure things out later in the game. Obviuosly, when you make a couple of subs guys aren’t going to be used to some of the other players, so I think getting used to each other is the biggest thing. Playing as much as we can right now at this point will be our biggest strength.”

The leaders on the team are really trying to pull everyone together. Rob thinks there is great leadership on the team and that makes it easier for everyone to get on the same page.

“There is good leadership in the back with Drew, Drew was a great addition to our team last year. We have great leadership with Conor and Pablo, and we brought on Larentowicz, so hopefully those guys can push us through and get us to the playoffs this year.”

Rob thinks the Rapids are a playoff team. Although its still preaseason and more work needs to be done, he doesn’t doubt the quality of the team. He believes the current group is good enough to make the playoffs.

“We showed it last year, we were right there, we missed it by one point. As long as we can get off to good start like last year and hold it we’ll be in the playoffs. I think we’ve showed that we’re a playoff team.”

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 17th, 2010 at 3:54 pm and is filed under Colorado Rapids, General, MLS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.