God, Country, Soccer

Boom...outta here Marcelo Gallardo. Washington Post Soccer Insider Steven Goff is reporting that D.C. United has gone the way of Denilson (ie. parted ways) with the injury prone forward. If you had your money on David Beckham being the next DP to leave MLS, I hope you didn't bet the mortgage.

I posted the list of players invited to camp yesterday. Here's how I see things shaking out, at the end of training camp. This is a little bit of what I'd like to see, and also what I think will happen mixed together. You get to keep 20 senior team players and 4 developmental contract players, noted with a DV. -------------------------Casey-----------------Cummings--------------------- ----------------------------------Gomez/Ballouchy---------------------------- -------Clark--------------------------------------------------------Cooke------ ----------------------LaBrocca--------------Mastoeni------------------------- --------Harvey------------------Gibbs----------------------Ihemelu---------- -----------------------------------Pickens---------------------------------------- Jordan Seabrook (FWD) DV Kwame Adjeman-Pamboe (FWD) DV *Mehdi Ballouchy (MID) Nico Colaluca (MID) Greg Dalby (MID) John DiRaimondo (MID) Ciaran O’Brien (MID) Jacob Peterson (MID) Ty Harden (DEF) Stephen K...

The MLS has unveiled this years complete schedule. The Rapids schedule is as follows. 3/21 - Sat - 8:30pm at Chivas USA (FSC) 3/28 - Sat - 7:30pm Kansas City 4/4 - Sat - 8:30pm at Los Angeles 4/11 - Sat - 5:30pm at Columbus 4/19 - Sun - 1:00pm at Houston (Telefutura) 4/25 - Sat - 7:30pm Los Angeles 5/2 - Sat - 7:30pm Real Salt Lake 5/16 - Sat - 5:30pm at New England 5/23 - Sat - 7:30pm Seattle 5/30 - Sat - 5:30pm at New York 6/6 - Sat - 8:00pm at Real Salt Lake (FSC) 6/20 - Sat - 7:30pm D.C. United 6/24 - Wed - 7:30pm FC Dallas 6/28 - Sun - 2:00pm at Seattle 7/4 - Sat - 7:00pm Chicago 7/11 - Sat - 7:30pm FC Dallas 7/18 - Sat - 6:00pm at D.C. United 7/25 - Sat - 7:30pm New York 8/1 - Sat - 7:30pm Columbus 8/8 - Sat - 7:30pm Chivas USA 8/23 - Sun - 4:00pm at Chicago 8/30 - Sun - 1:00pm Houston (Telefutura) 9/5 - Sat - 8:00pm Toronto FC (FSC) 9/12 - Sat - 1:30pm at Toronto FC 9/18 - Fri - 9:00pm at San Jose (ESPN2) 9/23 - Wed - 7:30pm San Jose 9...

Today is the first day of training on the pitch for the 2009 Colorado Rapids Season. The Rapids have announced their roster for training camp, which contains 34 players. Out of the following group, 20 will be kept to the senior team with 4 being singed to developmental contracts. So, who do you think is in? Who's out? What line up do you see using? Surprised that Tam McManus, Jose Luis Burciaga Jr., Facundo Erpen and Bouna Coundoul are gone? I'll be back with more later and tell you how I see it all breaking down. Forwards (6) Kwame Adjeman-Pamboe (FWD) DV Conor Casey (FWD) Omar Cummings (FWD) Kevin Forrest (FWD) DV Ross Schunk (FWD) DV Jordan Seabrook (FWD) DV Midfielders (12) Mehdi Ballouchy (MID) Colin Clark (MID) Nico Colaluca (MID) Terry Cooke (MID) Greg Dalby (MID) John DiRaimondo (MID) Christian Gomez (MID) Brian Grazier (MID) Nick LaBrocca (MID) Pablo Mastroeni (MID) Ciaran O’Brien (MID) Jacob Peterson (MID) Defenders (10) Kwame Sarkodie (DEF) Cesar Zambrano (DE...

Is he a Rapid, or isn’t he? Is he a part of the future plans on the field or not? What are Gary Smith’s plans for him? Those are all questions that Rapids fans want answers to. There have been reports of him being traded to New England , Dallas and now DC United , but nothing has surfaced. I talked to him at the end of last season and he said that he’s not happy with not being on the field. If Gary Smith isn’t going to use him, shouldn’t the Rapids try to get some value out of the $400,000 they are spending on him, not to mention the DP slot they used as trade bait? The MLS isn’t a league where you can have dead weight on your roster; especially now with the rosters sizes slimmed down. I’m not saying that I want Christian gone; I think he does have something left, but he has to be in a very specific role. He has to be the playmaker. Is there enough room on the same field for him and Mehdi Ballouchy to be productive? That’s to be seen, but whether he’s going to be a Rapid or...

What a great 2009 debut for the US Men's National Team. Stellar performances by Brian Ching and Sacha Kljestan give US fan's that this year will be a great one. Kljestan showed why he'll be the next youngster to leave the MLS in scoring a hat trick. Ching showed why he keeps getting called up, becuase he's solid. Watch the highlights of the second goal scored, Ching's skill to possess and control the long pass surrounded by two Swede defenders was outstanding, not to mention the little pass that set up Kljestan for the goal. Excellent work.

MLS Primetime Thurday has gone the way of the Tampa Bay Mutiny, an is no more. ESPN has dropped MLS Primetime Thursday from regular line up. Instead, they will rotate days playing games on 4 different days. It's too bad, I loved MLS Primtime Thurdays, I tried to make it a big deal, I even came up with a song for it. "It's MLS Primetime Thurdsay, MLS Primetime Thursday, MLS Primetime Thursday with a baseball bat!" I'm sure my wife will enjoy the news that I won't get to sing that anymore. C'est la vie

The Rapids have dealt their pick at number 20 to the Chicago Fire for their second round pick, #28 and also, GK Matt Pickens. Matt Pickens will step right in for the exiting Bouna Coundoul. Sad to see Bouna go, but this deal basically tells us that he's gone. The Rapids selected Kwame Adjeman-Pamboe (F/M 5-8 155 George Mason)with the pick they acquired from Chicago.

The SuperDraft is under way in St. Louis and as the first round comes to a close one guy is still in the draft pool that would look very good in the Burgundy and Sky Blue. Forward Baggio Husidic from the University of Illinois - Chicago. I'm hoping first of all that he'll be there at pick number 20, and also that the Rapids will help the offense out and take him.

SuperDraft 2008 is a very deep draft with a lot of talent coming out of college ( ESPN2 @ Noon ). However, the Rapids don't pick until the 20th selection. Don't look for the Rapids to come out of this draft looking any different than they went into it based upon draft selections. With the roster sizes being cut and developmental contracts at a minimum, if you can't snag a Generation Adidas player, why even bother with the draft? Is the player that gets picked by the Rapids at number 20 even going to make the team? If you are the Rapids, are you going to cut a guy you've had a year or two to work with, like Kosuke Kimura, in favor of a guy who is a prospect? Or do you let them go to the USL, prove themselves, get some game action in and try to build your team that way? I expect the Rapids to maybe try to make some deals, try to see if anyone will take Christian Gomez from them, and possibly try to deal to get a higher pick. Don't get me wrong, the draft is exc...

Paul Bravo has been announced as the Colorado Rapids technical director. The all time leading scorer for the Rapids comes back to town after spending the past few years in the LA Galaxy organization. We'll see if this makes a difference. Hopefully he has a good eye for talent.

John Murphy and the Colorado Rapids have parted ways. Murphy was the Director of Player Development for the Rapids for the past 4 years. He is moving on to pursue other interests. The Rapids have always touted his credentials of having a US Soccer "A" License and also a UEFA "A" License, so maybe now he'll be using them. Details were not made available about where he is going or who will replace him. I'll post more when I find out.

Ugo Ihemelu has been called into this months US Men's National Team's camp as a replacement for fellow Colorado Rapid Cory Gibbs. With all the confusion in '08 about which team he was going to play for (Canada/US), it's good that he gets a chance with the USA. Congratulations to you Ugo!

It's that time again, MLS Superdraft time. This year's version will take place on Thursday January 15th at noon. The Generation Adidas players have been finalized and announced , and if you remember last year, 6 of the top 8 draft picks were Generation Adidas players, so take a look.

I'm back from Holiday and ready to talk some more soccer. I hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Year. I look forward to a great 2009 and hope to share it with you.