God, Country, Soccer

Last week the Rapids confirmed the long rumored trade of Preston Burpo and Cory Gibbs to New England for Jeff Larentowitz and Wells Thompson. I don't really have a problem with the trade, both Burpo and Larentowitz are out of contract. If Larentowitz doesn't resign with MLS then the trade becomes lopsided. All signs point to him coming back however. With that trade happening, let's take a look what a potential line up on opening day might look like for the Rapids. ----Cummings--------Casey-------- Clark-------LaBrocca--------Smith ----Larentowitz-----Mastroeni---- Kimura----Baudet----Palguta---Moor Right now there isn't any real left back on the team. You might be able to put Harden over there, but his pace would hurt you. Kimura has shown flexibility in his play and I think could transition to a speedy left flank that would make overlapping runs with Colin Clark. The other option would be to put Pablo in the defensive line and move LaBrocca to D-Mid and Ballouch...

It had been speculated over the past few days that Peterson had been traded, but getting any information out of the Rapids about player movement is always a dead end. So, today we get conformation via Toronto FC's website. So who gets the best of this trade? Well it's easy to say that TFC does because they get a player and the Rapids just get allocation money out of the deal. However, Jacob Peterson has never turned the corner and turned his potential into results. If it was up to me I wouldn't necessarily have given up on him, I still think he can be an effective player. But considering he shredded his knee towards the end of the season last year, and his game is mostly based upon speed, I can see why Colorado did what they did. I've interviewed/talked to Jacob a few times and he's always been nice and accommodating, and seems to be a nice guy, so I wish him luck and success in Canadia. UPDATE: The Rapids have released a video explaining the trade and why ...

The Rapids went into the SuperDraft 2010 without a first round pick but came out with first round talent. The man pictured above is Andre Akpan. He is a forward from Harvard University. He was a finalist for the Hermann Trophy (College Soccer's Best Player). He scored 47 goals and 33 assists in college. He was projected as a first round pick. He had a poor combine. He fell to 6th pick of the second round (22nd overall) to the Rapids. He's no young project. He's 23 years old and ready to play. If and when Conor Casey gets called to the World Cup, Akpan could be ready to step in and play. I mean he couldn't be any worse than Pat Noonan right? Oh yeah, if you were wondering why the Rapids didn't have a first round pick, in a draft that was supposedly the deepest talent pool MLS has ever seen, it's because of the Pat Noonan trade. Here are the rest of the Rapids picks.