God, Country, Soccer

The Rapids in recent days have been busy. They have announced the signings of Colombian defender Oscar Murillo and Irish defender/midfielder Danny Earls from Rochester Rhinos. Also it seems they are on the verge of signing two other players. Jamaican striker Devon Hodges, which has been in the news for a little while now , and more recently Eire, PA native Andy Lorei from Rochester Rhinos. Lorei seems to fit a need for flanker depth with the injuries to Jamie Smith and Colin Clark last year and the loss of Jacob Peterson to Toronto FC earlier in the off season. All 4 of these recent additions look pretty good, especially Devon Hodges who once scored 10 goals in a professional game. It also seems that the most important signing that Gary Smith has ever made was to bring in Steve Guppy. In Guppy's short tenure with the Rapids so far he's had influence in bringing at least 3 players to the fold, Scott Palguta, Danny Earls and Andy Lorei. All spent time with Guppy during th

Major League Soccer has unveiled it's 2010 schedule today. Looking deeper at the Rapids' portion of that schedule, there are some interesting notes. - Finally a schedule that looks like an actual soccer schedule. Philadelphia joins MLS this year and makes the total number of teams 16, which means if you play everyone twice, home and away, you end up with 30 games total. Perfection! - With it being a World Cup year the schedule got crunched up a little bit with 6 games scheduled in July, including trips to opposite ends of the landscape, one to Seattle and one to Toronto. - David Beckham won't be making an appearance at DSGP this year, he will still be with AC Milan when the Galaxy come to Denver on 5 de Mayo. - The two games against rival Real Salt Lake are spaced a month a part at the end of the season, with the final game of the season being at home against them. - The Rapids first look at the 2 new stadiums entering the league this year are 8/14 in Philly and 9/1

Defender Rob Valentino who has yet to see the field for the Rapids in an MLS game is being loaned out to Løv-Ham of the Norwegian First Division (Second Level). Norway's domestic league is a summer league so he could be gone all season. If he wasn't going to play for the Rapids, loaning him out isn't a bad deal for him or the team. Let's hope he gets playing time over there to make it worth it. The only caution is that with this move the Rapids have sent away 3 defenders (Cory Gibbs, Jordan Harvey, Rob Valentino) this off season without replacing any. Depth going forward on the back line could be an issue.

Is it time the Rapids got rid of Pablo? I know this may come off as heresy or disloyalty to some, and others may be thinking "it's about time someone else has said it!", but is it time for the Rapids to move on without Pablo Mastroeni? With the recent trades the Rapids made it looks like the Rapids may be thinking that too. Bringing Jeff Larentowitz in to the fold along with the emergence of LaBrocca as a consistent contributor to the defensive midfield has left the fans with the question, what do we do with Pablo? At this point in their careers Larentowitz, 26,is a better player at the position that Pablo, 33, currently occupies. Pablo has always been a tweener type of player, not really big enough to play defense, not really much of a passer to link with the attack when playing d-mid. That's not to say he hasn't played both of those positions, and played them well, he very much has. Not only that, but he has also become an icon for this club, and it wouldn