God, Country, Soccer

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...

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...

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...