Conor Casey and Pablo Mastroeni will be called to lead again in 2010. (Getty Images)

We’re moving on in our look at each Major League Soccer roster to see where all the clubs are at in their pre-season. So far we’ve looked at Philadelphia, Chicago and Chivas USA. Today we stay out west and look at Gary Smith’s Colorado Rapids.

Last season had some ups and downs for the Rapids. Offensively at times they looked like they could not be stopped with Conor Casey and Omar Cummings leading the charge but injuries got in the way of post season glory for this bunch.

The winter months have given Smith and his club some time to make some moves and so far they’ve been pretty active. I still see this club making more moves before the season kicks off next month. But lets see how they are doing at each position right now. Continue Reading…

The Colorado Rapids are hoping to reach the playoffs and some defensive help should go a long way in correcting some of their inconsistent issues. Today they have traded with FC Dallas for defender Drew Moor in exchange for Ugo Ihemelu, according to both clubs.

The Rapids also pick up a second-round pick and allocation money in the deal.

Interesting deal from a Dallas stand point. Ihemelu is a little more physical than Moor and probably brings a little more speed to the backline. But was he worth a second-round pick and allocation money? That part I question a little bit.

Plus, Ihemelu is a former SMU player under Schellas Hyndman. It also looks like Hyndman is going to start clearing out more players in the coming weeks that don’t fit his system. I expect more deals to be made.

Colorado adds a quality defender to their defense as they look to make the playoffs. Moor should fit nicely in their defense.

In terms of salaries, both were making around the same, Ihemelu with $140,000 and Moor with $132,000 with bonuses adding up to a little over $149,000; which may explain for the allocation money being sent to Colorado.

You know I’ve thought long and hard about FC Dallas and what to make of them so far this season. I’ve thought what it would be like if I had all the money in the world to buy them from the Hunts and make them into something that they deserve to be. I’ve also thought even more about why this club is struggling so much not just off the field but on it.

Mainly it comes down to a few factors but most ultimately end up with a lot of blame on head coach Schellas Hyndman. Continue Reading…

Another week in the books for Major League Soccer. A couple draws that may have shocked some, and a couple big wins that left me rather impressed. Five weeks into the season and I think we are already starting to see some things about these clubs, some things we’ve learned a bit sooner than we probably expected while other things we are left questioning.

Over the weekend I jotted down a few thoughts while I was watching all the action. Some of you may have noticed some random twitter updates over the weekend, I’ll try to keep up with that in the coming weekends as well. I won’t however be doing too many live blog/chats though, enough folks are doing it and probably at a better rate than I’d do.

Anyhow, if you have a comment from the weekend that was week five, please post below.

Fire Can’t Hold Lead

I’ve been saying for a while that Kansas City needed Josh Wolff to be the striker that they can go to for their scoring needs. Well, after a terrible first half he and his club came out of the locker rooms at Toyota Park and really took it to the Fire. It wasn’t a matter of the Fire blowing the toughest lead in soccer (2-0) but it was the manner in how Kansas City faught back. Continue Reading…

FC Dallas defender Drew Moor has signed a new four year contract with the club according to Soccer America and later confirmed by one of my sources.

Moor is one of club’s most consistent and reliable players, something not to many people have been able to do on that backline over the last few years. I like that the club is investing in the future of its defense and are not going back out to sign some wasted talent to play in the back.

Plus the fact that he won’t be bolting off to Europe (a la Clarence Goodson) is good to see for those who want to keep the young American talent around in the league these days.

No official word on what his new deal says he will be paid or what exact details are in the contract.

Hopefully that means Kenny Cooper is next on the contract situation. Most figured he would be first and to a degree he is but things have stalled out from what I hear. Dallas is preparing to do something soon with all the allocation money that they’ve collected this season. I wouldn’t be shocked to see them toss most of that into a contract for Cooper.

No word officially what the club is planning to do with that allocation money. Most hope that it will be spent on keeping Cooper.

Happy Monday to all here as we are a hours away from the international summer transfer window opening back up for all clubs to trade parts, find new and exciting and whatever else those clubs do with the transfer window.

But before an influx of new talent comes into Major League Soccer I wanted to spend a little time looking back at the homegrown stuff here in the States. More importantly the homegrown talent that comes out of the college ranks and what not through the league’s SuperDraft.

I am mainly looking at old drafts and thought it was worth a mention to take a look back at the last few drafts to see not only how clubs did but the players that have moved on to bigger and better things through the league. Also to talk about the players who were picked high and ended up as duds (there are more than you’d think).

For the most part the MLS SuperDraft finds us about 10 good players and about 30 or so not-so-good players. Some last in the league, others don’t make it, and some head for Europe before the first kick of their rookie season. I think the draft will continue to go on in the future but with fewer rounds before long. Once the homegrown talent from youth academies kick in we will mainly see college players go through this process. And most of those won’t come with a high profile either in my best estimate.

I’m only taking us as far back as the 2005 MLS SuperDraft. I feel like in this now-expansion era of MLS soccer, that’s a solid starting point for discussions like these. Not to mention most of those players by now are either hits or misses.

As always feel free to pipe in your own thoughts about these past drafts below.

Continue Reading…

Hope you all are enjoying your Sunday. I’m sitting here during the halftime of Germany and Poland. I noticed an inbox alert from the US national team media services about tonight’s match. A couple late scratches and updates.

Goalkeeper Dominic Cervi, forward Kenny Cooper and defender Drew Moor. Cooper and Moor were called in late Friday just in case any of the original 19 players would not be available because of lingering injuries. Cervi is the wasteful third keeper, I guess they scratch him late just in case Howard or Guzan can’t go, thus finally explaining the three-keeper call-up that I’ve been wondering about.

Carlos Bocanegra and Josh Wolff are not on the roster because of family commitments. Both will be available for next weekend’s World Cup qualifying opener against Barbados at Home Depot Center out in Carson, CA. Bocanegra is certain to be named to the roster, Wolff probably shouldn’t be so lucky from what we saw in the two European friendlies out of him.

The status of the roster for that match could be announced at anytime in the upcoming week. Hopefully that will come earlier in the week so we can discuss it more. Though I fully expect it to be a roster similar to what we’ve seen lately in the three friendlies.

Back to the Euro games and then on to the MLS/US National team games tonight. Lovely weekend of soccer.