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.

Keepers:

Who they have: Matt Pickens and Steward Ceus

Notes: After Pickens things get pretty thin for the Rapids. No doubt they probably have a couple keepers in camp to fill that third keeper spot behind Ceus. I would imagine this isn’t a huge area of concern or we’d hear about them making deals for a backup or even a starter at this point in the winter.  If I were them I’d be looking for a quality back up to pressure Pickens. I like Pickens but part of me thinks they could do better here.

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Defense:

Who they have: Drew Moor, Ty Harden, Julien Baudet, Michael Holody, Scott Paguta, and Chad Borak.

Notes: Another thin area for this club on paper but with guys like Pablo Mastroeni and Jeff Larentowicz on your roster you’re able to keep less defenders in a way. Some rumblings this winter have suggested that Mastroeni will be moved to the backline now that Larentowicz is in town. I think this is a good move for both parties as Mastroeni has started to show his age a bit in recent years and a move out of the midfield may be a wise thing.

Still if that doesn’t happen this group is incredibly thin. I like Baudet and sorta like Moor and Holody but that’s about it for me with this bunch. I think Smith and the front office need to get some more depth in this area or else they will have another up and down season. We saw last year that this group was decent but not nearly good enough to take on the top offenses in the league.

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Midfield:

Who they have: Wells Thompson, Greg Dalby, Jeff Larentowicz, Mehdi Ballouchy, Pablo Mastroeni, Ciaran O’Brien, Jamie Smith, Nick LaBrocca, Colin Clark, Kosuke Kimura, and Ross LaBaux.

Notes: Parts I like include Thompson, Clark, Mastroeni, Larentowicz, LaBrocca, and Smith. After that I’m not entirely sure about this group. Look when everyone was healthy last year this group was as good as any but injuries showed their lack of depth in a big way.

I like the addition of Thompson and Larentowicz this offseason, they both should add the right parts that were missed last year at key moments.

Hopefully for the fans there and for the league we get to see Clark healthy here, I really believe he is one of those guys that has the potential to be a big deal in this league. We’ve seen moments out of him where he is special but injuries just killed it for us all last year with him.

I’d still like to see the Rapids go elsewhere in terms of their playmaker in the midfield. I’ve never been a Ballouchy guy and I probably never will be. He did improve last year but I think its time for them to move away and find someone that can create offense on a consistent basis.

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Forwards:

Who they have: Conor Casey, Omar Cummings, Andre Akpan, Facundo Diz, Pat Noonan, and Ross Schunk.

Notes: When they are on their game Casey and Cummings are the best pairing in the league, hands down. But as we saw at times last year they can get off track in a heart beat if the midfield isn’t in line or if the defense is giving up too much.

I still have to wonder if Casey’s head is on straight here and if he and Smith got everything sorted out after his little outburst after the season ended. At times this winter it sounded like he was going out of town but the rest of the time things were quiet.

The more I looked at their draft the more I did start to like the Akpan pick. It wasn’t great at the time but he was the best player available when they first picked in the second round. He isn’t ready to go just yet but towards the end of this year we’ll see how valuable this pick really can be.

As long as Casey and Cummings return to their stellar midseason form from 2009 the Rapids should be fine in this department.

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Overall:

I think this season still has a lot of ups and downs written all over this bunch. They’ve improved in certain areas but not addressing their defense as much as I’d like this offseason worries me a bit. I know adding Larentowicz is a defensive move but the backline still needs work in my eye. This club is either going to frustrate people with their midfield or they will struggle against top clubs yet again because of their midfield.

Lets face it this is a big year for the Rapids, no playoffs in three years is a dry spell for any club and with more clubs in the league it will only get harder. I believe the Rapids aren’t done this offseason though so it should be interesting how they fill their holes in the final month before the new year.

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.

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

Now I am not calling for a dismissal of Hyndman, not yet at least. I think every coach for the most part needs a decent amount of time to figure out what they need to do to get the club in a position to win and be successful. If the coach isn’t able to do that after I would say at least two seasons then it may be time for them to go. Maybe even two seasons isn’t long enough in some cases.

But with Hyndman we knew down here in Dallas what we were getting into. A long-time college coach that knows the game well but never won any major championships on the college level. The FCD job was his for the taking for a few years and once he finally was in the position to do it he finally took it.

The more I view this club and see how Hyndman coaches I know the man can do it but I am starting to believe he just may not be able to do it on this sort of level. He typically out thinks the room in a league that if you can keep things simple enough you can typically win. Look at the coaches that are successful. Most usually have a veteran keeper, a tight defense, a midfield that holds onto possesion and creates offense and is also physically tough and finally has strikers that are hungry around the penality box.

Hyndman has those kinds of players but he out thinks the room in the sense that he thinks too much about how to be defensive and how to maintain possession over periods of time. It may not help that he has an assistant coach that typically out thought the room in his time at RSL. Yes John Ellinger typicallty was the type of coach that thought too hard about how to make his expansion club into a winning club instead of getting the right peices in place to become a winner. Instead he breaded a culture at Salt Lake that the club is finally getting over under Jason Kreis.

But back to Hyndman here. He’s also being too stubborn about a formation that clearly isn’t working with his core group of players, which results in a lack of creativity on the offensive side of the ball and it ends up putting more pressure on a defense that could be good if they weren’t always put into a position to have to defend so much during a game.

And since he isn’t parting with his formation the club continues to have issues creating offense and finding a good enough partner for Kenny Cooper. They also continue to have issues on the right side of the field, not to mention the wing backs in defense. Then you have guys like Pablo Ricchetti that are currently on pace to break down by mid-July.

A lot of moves just aren’t working under Hyndman. The club is loaded with talent that sort of reminds me of a few New York Rangers teams from a few years ago. Lots of talent but couldn’t get the W’s. Some of it has to do with talent not being on form yet, which is also sort of ridiculous for being this far into a season, and some has to do with the talent just not being that good to begin with.

The club has plenty of young guys that also need to see time. Hell the Red Stripes have a handful of players on the US U-20 club that see more time with that team than with this team. I’d honestly love to see the likes of Josh Lambo, Kyle Davies, Brek Shea, Peri Marosevic, and Eric Avila mixed in more with Cooper, Dave van den Burgh and Drew Moor.

I think some things need to be shook up with this club to get it going here. I kind of think had the club gotten rid of a guy like Dax McCarty in the off season the midfield wouldn’t be as big of a mess as it is now and maybe the formation would be working for them. Maybe also making some other moves like dumping guys like Marcelo Saragosa. Or even cur your losses with someone like Steve Purdy or Daniel Torres, two guys that clear aren’t working out like Hyndman and GM Micheal Hitchcock had hoped for earlier this season.

I’m sure there are plenty of other things that club could do right now to improve. The talent is in place but sometimes it does boil down to coaching. And when you out think the room on things or making things too complicated for yourself you typically end up in a mess like FC Dallas is in at the moment.

It’s a shame too because there is a lot of good talent on this roster that deserves better. And not to mention the fans deserve better.

Edit: One final note…Hyndman’s all-time record with FCD is currently 5-12-9. At first I thought giving him more time would be fine but that is a terrilbe record for any coach. Even Steve Morrow

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.

It was with speed and wing play that did it. Quality service into the box where Wolff was able to not score once but twice to get his club back into the game.

As for the Fire, defensively they turned it off for a half and it cost them dearly. Yet at the end of the day they are still undefeated, though I think anyone around that club would tell you that Saturday night’s result was more of a loss and a draw.

Brian McBride, Marco Pappa, and Blanco really carried this club early on. I have to say I love that trio in the midfield of Pappa, Blanco, and John Thornington. Something about that group just makes me think it could be one of the best midfield trios in all of MLS.

Chivas Could Very Well Be For Real

The cast of no-names does it again. In front of a very quality crowd for a Chivas game in the HDC, the AmeriGoats got an early own-goal and a late finish from Chukwudi Chijindu (who scored his first MLS goal) over visiting Seattle.

Preki’s club continues to plug away and after this many games of proving themselves I think people will finally take notice after this big win.

Funny how the Sounders were holding clubs scoreless with Kasey Keller but in a game and a half without him (due to a red card suspension), the Sounders have now given up three goals. I guess it will be interesting to see how the club handles this loss.

And speaking of the loss, which is now two straight, have the Sounders just cooled off or are they just hitting a dry spell here? I thought the offense would run more through Fredy Montero and Freddie Ljungberg but the tough defense from Chivas put an end to the attack rather quickly.

RSL Road Struggles

One thing I’ve been saying for a couple weeks about Real Salt Lake is that I want to see them do well on the road before I rate them high on any sort of rankings. Yes, they are good at home, no doubt about that. On the road is another story though.

RSL is now winless in 10 games all-time in New York. Then again the road hasn’t been a friend to the club it’s short history. Looking back the club only has eight wins all-time on the road. If there is one thing that this club needs to make sure of this season to become a legitmate contender is they have to win on the road and win consistently.

New York Comes Alive

About bloody time is what some were thinking. Two minutes into the game and the Red Bulls finally got their first real goal of the season. Still history is against this side even with the win on Saturday. I don’t know if it was a combination of poor road play on RSL’s part, New York’s midfield actually looking decent for once or maybe even a slight boost of having Jon Conway back from suspension that did it for New York.

Speaking of Conway, maybe the suspension did him some good. He actually made me think he was a decent MLS type of keeper. Before I really never felt he belonged in MLS as a starting keeper but maybe I will change my mind on that. Just maybe.

Also, Macoumba Kandji and Juan Pablo Angel…did it really take Juan Carlos Osorio this long to figure out that they’d be a good match or did it just take this long for those two to figure it out? Either way it worked. They looked like a very good duo together.

Pat Onstad to the Resuce

Houston goes up early with a Brian Ching header. And first of all let me be clear, even as good as Houston is that offense still doesn’t scare anyone like some may think it could. Ching is still good in and around net but they still need some scorers on their roster. But saying so they could be the best club at placing balls in the box for headers and what not.

But to the real point here, Colorado tried to mound the come back yesterday. Conor Casey stepped up and did his thing too to lead the charge, which still gives me a glimmer of hope for this club going forward. Casey drew the PK (good call too), but Pat Onstad came to the resuce not only once but twice with the rebound shot after the PK was taken. By far one of the best two saves I’ve seen all season.

Had Casey scores it would have been another late road point steal for the Rapids. Instead Houston got their first win of the season. Where have we seen this before folks, the slow start leads to a gritty win, which leads to the Dynamo winning the west right? They still have work to do to catch Chivas but there is no reason to count this club out yet.

Benny Leads The Charge Like Old Times

One thing I love is a good story, and Ben Olsen is definitely that. Finally healthy enough again in 2009, Olsen could be the single best thing that DC had happen to them in the offseason. Getting him back and healthy was probably more of a boost offensively and defensively than getting someone like Christian Gomez. Now not to knock Gomez, he brings plenty to the field but not the same toughness that Olsen does.

New England nearly looked as if they would steal three points in DC on Friday night but in extra time Olsen heads home what could end up being a saving grace for the Black-and-Red early on this season. I honestly believe that could be the kick in the butt that DC needs to get going here. And like I’ve said before they needed Olsen to lead that charge. As long as Olsen is doing that, DC will continue to improve this season.

Dallas Finally Looks Decent

While on Sunday the FC “Please don’t call us Hoops” Dallas finally looked like a side that wanted to win. While I thought the late PK call was a bit crappy Dallas did earn three points. The first half was all Dallas as Kenny Cooper and Drew Moor lead the club with two first half goals. However former Red Stripe Adrian Serioux put his new club Toronto on the board just before halftime, and only a couple minutes after Cooper’s goal.

I thought Toronto controlled a lot of the pace in the second half. They got their attack more in gear and even came even with Dallas after a nice goal by Chad Barrett. I told you all to keep an eye on Barrett, it was a must score-game for the Wayne Rooney look-a-like.

What does it mean for Dallas? It could mean things are slowly starting to turn around for them here. While I am still holding on to the belief that it was a series with Toronto these last two weeks it was still four points for the North Texas club. Four points that they really needed.

Toronto on the other hand really needs to quickly get their stuff in gear here. This was to be the first of eight games in a few week stretch that most Reds fans are calling the main part of their season. Stumbling out of the gate in that isn’t the way to start. They need to get their act in order not only offensively but defensively. They just looked a bit out of sync yesterday evening.

Finally the butts-in-seats look

Yeah, not very good this weekend I am afriad. No Toronto, Seattle or LA home games to speak of. DC gave us a usual 14k+ on Friday and Chivas put up a surprising 15,463. The San Jose-LA game in Oakland only drew a weak 15,862. Not bad considering the lack of David Beckham for that one.

The worst however was New York, Chicago and Dallas. I don’t think we will see great numbers in New York until next year anyways. The 8,000+ on Satuday wasn’t any bit of a shock to me as the terribly low figure in Dallas last night (6,000+…which looked more like 2,000). But Chicago’s number of just a shade over 10,000 was definitely sad to see. I guess the economy is now to blame since the weather was nice.

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.

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.

2005 MLS SuperDraft:

• I think it is fair to say that the top pick in this draft is still a kid. Nikolas Besagno probably didn’t go to the best club (RSL) to develop his talents but the jury may actually still be out on this kid. But by other people’s standards a top pick that has only seen eight league matches since being draft isn’t a good thing. If he was worth the top pick he would be a steady starter by now, at least.
• Brad Guzan went second to Chivas, I think right now we all know how well that pick turned out to be for both sides.
• I forgot Chad Barrett went at number three to Chicago in this one. Worthy of a top three pick? Maybe not with his inconsistent finishing. Still fairly young though, but I’m sure looking back on this the Fire would have loved to get a better defender out of this draft (Michael Parkhurst or Drew Moor). Though they did end up with a LATE steal in the third round with Gonzalo Segares.
• Speaking of Parkhurst, he was easily the best player in the draft now that we look back on it four years later.
• Rounding out the rest of the first round, lots of role players right now for the most part. Not a lot of big names to speak of. That’s what you get when seven of the first 12 picks are defenders.
• Chicago easily had the best draft…along with Barrett they got two third round gems in Segares and Chris Rolfe. Not many clubs in any sport in America can say they got two steals in a late round like the Fire did. Pretty impressive.

2006 MLS SuperDraft:

• Marvelle Wynne was the top pick with New York, though his time didn’t last long in New York I still believe he is one of the better wingbacks in the league right now. His pace and ability to get down the wings shows us reasons why he was the top pick in 2006.
• Mehdi Ballouchy carried on the tradition of terrible draft picks for RSL in their first couple of seasons. How this guy is not in the USL or somewhere below that is beyond me.
• Then again the jury is almost out of time on guys right after Ballouchy like Jason Garey and Yuri Movsisyan.
• Best draft may have gone to Chivas who nabbed Sasha Kljestan with the 5th pick and then in the forth round with a steal of a pick in Jonanthan Bornstein.
• We all know Jozy Altidore was drafted in the second round and how big that was. Easily a steal by anyone’s account, especially now looking at some of the crap drafted above him.
• Some decent picks here and there in the first round now that we know more about some of these kids. Kai Kamera shows flashes here and there, Dax McCarty is as solid as they come when he is healthy, same could be said about guys like Jed Zayner, Nathan Sturgis, and Patrick Ianni.
• Biggest dud of the draft may have been New England’s pick with Leandro de Oliveria. Yeah I don’t recall the name and couldn’t find a bit on him. Wow, for all the praise we give Steve Nicol and the Revs for finding gems in each draft he came up short on that one. Anyone have a story on that kid?

2007 MLS SuperDraft:

• Its almost like a gulf in class between some of these drafts and this one. I think it may be a product of younger and better talent either not going into college or in the top pick’s case not staying in college very long. Either way this was a pretty solid draft.
• A lot of trades in this draft…and I mean a lot. The Joe Cannon trade, the Ronnie O’Brien trade, the popular Amado Guvara deal. Plus many others that really shaped this draft.
• Of course it is still early to tell with some players still in this draft but we are starting to see some key role players out of this bunch with guys like Wells Thompson, Brad Evans, Anthony Wallace, and Amaechi Igwe.
• Maurice Edu was by far the best player in the draft, may be one of the best number one picks the league has ever seen really.
• I was low on the second pick for a little while but I’ve come around to Chicago’s Bakery Soumare.
• Chris Seitz continues to be talked about as the best keeper in this draft (which he was by and far) but we haven’t seen much of that in league play out of him. Tough to be a young budding keeper when you have a veteran standing in the way. Don’t be shocked if this kid is in Europe in a year or two.
• Steal of the draft by some accounts was New England’s forth round pick in Adam Cristman.
  
• Second round steal goes to New York (again) with Dane Richards.
  
• Some could say Robbie Findley was a steal in the second round as well. Considering some of the players picked above those two (hello, Chicago picking Jerson Monterio or Colorado taking Nico Colaluca).

2008 MLS SuperDraft:

• Yeah okay, I won’t go into this one too much since we are STILL figuring this draft out. Come back next year I suppose. Its anyone’s guess who got the best draft, much less the best player!

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.