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.

With stars like Conor Casey and Pablo Mastroeni, the Rapids should have done better in 2009. (Getty Images)

Consistent play was always an issue in 2008 for the Colorado Rapids, and it turned out 2009 wasn’t much different. The Rapids looked like a team that could contend in early on in 2009 but the ladder part of the season tore this group apart as injuries were racked up and the offensive production that was one of the best in the league at times turned into a pumpkin.

Gary Smith took over late last season and did actually get his club started in the right path in 2009. Conor Casey and Omar Cummings turned into one of the league’s best duos as they each racked up the goals while Cummings also provided the assists. The play out of the midfield was actually more impressive as Mehdi Ballouchy actually looked like he had a decent touch for once and Colin Clark started to actually produce like we all expect him to.

But injuries took over this club and when that happen any sort of consistent play this club would produce would go out the window as expected. Their depth showed it was a big weakness and in return the guys that were producing well turned out to not be able to produce when it mattered most. The ladder part of the season Casey could only find the back of the net from the PK spot and Cummings went dry from the start of September till the end of the year.

Rapids fans are left with a lot of what ifs on the season after a promising summer that saw so much productivity out of Casey and Cummings. In the final six weeks of the season the Rapids completely came apart. Some people like Ives even called out everything about the team’s current state of affairs like it was going down as fast as a sinking ship.

What Went Right In 2009:
When Casey and Cummings were on it was pretty cool to watch. The two would light up pretty much any club that stood in their way. The midfield play then was also fun to watch as it had such a good nucleus of talent.

What Went Wrong In 2009:
It seems as the more shares of Arsenal that owner Stan Kroenke buys the worse things get for this bunch in Colorado. As mentioned above the last few weeks of the year really did them in for good on the season. Injuries took a big toll on the club mostly because they are build to use the wings and when guys like Colin Clark went down for the year so did the production of this group.

What’s Next:
For this bunch it is all about getting healthy and correcting what went wrong late in the year. Sad part is I don’t see this bunch getting any better over the offseason with the way things currently are in Denver. Finding a Designated player in the offseason may help but building some depth will probably go a longer way in repairing this club on the field. Off the field this bunch needs a make over. A couple years ago things seemed so promising as they moved into a new stadium but now it seems like this group has gone down the deep dark path that teams like FC Dallas are in. They need to repair things within their fanbase in a big way.

Here is the order of goals: Jacob Peterson, Mehdi Ballouchy, Ryan Johnson, Claudio Lopez, Ali Gerba, Jason Garey, Jeff Cunningham, and Yura Movsisyan.

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!

Anyways, I thought today would be a good day to bring on a new feature here on WVHooligan.com. Its all about player, coaches, fans, and team stock. Who’s up and who’s down in the world of Major League Soccer. It may involve some players you know little about and it may involve some club stars that we all love and hate.

Let’s get down to it, five up and five down:

UP:

1. Sean Franklin, LA Galaxy: The more I see this kid in the middle of the backline for LA, the more I like him. Especially since he has to clean up some garbage that veterans Greg Vanney and Abel Xavier leave behind. Easily the front-runner right now for Rookie of the Year in my mind.
2. Ryan Johnson, San Jose Earthquakes: The more the offense goes to this kid, the better they get actually. Weird that this kid was in the MISL before making the jump back to MLS this year.
3. Luciano Emilio, DC United: His stock was almost one you wish you had sold a few months ago but now its back on the rise and his play has started to turn around the DC season here. I think he has to continue this strong play before the transfer window so DC doesn’t unload him and his contract for something better.
4. Brian Ching, Houston Dynamo: Sort of on the same lines as Emilio but it still apparent Ching (and Dwayne De Rosario) need one more striker to help carry the load. But until then Ching is rising to the chances that are given to him and unlike earlier in the season he is finally hitting them home.
5. Preki, Chivas USA: Yes this list will extend to coaches (and maybe fans too). Preki has done an outstanding job in recent weeks with his club. Sure they had some bad luck in New York last week but overall the last month has been very impressive out of the Red-and-White considering the amount of injuries.

DOWN:

1. Mehdi Ballouchy, Colorado Rapids: I think no one has fallen off quite like Ballouchy in recent months. From RSL leading attack man, to being involved in the most lopsided deal in MLS history, to bench warmer. The second overall pick of the 2006 draft has played all of 12 minutes this season.
2. MLS Officials: I think after this past week its more clear that it needs mentioned. MLS officials are dictating too much play in this league right now. Too many non-calls and too many overreaction calls. More red cards this season have been petty fouls that were clearly not red cards.
3. Jason Kreis, Real Salt Lake: I honestly have no clue what is going on in RSL-land. Clearly his side should have won the game at home against KC this weekend. With the way the play on the road his club cannot afford to drop points at home these days. Hot seat time? Sure but knowing this club nothing will come of it until the end of the season unless they continue to lose.
4. Alejandro Moreno, Columbus Crew: A month ago this guy couldn’t miss, now that’s all he does is miss. Fact is he needs some serious help up front as he is not a leading striker. If he was say the number two striker on this club and someone else was taking care of business (like a DP) he would probably be easily netting 10 to 12 goals a year here. One could also say his coach’s (Sigi Schmid) stock has fallen as well here.
5. Tomasz Frankowski, Chicago Fire: Early in the season he looked to be the cure to Chicago’s offensive blues. Now he rides the pine and fans say he is rather worthless. Harsh.

See a stock rising or falling? Feel free to pipe in your own.