George Brislen-Hall tweeted last night that he was headed home to London today, so we can assume his trial is over. That leaves us with only draftee Joel Helmick in camp but not signed. The Rapids site still lists Andres Sarmiento as a guest player, but since he didn't go with the team to Hawaii I'm guessing he's not a real candidate for a roster spot.

Last night the Rapids had an easy game against the Melbourne youth/reserves squad, controlling the game from end-to-end in a 1-0 win. The starting XI:
Cascio - Amarikwa - MullanLarentowicz - Castrillon - MastroeniZapata - Wynne - Moor - KimuraCeus
Other than Ceus and Amarikwa I wouldn't be shocked to see that same lineup on opening day in two weeks.

Last night (well technically early this morning) the Rapids lost 2-1 to Yokohama FC of the Japanese 2nd division. A 10 minute spell in the second half saw Colorado give up two goals and they couldn't climb back out of the hole. The starting XI for the burgundy boys (seen above):
Cascio - Cummings - MullanLarentowicz - Castrillon - MastroeniZapata - Moor - Wynne - KimuraPickens
With the exception of the injured Casey I think that's pretty close to our starting XI right now.

I'm sure we'll see an official announcement tomorrow, but Tim Hinchey just tweeted this:

I would like to welcome Luis Zapata to the Colorado Rapids!

So add one more to the roster! That puts us at 30 signed players and 6 out of a possible 6 internationals. Now if any of the other trialists wants a job they'll have to beat out a signed player to do it.

See that ESPN on the Hawaiian Islands Invitational logo? ESPN is one of the organizing forces behind the tournament and originally announced all 4 games would be on ESPN International and ESPN3.com. Sometime between then and now though ESPN, who again organized the tournament, decided they were only going to air the 2 games on Saturday and neither of the games today.

Colorado got its first game time in the islands today as the reserves scrimmaged against Hawaii Pacific and won 2-1. Here's the starting XI:
Janniere - Akpan - SernaNane - Yamada - EmoryBrislen-Hall - Palguta - Ababio - LaBauexJoyce
3 subs in the game were Helmick at half for Joyce, Armstrong in for Yamada with 15 minutes to play, and Amarikwa in for Brislin-Hall shortly after that right after Akpan scored.

The team left for Hawai'i today. My sister, brother-in-law, and cousins leave for Hawai'i this week (though not for the tournament). Me? I'm stuck in cold Denver. Before they left the team made some cuts from training camp. Aaron Pitchkolan, Issac Cowles, Sterling Copeland, Jefferson Angulo, Daniel Frias, Alanso Jimenez, and Masaki Hemmi were let go.

Yesterday Montreal used its #1 spot in the allocation order to take Eddie Johnson with the idea of trading him. Colorado was the expected destination but at the last minute Seattle swooped in, trading Mike Fucito and Lamar Neagle for him.
At that price I'm fine with not getting Eddie Johnson.

Two pieces of info that have come up since my post earlier this evening.

• Tim Hinchey responded to a question on Facebook about the details of Rivero's loan to say that its a two year loan with an option to buy. So my scenario wasn't 100% correct but I wasn't that far off. Rivero will be owned by the Rapids should he work out.

Well it took a while and I think the deal changed (possibly more than once) but Martin Rivero, a 22 year old Argentine midfielder, has finally been signed by the Rapids. As usual terms of the deal were not announced but it is a loan, not a signing. He's expected to travel with the team to Hawai'i on Sunday.

Essentially at the same time of my last post Steven Goff tweeted that it appears unlikely that the Rapids will be signing Eddie Johnson. Good.

While there's still no news out of Commerce City, there's a couple of rumors going around Twitter:

• A journalist with unknown accuracy tweeted that he talked to Rosario Central's manager and confirmed that Martin Rivero is being transferred to Penarol in Uruguay.
• Steven Goff, a journalist with a track record of pretty good accuracy, tweeted that he's hearing the Rapids are in talks with former U.

Well the Rapids, via a tweet from Tim Hinchey, essentially confirmed that our new #10 is Martin Rivero. However there was no official announcement of the signing today. The Denver Post suggests one reason:

So what's the delay? Here's why, maybe:Rivero remains in a contract dispute with Rosario Central, according to Diario La Capital.

The Rapids had scheduled the announcement of their new Argentine #10 today at 3pm, but President Tim Hinchey tweeted this afternoon that the announcement would be delayed until tomorrow due to the fact he had to take an unexpected trip to Dallas. Meanwhile the Denver Post is reporting that the player is likely Martin Rivero, formally of Rosario Central in the Argentine 2nd division.

Colorado had a full preseason match and two short scrimmages to finish out their California trip before heading home this morning. Friday night was the full match against San Jose, supposedly streamed online but the Earthquakes tech department failed. If only the Quakes represented the center of high tech innovation int his country or something.

The Rapids open the regular season 1 month from today against the Crew. Tonight they'll play San Jose in San Luis Obispo. The Earthquakes will be streaming the game live on both team's websites.
We also found out today that Colorado will announce the new Argentine midfielder at 3pm on Monday.

Earlier today MLSSoccer.com reported that the reason Mac Kandji wasn't in camp right away is that he was looking for a team in Europe. This afternoon the Rapids announced that Kandji had been traded to Houston for a conditional 3rd round draft pick in 2014. Probably a fair trade for a guy who's had 0 goals and 3 assists in 16 games.

Colorado faced Chivas USA in a scrimmage at the HDC today. A late Qunicy Amarikwa goal from a Steven Emory assist gave the burgundy boys a 1-0 win. Of course its preseason so its meaningless but wins are always better than losses. The starting XI (trialists makred with a *):
Angulo* - Cummings - MullanLarentowicz - Castrillon - MastroeniZapata* - Marshall - Wynne - KimuraPickens
After subs the team finished with the the following lineup:
Cascio - Amarikwa - AkpanThompson - LaBauex - EmoryFreeman - Palguta - Guido* - AbabioJoyce
Guido is a local player playing with the team while they're in California.

Today the Rapids had a fan event on the 16th St. Mall to announce their new initiative and club slogan. The new slogan is 'One Club' and to celebrate it they announced that anyone who buys season tickets for the 2012 season by March 1st will have their name printed on the authentic home player jerseys in 2013 and 2014 (example above).

The Rapids played their first friendly of the preseason today against the Ventura County Fusion at Oxnard College in California. The game was a scoreless draw and with no coverage its hard to draw much of anything from the result, but here are the starting lineups for each half (* denotes trialist):
1st Half:
Cascio - Amarikwa - AkpanThompson - Nane - LaBauexFreeman - Marshall - Palguta - Zapata*Ceus
2nd Half:
Angulo* - Archer* - ArmstrongThompson - Nane - Guido*Huazo* - Marshall - Palguta - AbabioJoyce
Obviously this was a game for some of the reserves to try to make their mark in competing for a starting spot.