Henao
Back on July 1st the Rapids traded Kosuke Kimura to Portland for allocation money and an international spot for 2012. Since then the Rapids cut an international player (Harrison Henao) and signed an international player (Hendry Thomas). Jamie Smith may have gotten his green card as well, which would have freed up another international spot.
Not that we'll miss him but today the Rapids waived Harrison Henao and he'll return to the team we
loaned him from. On a worse note, Pablo Mastroeni was placed back on the Disabled List due to his
concussion symptoms, which means he's out at least the next 6 games. The soonest he could play is
against San Jose on August 25th but I think we have to accept that while we might see him have one
last token sub appearance his career is essentially done at this point.
By FRANCO PANIZO
Pablo Mastroeni's season has been plagued by injuries and he has been forced to spectate in all
but two of the Colorado Rapids' games this year.
Well, Mastroeni's spell on the sidelines won't be coming to a close anytime soon.
Using a lineup of mainly reserves Colorado won their first true U.S. Open Cup game in 5 years 3-1
over the Tampa Bay Rowdies. The starting XI was:
Hill - Akpan - EduThompson - Henao - CastrillonZapata - Marshall - Palguta - FreemanCeus
The goals came from all 3 of our starting strikers.
Tonight the Rapids are in Tampa to face the NASL Tampa Bay Rowdies in the 3rd Round of the U.S.
Open Cup. If Colorado wins they will travel to the winner of the Orlando - Kansas City game next
Tuesday for the quarter-finals. Game time tonight is 5:30pm MDT and there will be at least a
Twitter feed, possibly a video stream, at the Rowdies website.
From Friday's game preview:
Prediction: 0-0 draw. I expect some ugly soccer tomorrow. One team is an
expansion team and one team is missing up to 7 starters. There will be a lot of tentative,
conservative play and no scoring.
OK, so I was way off on the scoreline, but I was right about the ugly soccer.
A couple of roster notes from the last couple of days.
- Yesterday Colorado released Josh Janniere in order to make room for Edu on the roster.
- They also placed Ross LaBauex on IR
- Today they announced that Wynne and Cummings will be out about 4 weeks.
So that leaves us with 31 rostered players.
Two teams struggling in the early going with 3-4-0 records meeting for the chance to step back
into the fray of the Western Conference race should be enough of a plot for the Rapids-Chivas USA
showdown on Saturday.
But no, the subplots abound. Let us count the ways.
1. Possible first sighting of Conor Casey this season.
When the Colorado Rapids comes to Seattle for their 1PM Saturday match most of the national
attention will be on Brian Mullan and how the fans react to his presence. Some significant soccer
storylines are missed if you focus on that; things that are more likely to effect the result. New
Coach Oscar Pareja is shifting the team to a more dynamic 4-3-3.
Colorado has just announced that they've signed midfielder Harrison Henao on loan from Once Caldas
of Colombia. No terms were released but reports in Colombia say its until December and almost all
MLS loans include an option to buy. Henao is a 25 year old player who's been a pro since 2006.
Early indications are that he's a defensive midfielder, which may not be a positive sign for
Pablo's recovery.
Do you dare try the Tacos de Buche?
The other LA team, the Under-a-Chivas, are in town this week. The crowd should be a little more
subdued after the Beckham-fest or last week and I for one am glad. We don't need half the stadium
rooting for some guy on the other team.
Bruce Campbell, a much better spokesperson for Old Spice than Beckham
That's right, Old Spice, Keane, PrimaDonnavan, and the rest of the Galaxy will be our opponents
tomorrow night. This is the first of two trips to Colorado for LA this year and reportedly David
Beckham will be making an appearance this trip.
The Rest
Colorado announced the signing today of Brazilian striker Luis Eduardo Schmidt, commonly known ad
Edu. He had trialed with the team last month and rejoined the team this week. Edu is 33 and has
previously played in Brazil and Spain's La Liga. He's a big guy that would probably fill in well in
Casey's target striker role.
