The Rapids signed Jaime Castrillon this morning, their first major player move of the offseason. As is typical terms were not released but those will leak out eventually. Castrillon is expected to be an immediate starter in the midfield, and Pareja has talked recently about playing a 4-3-1 or 4-2-1-3.

Skillful wingers in the player pool are at a premium ahead of Thursday's MLS SuperDraft, but three of the top players available at the position are some of the more sought-after attackers eligible for selection.

Sam Garza, a Generation adidas signing out of UCSB who can play up top or on the wing, helped his stock considerably with his showing while playing for the adiPure team at the Combine and had a big hand in helping set up Ethan Finlay as part of the Creighton forward's hat trick.

Clearing up a few odds and ends before the weekend (that would have posted hours sooner had our soon-to-be-replaced blogging software not freaked out): *Galaxy midfielder Michael Stephens, Chivas USA's Jorge Villafaña (formerly Flores) and UCLA midfielder Kelyn Rowe were named today to the U-23 camp set for Sunday through

Friend of CCN Mike Hopkins has a new website where you can read some of his work and other odds and ends. Mike's tagline is "odd posts from an occasional poet (or vice versa)" which seems like a good starting point to me.

Here it is, anyway. Do have a read worth bookmarking and checking every so often I reckon.

Cracks in the Sabina Park pitch, Jamaica, 1998

Sometimes life is almost too good to be true. This means that we spend too much time trying to recreate feelings that are not usual.

Today I was listening to the Grateful Dead, as I do every day. I have an iPod that is now full of their music everything else has now been purged, save for a few odds and ends for occasional variety.

I'm back from Arizona after spending a few days there, with great access to MLS players and coaches on site. Ten teams have already or will spend time in and around Phoenix in February or March, so the opportunity for journalists to gather information (or for fans to closely inspect their favorite team) is immense.