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.

With the first preseason game of the season under their belts, KC is one step closer to the start of the season. We are only 33 days from the first game of the season at DC United on March 10th. With plenty of people seeming to be fairly in unison on who the majority of the starting 11 is, let's take a look at the depth chart.

Still no left back, but the slight defensive midfield depth issue has been addressed with the signing of Brazilian journeyman Marcelo Saragosa. Given that Kitchen will surely miss time for Olympic qualifiers (and the big show in London if we qualify) and isn't exactly a sure thing as he steps into his first year in the role for which he's being groomed, depth was a concern.

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.

There's been murmurs all week that Folan was looking for a a new club in Europe. Today the Rapids made it official, releasing him from his contract. Anyone who read this blog last year knows I was no fan of Folan, mainly due to the lack of effort he displayed on the field. This move frees up around 200K of salary cap space, possibly to go after that rumored Argentine midfielder.

Could this Kiwi have clipped United's Canuck quotient?

Between trips to sunnier climes, United did a little trialist-pruning, releasing journeyman veterans Zayner and Svard along with the Suppie pickup Charles Rodriguez (conveniently just after the last Roster Reset...sigh). Kasper promises more trialists for the Arizona jaunt, but what I really want to see are (a) game time for Salihi against the MLS opposition on offer there and (b) a left back, any left back.

Last night the Rapids held a Supporters Forum at Fado's in Lodo. I was unable to attend, but the big news that came out of the forum was that Colorado is pursuing a young #10-style Argentine midfielder. No details have been leaked on his name or his background but there may be a new arrival from South America in Commerce City soon.

Does this man have your goals?

So are they done?

United ticked one of the two big "need" boxes by acquiring Albanian international striker Hamdi Salihi as a designated player (wait, I thought Uncle Will wasn't going to splash the cash?). Given his impressive rate of return wherever he's played, he certainly seems to fit the poacher's bill, though he also has decent size.

The Rapids have sent out an update on some of the trialists in camp. Sam Archer is still with the team while Issac Cowles was injured during training and he will be sidelined for a couple of weeks. Edrissa Jarra, Daniel Navarro, and Steve Cronin have been cut from camp. Joining the team is defender Draymond Washington, who's played for George Washington University the last 4 years.

No major news out today, but here are some quick hits news wise for you on your Friday.
Sporting KC vs LA game time changed
Sporting KC's match up with LA on April 7th at LIVESTRONG Sporting Park has changed times and stations. Yesterday the team announced that the game would now kick off 1 hour earlier at 3pm Central time.

The Rapids had an article today about the trialists where they mentioned that Cascio and Yamada were signed to contracts with the league before the draft. Their statuses have been updated in my master list. I've also changed the list so unsigned players are all in one group but I've added a note next to Helmick to note that he was drafted (as our only unsigned drafted player).

The boxes are being ticked, slowly but surely. With the addition of central defender Emiliano Dudar, the depth acquisition project seems all but complete. Still, the two biggest needs, left back and finisher the ones we've been pointing to all offseason, remain frustratingly unfilled. Stefan Jerome, recently arrived on trial, would be a nice project up top (can't believe he's only 19 my memories of him as a U 17 seem distant), but isn't the finished product.

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.

Not a striker.

The fight is on for roster spots as half of last Reset's trialists are gone and new faces arrive for the Florida camp. I'm still not seeing the potential for significant improvement in the weakest areas (finisher, left back), but at least we're no longer stuck in stasis-land and the depth issues look like being addressed.

Missile Swap: Out with the Clydewinder, in with the Cruz?

Don't look now, but the glacial pace of United's roster assembly is starting to pick up. Hot on the heels of the Maicon Santos acquisition comes the signing of former Dynamo right mid Danny Cruz1, leaving the current roster + trialists looking like this.

First the good.
In acquiring Danny Cruz, United looks to have settled the flank depth question, initially addressed by the drafting of Nick DeLeon as Pontius' backup. A regular starter for the MLS Cup finalists from Houston, Cruz provides excellent cover for Najar, who will likely be away for Olympic and possibly World Cup duty with Honduras and may even attract interest from abroad this summer.

The Rapids made a trade late today, sending an international roster spot and our 2nd round pick in the 2014 draft to Vancouver for allocation money. I'm guessing the signing of Castrillon is imminent. The Rapids now have 3 open international spots and 3 filled ones.
Colorado also invited two players from their open tryouts earlier this week into training camp with the team.

Colorado announced that they've re-signed Steven Emory to a new contract today. They also announced that Miguel Comminges, Danny Earls, and Michael Holody will not be returning to the team this season. This gives the Rapids 27 players under contract and the rights to 3 players from the recent drafts.

Player news is starting to pick up a little bit for Sporting KC. The team today made two announcements on player news, and a new rumor has cropped up on another player.
First, after the announcement yesterday of the trade for Michael Thomas' rights, the team today announced that they had signed the Olathe native to a contract.

Praying for goals.

Movement at last! Maicon Santos makes it 15 for Salary Budget players, and United drops a 14-trialist bomb as pre-season camp gets underway. Of course, the majority of the trialists are guys with limited to no MLS experience, but such was always going to be the major source to roster depth1.

Finally another addition hits the roster with United's acquisition of Maicon Santos. In another time, with a different club, I might be pleased with this pickup. As it stands, I'm just left feeling suspicious.
Why?
While Santos has a reasonable history with the league (and so will not have to suffer through a period of adapting to the style of play), his mediocre goal tally (14 goals in 2.

The Rapids had two picks in today's 4 round Supplemental Draft, in the 3rd and 4th rounds. In the 3rd round they picked Kohei Yamada, a Japanese midfielder who was an international invitee to this year's MLS Combine. He was considered one of the standouts of the first combine game but his play faded in the other two games.

The Rapids only had one pick in today's two round Superdraft, their first pick at #14 (The second was traded for Quincy Amarikwa). They used it on UConn midfielder/forward Tony Cascio. He's a senior who played for 4 years with those other Huskies (go Washington!) and last year he was a first team All-American and the Big East offensive player of the year.

Nick DeLeon, courtesy dcunited.com

Hey, look, finally an addition to the roster! United picked up versatile attacker (is he a winger, a forward, an attacking midfielder?...Hmm, I'm sensing a pattern here) Nick DeLeon1 in the SuperDraft. I don't watch much collegiate ball, so I'm not going to pass any judgement on the pick.

Headline over on dcunited.com says...

DC hope international scouting yields signings soon

Smacks of magical thinking doesn't it? Go scouting, pray a bit, and check under the tree to see what Santa Transfer Window has left you. Of course, I realize that headlines can often be misleading, and perhaps I'm reading a bit too much into it.

The Denver Post has confirmed a rumor that came out of Colombia this weekend, Independiente Medellín midfielder Jaime Castrillón is in talks with the Rapids. He was also in talks to join Colombian side Millionaires but has decided to set his eyes on MLS. Some sources are reporting that he's already signed, but the Rapids told the Post that discussions are still on-going.

Today the Rapids announced that they had signed Hunter Freeman to a contract. As normal, terms and length were not revealed but I'm sure we'll find that information out down the road. Freeman started his career with the Rapids in 2005 before he was traded to NY before the season. Hunter has some versatility to play in defense or midfield, but he's primarily an outside back.

Based on the current roster list on United's web site and the little scraps of information we have to go on, I thought I'd begin the Roster Reset in advance of the SuperDraft and the absolute rafts of new signings the United brain trust are just waiting to announce (hello, sarcasm, you insufferable trollop).

This actually happened before Christmas but I haven't gotten a chance to mention it. Baggio Husidic, who's rights the Rapids acquired in the Re-Entry Draft, has decided to decline Colorado's contract offer and instead sign with Hammarby IF in Sweden. Former U.S. Nats player Gregg Berhalter was recently named manager of the AEG-owned club and this will probably be the first of multiple signings from MLS for the team.

To wrap things up with the "What I Want For Christmas" series, we'll begin with a bit of a tactical aside before prioritizing the shopping list...

(In case you missed the beginning of this discussion: Part I and Part II are available.)

Our likely man in the middle?

In all of this discussion, we've curiously ignored tactics for the most part.

In the first part of this series, we ran the rule over the current United roster. In this second part, we'll compile a list of wants by position, setting us up for the grand finale, where we put those wants in order...

Would you trust this man with your roster?

GOALKEEPER

Needs: Hamid and Willis are solid in the first two spots on the depth chart, so there shouldn't be much work to do here.

It's that time of year again. Time to consult the D.C. United roster list, see who's been naughty and nice (and who is, frankly, useless), and compile my own off-season shopping list. Ready to begin?

Russell: Finally a replacement for Namoff?

The process of re-shaping the roster has already begun.

The Sounders traded with the Vancouver Whitecaps to earn the No. 1 overall pick in the draft and used it to select defender Marc Burch, who spent the past five seasons with D.C. United. Terms of the trade with Vancouver were not released and are expected to be made public by the clubs later on Monday.

A couple weeks ago, I put up the New York Red Bulls roster prior to the beginning of the off-season. Mr. Soler and Mr. Backe have been busy since then, and over at our facebook page, members of the Viper's Nest Editorial Board have been clamoring for an updated post to sum up the salary and roster ramifications of the moves thus far.

Today's Expansion Draft and Waiver Draft kicked off the MLS offseason today. The New York Red Bulls waived six seldom seen players today: Alex Horwath(1 G, 90 Min), Mike Jones (1G, 1 Min), Tyler Lassiter, Marcos Paullo, John Rooney (5 G, 48 Min), and Teddy Schneider. Collectively, this frees up two international slots, five off-budget slots, and $289,000 in salary cap.

I can understand protecting Charlie Davies if you've got a rumor of trade interest that you think might enable you to significantly improve the team1. I can even plunge past the mystifying decision to protect a well-past-it Simms if a pay-cut or trade are on the horizon.

But Korb and Woolard?

Goff's version of the protected list is out, so I thought I'd stir from my hibernation1 to do some comparisons. (Revisit my list in four parts by hitting the links highlighted in the sidebar.)

• On both lists: Willis, Jakovic, De Rosario, Kitchen, McDonald, Pontius, Quaranta, Wolff
• Goff also protects: Korb, Woolard, King
• I also protect: Boskovic, Brettschneider, da Luz

We're in alignment on a number of points beyond the obvious (De Rosario, Kitchen, Pontius).

With the expansion draft just two weeks away, Red Bulls fans are debating the merits of who to protect and who to expose. Presented below, to assist in the discussion, is the current Red Bulls roster and salaries, according to the MLS Players Union website.

Name

Player Des.