No Fan Alone Colorado Rapids Supporters

I bet a lot of you are already aware – but the forecast for Friday is suppose to be – well very Early Rapids Season-ish! Meaning High 35 and 80% chance of snow. Stoopid Old Man Winter!

What that means is, there’s a very good chance we’re going to be moving the party into the Cantina.

It will still start at 4PM – and you’ll be able to go down to check out the perspective from the terraces. But three hours of the party followed by two hours of the game is a bit much – even for an Upstate NYer like me.

If the weather people get it REALLY wrong, and we all know that happens as often as not, enter through gate B on the east side, otherwise just enter through the Cantina.

Let me also give you a heads up about all the different things you can bid on and get raffle tickets to:

First, when you come in, be sure to get a ticket for door prizes – no purchase necessary. The following are for door prizes:

* Certificate for two tickets to the World Cup of Wine and Beer in July
* A Pregame Pennant that the Rapids exchange with opposition in International Games
* A 2010 team signed mini soccer ball
* An Addidas duffle bag
* A Formal Invitation for the opening gala of Dicks Sporting Goods Park (like they would send to someone like Don Garber) from the Inaugural season at DSG Park.
* Four tickets to the 2010 opening game
* A 2005 Team signed soccer ball

We also are having a 50/50 raffle which also includes a lot of great prizes. If you’re unfamiliar with a 50/50 raffle, basically, half of all the money collected from ticket sales, is the grand prize (the other half goes to the Supporters Group to use for expenses for the season). In addition to the ability to win the grand prize in this raffle, you have a chance to win:

* A Certificate that makes you the Honorary Captain for a Match
* A game worn Drew Moor Jersey
* A signed John Spencer mini poster
* A Heritage Night mini poster with Clark and Casey – signed by both players
* A signed Terry Cooke Heritage Night mini poster
* A signed Kosuke Kimura Heritage Night mini poster
* A Heritage Night mini poster signed by both Mastoreni and Casey
* A 2009 team signed soccer ball.

Note – you can only win one prize in the 50/50 raffle. The tickets are $5 for one ticket and $20 for four. You can buy as many as you like.

We also will be having items up for silent auction. The following are the things we will have for silent auction and the opening bids:

* Signed pair of Kosuke Kimura cleats $30
* 2010 Team-signed blue jersey $60
* 1999 team signed Mitre ball $75
* 2010 team-signed ball $60
* 2009 Team signed burgandy jersey $60
* Complete “Third Kit” including jersey, shorts, and socks $75
* Small burgandy Women’s Jersey $50
* Certificate to get your picture taken with the Starting XI before a match $50
* $100 Electronic Crayon gift certificate (Tattoo & Body Piercing)$50
* 2006 team signed ball $50
* Big signed Pablo Mastroeni Poster $30
* Arsenal jersey signed by Freddie Ljungberg $100
* 2010 Sounders team signed Pregame Jersey $65
* USA World Cup T-Shirt signed by Casey Keller $40
* Yanks World Cup T-Shirt signed by Casey Keller $40
* FIFA 2010 Xbox 360 $20

If you cannot make it but would like to be part of the auction or raffle, email me. You can give me your bid instructions or buy raffle tickets before hand. If you are at the party and buy a ticket but want to wander or leave, be sure to write your name and contact email on the ticket in case you win.

This event is responsible for a big chunk of our annual budget. It takes a significant amount of money to run the Supporters groups and this year we had to replace a tent and grill. So come ready to support your supporters clubs – Class VI and Centennial Firm. We can take cash, checks, or even credit cards (we’ll have to access the NoFanAlone.com paypal account from a web phone). It’s going to be a lot of fun – see you there!!!

Finally, a BIG thank you goes to Josh Vaisman who has put a tremendous amount of work into making this all happen. Great job Josh!

Hi all!  The Grand Poobah asked if I’d be willing to share some of my on-field analysis of the team.  For those who may not know me I’m Jason Ma on BigSoccer, and before I started the View From the Couch blog I wrote under the same title at Rapidsfan.com.

On to current news.  Today the Rapids Undercurrent had some notes from Gary Smith. One in particular stood out to me:

Based on the announcements from the team, the Rapids have 26, not 24 on the roster. Ross Schunk’s torn ACL means he’ll be able to stay on the roster above the expected 24 limit. It sounds like Smith already has an idea of who the odd man out is at this point.

Given that Dalby has played two 45 minute halves in the first two preseason games and nothing since then, I’m still putting my money on him being the odd man out.

The other option is that Palguta’s injury is worse than expected and he’ll start on the DL as well, leaving the 24 signed healthy players as the 24.

(This all assumes that neither of the trialists are signed)

We’re under two weeks away from the Charity Shield match between the Rapids and Seattle which will be our first opportunity to catch a glimpse of the latest incarnation of our favorite team.  Bonji here to help you get a grasp on who you’ll see trotting out for our ‘Pids.

First lets run down who you won’t see, who has left.  Take out the trash first, ehh?  Preston Burpo and Cory Gibbs were both traded to New England in the deal that brought two from New England who we’ll meet later.  Ty Harden was traded to Toronto for a third round draft pick in 2011.  Jordan Harvey was selected by the Philadelphia Union in the expansion draf.  Lastly, Jacob Peterson was traded to Toronto for allocation money.  If you total the number of games these five played (91) and minutes played (6,396) and compare that to the total games available to be played by each player (330) and total minutes available (29,700) you realize that we’ve lost 28% of the games played and 22% of the minutes played.  That is a significant chunk of your starting eleven gone, and needing replacement.

Who is coming in to replace those games and minutes of work?  The Rapids drafted four players, listed in order of being drafted; Andre Akpan (F, Harvard), Ross LaBauex (M, Virginia), Chad Borak (D, Cal State – Northridge) & Chris Cutshaw (M/F, Bradley).  According to The Green Army Blog Akpan and LaBauex are the remaining draftees in camp.   As a side note, I recommend reading the Green Army training reports.  They’re great, something we Rapids fans have been missing over the years.

In addition to the draftees there are the tradees; Jeff Larentowicz (M, New England) & Wells Thompson (M, New England).  Then the players signed from outside MLS; Danny Earls (D, Rochester) & Oscar Murillo (D, Deportes Quindio – Columbia).   So far that means five out and four in.

The Rapids have been hosting other trialists but no further signings have been made.  Due to the MLS/Player Union Collective Bargaining Agreement issues, the roster compliance deadline originally scheduled for March 1 has been delayed.  This is giving MLS teams some extra time with trialists.  Hopefully that means better evaluation by the Rapids and fewer poor signings.  Here are some of the names that have been on trial; Devon Hodges (F, Rivoli – Jamaica), Rolan De La Cruz (M, Deportivo Cali) & Andy Lorei (M, Rochester).  Not sure if I’ve missed any.  Hodges told press in his home country that he was working towards a deal but Hodges is no longer in camp so it looks like he didn’t do enough to get a contract.

With the comings and going here are your Colorado Rapids who are jetting to London for further pre-season training at Arsenal’s grounds.  Please note, this is not an official list from the Rapids, there could be others joining.

Forwards (6); Conor Casey, Facundo Diz, Pat Noonan, Omar Cummings, Ross Schunk & Andre Akpan

Midfielders (10); Jeff Larentowicz, Pablo Mastroeni, Mehdi Ballouchy, Nick LaBrocca, Greg Dalby, Ciaran O’Brien, Colin Clark, Jamie Smith, Wells Thompson & Ross LaBauex

Defenders (8); Julien Baudet, Michael Holody, Drew Moor, Oscar Murillo, Scott Palguta, Kosuke Kimura, Danny Earls & Rob Valentino

Keepers (2); Matt Pickens & Steward Ceus

A sign that it’s the first actually nice day of 2010: the Rapids scrimmage scheduled to end at 11:30 keeps going and going and going and going and… Hey, it’s not snowing or 20 degrees, so let’s play. The “media” – we few local writers whose pay is (1) nothing or (2) a random unsold team jersey – are waiting to interview players and coaches. Lacking those, we’re left to badger the Rapids staff with questions they won’t answer: “What’s the big announcement this afternoon at South High School”. Answer: “I don’t know anything about that”. Or “What’s up with the salary negotiations”. Answer: “I don’t know anything about that”.

The Big Announcement, you may have heard, is that Conor Casey has a new 3-year contract. I guess any unpleasantness from the alleged argument with Coach Smith last fall is gone. Hopefully this year he can get that Golden Boot, by way of support from a strong midfield that keeps all its various ligaments and tendons intact.

Newcomer Ross LaBauex impressed coaches and staff at the exhibition games in Arizona. He started his soccer career very young, playing club in Chicago, and then moved on to Division 1 NCAA at Virginia. He says Virginia did an awesome job preparing him for the transition to MLS. What’s the biggest difference about MLS play for him? Speed. The play is quick and technical, compared to college. His role model? Pablo Mastroeni. Ross seems to have picked up on the speed thing already. Some of his moves in the scrimmage were very impressive.

The Rapids are off to London this week, so I asked Gary Smith how the team would benefit from the trip. Exposure to a different culture and different style of play is important. He hopes the players gain confidence as a team and improve their skills and fitness. In case you were going to be in England next week, don’t plan on watching any of these matches. The word is they’ll be closed to the public.

But you won’t be lacking for news. The Rapids have instituted a new social media campaign, resulting in an onslaught of updates by way of the team’s Facebook page, Rapids’ website, Tweets and emails. And if that’s not enough, individual players will be featured monthly in Mile High Sports Magazine throughout the season. Honestly, following all this stuff is now a full time job.

And there’s more: the players’ union and MLS have not settled their contract dispute yet, and are heading to mediation next week. The practical result of this is that the deadline for settling the roster has been pushed back indefinitely. So the Rapids still have several extra players. This could be good news for some of them, because they get more audition time, so to speak. Guys who might have been cut a few days ago, are still here and might now improve enough to get roster spots. Kind of like American Idol.

But no, that really, really blond guy on the back line isn’t one of those players. That’s Julien Baudet, newly platinum blond. How did the Social Media frenzy miss this? All I can say is, it will now be very easy to spot him on the field.

Craig brings us the first podcast of 2010. Touching on last season, the upcoming season, player movement, and much much more!!

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Enjoy!

 

 Six Questions with Gary Smith [28:40m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download