A Year From Now...a prophecy

I hope you're right.

 

Seems like the typical fix - keep 1 or 2 players and flush the rest. It's worked SO WELL for us in the past.

If it were up to me, I'd:
{cue "dream sequence" music}

a) Look at keeping (front to back) Pedro, Cila, Hendo, Chung, McDLT, Crawford, Borchers, Kotschau, Pablo and Cannon. I'd want at least one forward with the potential of playing at least 10 more years, even if they're not all with us. Enough 30-something signings.

b) See about getting CC back (with a little bump in salary), or, pick up some young "undiscovered" talent like McColm Cephus at Richmond.

c) Cut Zizi, Pow-Pow and DiGi adrift as quickly as possible. They're far from trade bait, and certainly an anchor around the club's neck. Why the hell is DiGi even back?

d) See if we can't work out a way to keep Spenny, with a little pay cut, for one more year.

e) Whether the league is involved or not next year, find a way to start a TRUE reserve team/youth system; even if it's just U-17's to start. (This idea has been discussed to death over the years) Players like Erush and Sully are just wasting on the bench; get them into some competitive games. Also for getting rehabbed players back to match fitness (Stewart).

f) Get players who can score from a set piece - free-kicks (a-la Agoos but younger) or someone who's strong in the air.

Doesn't leave a lot of trade bait, but have we really ever had much?

Anyway, my nickels worth of hyperbole. It's good to know though, if true, that KSE is not blind to what's happening now.

But, PLEASE, KSE find a better fix than gutting the team, again. There must be more to work with than just Cannon and Borchers.

 

Build the defense around Nat, Pablo and Cannon, that's a very healthy foundation.
Build the offense around Pedro (assuming he's healthy)

Everyone else is expendable

 

Yeah, Borchers, Pablo and Cannon all have a good future for a lot of years. It will be interesting to see if Pablo will be content to sit through the rebuilding or if he'll jump ship to Europe if an opportunity presents itself. There was talk of him getting a Euro passport (Italian perhaps?) in the off-season, although I don't remember if he actually got it. Certainly, not taking a foreign spot on a European roster makes him much more appealing.

I'd say Pedro is worth keeping as well, but the place the Rapids really need some rebuilding is in the midfield. Big time. Chung and Hendo are in their last years, Beckerman looks lost, and all the others who have rotated in and out of the midfield aren't anything to write home about. It doesn't help that Utah and Chivas are jumping in the mix next year, that just dilutes the talent pool that is out there. I hate to say it, but KSE may have timed their rebuilding rather poorly, given that both Utah and Chivas will be looking to stock new rosters as well and there just isn't all that much talent right now to go around... They better be doing some serious undercover work, finding talent out there where other teams aren't looking if they are planning on rebuilding a competitive squad that can play exciting soccer and compete for some titles.

With the departure of Spenny, and the (hopefully) casting aside of Zizi and Powell's dead weight, we should be free to sign 3 new SI's of quality, cats like Andy Herzog that have the pedigree to lift their teams to new levels. I hope they're out there, and that the new leadership for the Rapids finds them.

 

I'd be happy to see much of this come true. Ideally we could keep our defensive unit. I really can't complain about Cannon, DLT, Borchers, Pablo, and Kotschau.

Zizi, Powell, and Spencer should all be gone. Chung should be gone. Henderson should be in charge of team fitness. Is it really considered rebuilding when you're just removing rotted wood?

We've got some young players worth keeping, but probably not worth building around. Some of them will probably benefit from a trade. In particular I could see Beckerman being attractive to several teams, and at this point in his career a change of scenery would be telling. DC or Chicago would be best for him, but SJ could happen as well. Trembley needs to go some place and prove himself.

That leaves a handful of players that we can't really build around. Crawford is improving in spite of the team performance, which tells me he's worth something. Cila should be kept as a third forward. I'd like to see Pedro and Rey playing with a new cast.

What's out there that we can get? Overmars is retiring due to a nagging knee injury. Hankinson might be able to talk him into coming here. Just kidding, that's why we're in the mess we're in.

 

This has been obvious for a long time. The real sucky thing about Hanki though, is that while the rest of the league has realized the future is developing good young American, Old Hank has always traded his draft picks for "veterans". The cupboard is pretty bare--not to mention that this is a bad year to bring in a lot of new players since there will be two expansion teams doing the same thing. My guess would be that 2005 will be a write-off rebuilding year while the team aims for 2006 at the new digs.

 

On the optimistic side ... teams that have rebuildt have gone on to have good success that very year. Maybe those days are gone ... but it sure seems like we have the potential to make it work.

 

True enough. This is MLS, and there's lots of opportunity for improvement. A solid SI signing, and some good young players help a lot. More than most leagues I'd say that good management means a lot, and we just haven't had that.

 

Only if you replace the rotten with the good. Not less rotten wood (Amokachi, Grimandi, Powell) as Hankincounce seems wont to do annually.

Let me just say that I hope the 9th annual "Rebuilding and General Un-De-Reconstruction of the Rapids" works out for us. Some of us annually decide that THIS is the best Rapids team ever. Oh yes, THIS is the year! [honest]I really do hope '05 is, in fact, the start of a long, hardware-filled run at the top.[/honest]

I don't mean to be a nattering nay-bob of negativity (difficult to take it any other way, though) - but - Didn't Hanki gut this team, in mid-season, to rebuild during 2001? Then gut and "rebuild" in 2002? Then start hammering planks over the holes in 2003? And is still to this day hammering yet more planks over yet more holes?

This team has had an "Under Construction" sign on it pretty much since Mooch took over in 1997. I have yet to see any real, palpable, improvement. (Backed into the playoffs in '97, "got hot" enough to make the final; and, managed to get to the USOC Final in '99, only to take our place in history as the only MLS team to lose a final to a division 2 side.) The players come and go - some even come back (Hendo and DiGi), but the results are the same; mind-numbing mediocrity and grotesque under-achievement. I should throw criminal team mis-management in as well.

I hope whomever KSE is looking at for leadership in '05 has decent scouting skills. I don't know if I could stand another Amokachi or Grimandi or Powell debacle. And I hope they have the ability to find, use and polish up young raw talent, instead of letting go to waste on the bench. Like so many of our number 1 picks have done.

Desperately looking for that silver lining!

Forza NegrAzul!