Colorado Rapids
Soccer365.com ran a great article at the start of the week on the optimism around the Colorado Rapids camp this year. I think this quote from head coach Fernando Clavijo says a lot:
“I’ve been saying all along it would take 3 years to put a group of players together and this is 3 years, so no excuses. Everything is falling into place and you have to believe that this is our time.”
For me, this is the first year I haven't looked over Colorado's roster and thought, "God. What the hell to make of that?" They've made some good moves this year; I think they're a team to watch.
Red Bull New York
Ives Galarcep turned in one of his progress reports from the RBNY preseason. The notable stuff in there includes Dema Kovalenko's strong start to the season and Galarcep's cooling toward Ansu Toure.
Real Salt Lake
The stadium saga continues, though not nearly as powerfully: there's a petition drive attempting to reverse the Utah state legislature's decision to fund a stadium. When I first saw the headline I thought they had a pretty good shot, due mainly to the general, popular distaste for the project. But then I read this:
"However, the group has a big task ahead. Per state law, they must collect 91,996 signatures of voters who participated in the last gubernatorial election. Those signatures must be collected statewide from at least 15 counties by April 9."
It's the state-wide piece that makes this look like an uphill battle; you'll see why if you read the article.
In other RSL news, toward the bottom of the (brief) match report on the team's recent loss to Spain's San Sebastian, there was a nice, and mildly surprising, bit about what to expect by way of a formation for the Utah team:
"RSL started the game in a 4-4-2 formation, with keeper Nick Rimando behind a new-look back four, as Chris Lancos joined the selection on the right next to Eddie Pope and Daniel Torres, pushing Jack Stewart to left back. Captain Jason Kreis and Carey Talley assumed their usual midfield positions, with Chris Klein on the right and Freddy Adu as a pinched-in left midfielder, behind front-runners Luis Tejada and Jeff Cunningham."
The thing to note is in bold.
Toronto FC
Holy shit. I'm beat. Can't type another word about soccer.
As such, I'm only going to link to Bill Urban's impressive look at how Toronto FC is shaping up in their first preseason. Just bang-up work.
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