Ahead of the 2015 SuperDraft, MLSsoccer.com is breaking down each team's needs and potential draft targets. What will the Rapids look for with the No. 19 pick?
Usually when you have a season as miserable as Colorado's 2014, your reward is a potential-laden, top-five pick of the "Dillon Powers" variety.
But Colorado's 2014 was not the regular sort of "man, we had a bad season" misery. As if to drive that point home, there's this fact: the Rapids have no top-five pick because they traded it two seasons ago. For Danny Mwanga.
They do, however, have the No. 19 slot, which was part of the price of Oscar Pareja's defection to FC Dallas last winter. Any/every draft pick is a crapshoot to some extent, but Colorado's done good work with later picks in recent years – including Jared Watts, who lasted all the way to No. 33 in 2014, but looked very much like a future starter if not necessarily a star in his rookie campaign.
Rapids SuperDraft selections: #19 (1st round), #26 (2nd round), #67 & 78 (4th round)
Rapids Depth chart: 21 Players
Goalkeeper (3):Clint Irwin, Zac MacMath, John Berner
Left Back (2):Chris Klute, Marc Burch
Center Back (4): Drew Moor, Shane O'Neill, Bobby Burling, Zat Knight
Right Back (2): Michael Harrington, John Neeskens
Defensive Midfield (2): Jared Watts, Jose Mari
Central Midfield (2): Dillon Powers, Marlon Hairston
Winger (4): Vicente Sanchez, Dillon Serna, Charles Eloundou, Gabriel Torres
Center Forward (2): Deshorn Brown, Caleb Calvert
Primary Need: Midfield depth
Take that central midfield depth chart with a grain of salt, since it looks like Jose Mari will not return in 2015. That leaves only three central midfielders on the roster, all three of whom missed time due to injury last year. If you could pencil in Powers & Watts for 34 games a piece, then you'd like Colorado's chances. But the MLS season is a grind and this team needs more than just Marlon Hairston to back them up.
To that end, expect at least one overseas target (rumors have them poking around Argentina) as well as a couple of MLS veterans pulled off the scrap heap. And if the right guy falls to them in the draft... well, maybe the misery of 2014 will be a thing of the past.
Targets: Leo Stolz (UCLA), Fatai Alashe (Michigan State), Nick Besler (Notre Dame), Dan Metzger (Maryland), Eric Bird (Virginia), Seth Casiple (California)
Secondary Need: Creative wing play
Of the four wingers listed above, three of them (Sanchez, Eloundou, Torres) may actually be better as "underneath" forwards. Only Serna is a true wide player.
Targets: James Rogers (New Mexico), Akeil Barrett (Tulsa), Connor Hallisey (California)
SUPERDRAFT TEAM PREVIEWS
- Columbus Crew:Step by step, second time around for CCSC
- Colorado Rapids:Can Mile High Club find a contributor late?
- DC United: One more piece for one more step
- Houston Dynamo:One decade later, a new era begins
- LA Galaxy:Recalibrating a championship machine
- Montreal Impact:Building out after a promising stretch run
- New England Revolution:Suddenly great, but plenty of need
- New York City FC:Feeling kind of blue east of the Hudson
- New York Red Bulls:Another new era in Jersey
- Real Salt Lake: Not quite a rebuild in the high desert
- San Jose Earthquakes: Recapturing that Goonie magic
- Toronto FC: Trying to solve the eternal problem in Ontario
- Vancouver Whitecaps:A full roster for Cascadia kings
- New England Revolution:Suddenly great but plenty of need
- Phildelphia Union: Building around the core
- Seattle Sounders:Nothing glaring for Shield, USOC winners
- Sporting KC:Filling it all out after a mini-rebuild
- Chicago Fire:Endless questions in the Windy City
- Portland Timbers:Draft & stash with T2 up and running
- Orlando City:Is there a trade for No. 1 in the works?
