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Colorado Rapids 10 Questions: Marcelo Balboa | Coachspeak: Glenn Myernick
Posted: Saturday March 11, 2000 09:23 PM
By Jeff Diecks, CNNSI.com The Colorado Rapids' 1999 media guide contains a brief glossary in the back with definitions of various medical terms used to describe injuries. How prophetic that inclusion turned out to be. Playmaker Anders Limpar, all-time Rapids leading scorer Paul Bravo, midfielder Ross Paule, winger Joey DiGiamarino, and defender Jason Bent missed nearly 50 combined starts last year with injuries. "Anders Limpar missed half the season. Jason Bent missed half the season," Colorado coach Glenn "Mooch" Myernick said. "It was very disruptive to us. But it happens with every team. You try to have the depth in your squad to cover for that."
Making matters worse, goalkeeper Marcus Hahnemann transferred to Fulham of the first division in England (where he has been doing little more than holding down the bench) just 13 games into the season. Colorado stood 10-3 when Hahnemann left. The team went 8-9 the rest of the year. The club also closed the season without scoring a goal in any game after a 1-0 win over Los Angeles on September 18 -- the 27th game of a 32-game regular season. The scoring drought spanned 679 minutes and included a two-game sweep at the hands of the Galaxy in the first round of the playoffs . To top it all off, the team's injury report has grown in the offseason. Colorado had to cut short its exhibition schedule during its visit to Portugal after it faced Sporting Lisbon on March 7 without the services of seven ailing players: Limpar (hamstring), Paule (knee), Jorge Dely Valdes (back), David Vaudreuil (calf), DiGiamarino (ankle), Tahj Jakins (shin splints) and Wes Hart (knee). In the 3-1 loss to Sporting, however, Bravo made his return to the lineup following his Feb. 16 knee surgery. Limpar suffered a pulled hamstring on March 1 but was expected back by the start of the season. Vaudreuil tore his right calf muscle in a Feb. 26 practice and will miss 5-6 weeks, and Bent had surgery on Feb. 3 to repair a torn medial meniscus in his right knee, putting him out for most of the preseason. While Myernick can do little about the injury troubles, he did address the scoring slump and the loss of Hahnemann with a host of offseason roster changes. For added scoring punch, the Rapids traded an international allocation to the MetroStars for striker Henry Zambrano. The Colombian national team member scored three goals for the Metros last season after joining the team in late July. Zambrano, who will team with Dely Valdes to form Colorado's strike force, has performed consistently for the Rapids during spring training.
A trade in early February with Kansas City gave Colorado the allocation that it shipped to the MetroStars. In the deal with the Wizards, the Rapids exchanged defender Peter Vermes, midfielder Matt McKeon and a draft pick for the allocation and defender Scott Vermillion. A day earlier, Colorado swapped a draft pick for San Jose goalkeeper David Kramer. Colorado then built a promising rookie crop with three of the first 10 picks in the MLS draft, including potential starting goalkeeper Adin Brown from William and Mary, Columbine High and University of Washington product Wes Hart and Clemson defender Alan Woods. To select Woods, the Rapids traded forward Wolde Harris to New England for the 10th overall pick in the draft. In the second round of the draft, Colorado picked up Trinidadian national team member Keyeno Thomas, a potential replacement at defensive midfielder for McKeon. The Rapids sent one 2001 first-round draft choice to Dallas to move up and take Brown with the third pick. On Feb. 18, Colorado kept dealing, sending another 2001 first-round pick to D.C. United in exchange for midfielder Jason Moore. Myernick's roster overhauls are nothing new to Rapids veteran defender Marcelo Balboa. "We've got a lot to learn with all the young kids," Balboa said. "We've got to put something together, because we've made the playoffs the last three years, made one MLS Cup final and made a U.S. Open Cup final. We've got a good team. We just have to find -- well, the coach has to find -- the right system, the right chemistry. And he's got a tough job ahead of him."
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