The Rapids will add Joyce to the club’s senior roster pending receipt of his International Transfer Certificate. He is expected to join the team this week during the club’s preseason training in London, England.

The Rapids also announced several other roster moves, as the club released forward Facundo Diz and did not offer a contract to 2010 third round MLS SuperDraft pick defender Chad Borak.

Joyce, 24, a Seton Hall University product, has played his entire professional career in England. He joined Grays Athletic FC in 2007, then moved to Watford and most recently spent time with Southend United. Joyce spent a brief trial stint with Colorado this preseason in February before signing with the club.

Rapids Managing Director Jeff Plush made the announcement in a press conference held at Casey’s alma mater of Denver South High School.

“Today is a banner day for the Rapids organization and we could not be more pleased with knowing that Conor will continue to represent our club with his professionalism and talents in his hometown,” said Plush. “With all his recent successes on the pitch, Conor faced many opportunities to return to playing overseas and for him to make the commitment to the Rapids speaks volumes of the direction our club is headed.”

“I’m really excited that the Rapids are committed to me and that my future is with this club,” said Casey. “I am looking forward to the coming years, as we continue to build something special. Having played in my hometown the last several seasons and now knowing I’m going to be staying here playing for my home club is a great feeling.”

Casey was born in Dover, N.H., but moved with his family to Denver at age 5. Following a standout collegiate career at the University of Portland, he began his professional career in Germany playing with Borussia Dortmund, Karlsruher SC and FSV Mainz over the next six years.

Casey returned to North America in 2007 signing with Toronto FC, where he appeared in two matches before being acquired by the Rapids on April 19, 2007.

The 28-year old target forward is coming off a career year in 2009 posting a new Rapids single season scoring record with 16 goals to finish second in the league’s Golden Boot race only one goal behind FC Dallas’ Jeff Cunningham. Casey was named to the MLS Best XI squad for the first time in his career and also garnered MLS All-Star honors.

The three-year MLS veteran has appeared in 62 career games, with 51 starts, and scored 29 goals and added six assists. Casey currently ranks fourth all-time in scoring for the Rapids with 29 goals in just 60 games and is the club’s all-time leader in hat tricks with three. Casey’s scoring rate of .483 is first among all the Top 10 goal scorers in Rapids history.

Casey has 20 career caps with the U.S. national team and has scored two career international goals and registered one assist. His two goals in the U.S.’s World Cup qualifying win against Honduras on October 10, 2009 clinched a berth into the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa for the Americans. Casey is the only player in U.S. soccer history to score two goals in a road qualifier in Central America.

Kennedy writes that “one or two of the four forwards in Tampa could go to South Africa,” and that Brian Ching would be first in line. But he gives Colorado Rapids striker Conor Casey, who scored two goals in the victory that clinched the Americans’ trip to South Africa, a 45 percent chance of being part of the team.

The El Salvador match is being telecast on ESPN Classic and Galavision at 5 p.m. Mountain time.

Tickets will be available at the Dick’s Sporting Goods Park box office, by calling 303-53-HORSE, at the kiosks at any Colorado Dick’s Sporting Goods location or online at TicketHorse.com.

Single-game tickets start at $20.

Information on all ticket prices and single-game promotions can be found on the team’s official Web site.

RAPIDS PRESEASON ITINERARY: The Rapids have announced their full itinerary for preseason training, which includes trips to Phoenix and London. After four weeks of training at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, the team will get its first taste of training outside of Colorado when it travels to the Casa Grande Performance Institute, just south of Phoenix, from February 21-27. The club’s Arizona excursion will be highlighted by several exhibition matches against other Major League Soccer clubs. Details of those matches will be announced at a later date. The Rapids will then conduct one week of practice sessions at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park upon returning from Arizona before heading back on the road for another eight days. For the third time in four years, the Rapids’ preseason plans will include a trip to London. The team will be hosted by Arsenal. The partnership between the Rapids and the Premiership club was formed in 2007 and allows the Rapids to practice at Arsenal’s facilities. The team’s England trip will be from March 7-14 and will also include several matches against English opponents, who will be announced at a later time. The trip to England will be followed by four days of training back at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, after which the team will host fellow Western Conference side Seattle Sounders FC in Major League Soccer’s first-ever Charity Shield match on March 19. Proceeds from this match will be donated to UNICEF to aid relief efforts in Haiti.

RUGBY AT DICK’S: Dick’s Sporting Goods Park will serve as the home venue for the Denver Barbarians rugby club during the team’s spring 2010 USA Rugby Super League matches, the stadium announced today. The Barbarians will host league champion San Francisco Golden Gate on March 14, the Dallas Harlequins on March 27 and the Chicago Lions on April 17.

MLS COLLECTIVE BARGAINING EXTENDED: Major League Soccer and the Major League Soccer Players Union have agreed to continue to negotiate through February 25, as they work toward reaching a new collective bargaining agreement.

CHANGING THE LAYOUT: The Rapids have announced their plans for the creation of the new Supporters Terrace behind the north goal at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park. Using the stadium’s unique design, this new Supporters Terrace will become an adult-oriented area designed to allow for the exuberance of the Rapids’ most passionate fans. This move to create a new section of the stadium specifically to appeal to the Rapids’ adult demographic was conceived in conjunction with the Rapids’ existing supporters club leaders and will allow for their voices and energy to be felt in a whole new manner. Historically in soccer, the term terrace has referred to the traditional standing area behind the goals of a stadium, particularly in the United Kingdom, that offered a cheaper alternative to sitting in the stands and a more popular spectator area for members of the working classes. The Rapids’ Supporters Terrace will be the first true terrace area of its kind in Major League Soccer and will aim to expand upon the experience found in terraces overseas. Flags, banners, instruments, singing and other passionate support of the team at home games will all be encouraged, making the Supporters Terrance the place to be for Colorado’s most enthusiastic soccer fans.

Rapids striker Conor Casey is training with the U.S. men’s national team in preparation for friendlies against El Salvador on Feb. 24 in Tampa, Florida, and against the Netherlands on March 3 in Amsterdam. These are the team’s last matches before it names its roster for the World Cup. Good luck, Conor (and good luck to all the players). The El Salvador match will be broadcast at 5 p.m. (Mountain time) on ESPN Classic and Telefutura. The Netherlands match will be on ESPN2 and Galavision at 12:30 p.m. (Mountain time). Casey has 19 career caps with the national team and scored his first two international goals in the U.S.’s 2010 World Cup qualifying win against Honduras on October 10. He also has one assist in international play. He also played 30 minutes in a 3-1 loss against Honduras on January 23, the United States’ first match of 2010.

U.S. TRAINING CAMP ROSTER
GOALKEEPERS: Troy Perkins (D.C. United), Nick Rimando (Real Salt Lake), Zach Thornton (Chivas USA)
DEFENDERS: Kevin Alston (New England Revolution), Jonathan Bornstein (Chivas USA), Omar Gonzalez (Los Angeles Galaxy), Chad Marshall (Columbus Crew), Michael Orozco (Philadelphia Union), Heath Pearce (FC Dallas), Marvell Wynne (Toronto FC)
MIDFIELDERS: Kyle Beckerman (Real Salt Lake), Geoff Cameron (Houston Dynamo), Brad Davis (Houston Dynamo), Brad Evans (Seattle Sounders), Eddie Gaven (Columbus Crew), Sacha Kljestan (Chivas USA), Dax McCarty (FC Dallas), Chris Pontius (D.C. United), Robbie Rogers (Columbus Crew)
FORWARDS: Conor Casey (Colorado Rapids), Brian Ching (Houston Dynamo), Jeff Cunningham (FC Dallas), Robbie Findley (Real Salt Lake)

Earls and Murillo will be added to the roster pending receipt of their international transfers.

Earls comes to Colorado after two seasons with the USL-1 Rochester Rhinos. The 20-year old from Dublin, Ireland, gained significant experience while playing with the Aston Villa’s reserve squad from 2005 to 2008. Earls has competed with Ireland’s U15, U16, U18 and U19 national teams.

Murillo joins the Rapids following two seasons with Deportes Quindio of Colombia’s top professional league, where he scored two goals and registered eight assists in 42 games. The 21-year old has played professionally with Argentina’s famed Boca Juniors, Centauros Villavicencio in the Colombian Second Division, and Club Atlético Lanús of the Argentine Primera Division. On the international side, he has also been a member of Colombia’s U15 through U20 national teams.

Harden was acquired by the Rapids in January 2009 in a trade with the LA Galaxy in exchange for Colorado’s 2009 third-round draft pick.

This is the second trade Colorado and Toronto have completed in the past four weeks. On January 21, the Rapids acquired allocation money from Toronto in exchange for midfielder Jacob Peterson.

The Reds already have at least three Harden stories and a video on their Web site.

Daniel Girard of The Toronto Star reports that Toronto’s new head coach, Preki Radosavljevic, may have acquired Harden because of what he saw when he  was coaching Chivas USA and Harden was playing with the Galaxy.

Harden, a second-round pick of the Galaxy in the 2007 draft, started 24 games for Los Angeles and was named the team’s defender of the year. But on the first day of training camp in 2008, Harden announced to Galaxy officials he was leaving the game of soccer. He went back to the University of Washington to complete his degree and then ended up teaching at a children’s center in Kenya.

The league released its 2010 schedule on Wednesday, and the Rapids won’t meet defending champion (gag, cough) Real Salt Lake until the final two months of the season. The Rapids travel to Utah for their first meeting, on September 25. After that match, there will be only four fixtures remaining (one of which is against RSL).

There’s no way to tell which team would benefit from such scheduling. If one or the other has fallen out of contention by that point, would the other be able to climb in the standings because of these two games? Or would the also-ran be able to successfully play the role of spoiler?

The only thing that’s certain is the history between these clubs is growing more bitter by the year. And the two late dates have the potential to be important in the standings and the playoff race, and that’s no doubt how MLS would like it. 2010 marks the fourth consecutive year that the teams have finished against each other.

The Rapids play a 30-game schedule, two games each (one home, one away) against 15 other clubs. The opener, as we already knew, is March 26 against Chivas USA at The Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif. The home opener is April 3 at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park against Chicago.

We also knew the league would take a two week break, June 11-24, for the World Cup.

Here’s what we learned:

The Rapids got a Fourth of July match again, this one against the Red Bulls. The Fourth falls on a Sunday, so there’s no reason this one shouldn’t sell out (unless casual fans aren’t able to forget the fireworks fiasco of ‘09).

The expansion Philadelphia Union (with former Rapids defender Jordan Harvey) will make its first visit to Colorado on July 21.

Oddly, the Rapids will face the Red Bulls on September 11 in New York. That could be a surreal setting on the ninth anniversary of the terrorist attacks.

Colorado has no more than two consecutive road games and no more than two straight at home.

MLS runner-up Los Angeles will visit on May 5. Will David Beckham make his second appearance in uniform at Dick’s?

To see the full schedule, check out our Schedules/Results page, updated for 2010.

To see all the Rapids, W-League and college results from Colorado in 2009, go here.

Single-game 2010 Rapids tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. February 16 at the Dick’s Sporting Goods Park box office, at 303-53-HORSE or at ColoradoRapids.com. Rapids full-season ticket holders will have an opportunity for a special advance sale of single-game tickets, beginning at 10 a.m. February 8.

Other highlights of the MLS schedule:

- Seventy-five percent of all MLS games will be played on Saturdays; 85 percent of MLS games will be played on weekends.

- A two-week break in the MLS season aligns with the group phase of the FIFA World Cup. The last match before this break is D.C. United at Seattle Sounders FC at 10 p.m. ET (ESPN2).

- Red Bull Arena will host its first League match March 27, when the Red Bulls face Chicago.

- The first MLS game to be played on natural grass at BMO Field in Toronto will be April 15.

- On Sunday, June 27, Philadelphia Union will open the ninth stadium built specifically for an MLS club. The grand opening of the venue in Chester, Pa., will be a match against Seattle.

- The 2010 MLS All-Star Game will be at Reliant Stadium in Houston in late July or early August.

We, at ColoradoSoccerNow.com, loves us some WeWantRapidman. When I worked at the Rocky Mountain News, I called Nick Thomas the most dogged Rapids reporter in town, and that label still holds true.

Keep up the good work, mate!

OMAR PASSES THE ROCK: Rapids striker Omar Cummings collected an assist on Luton Shelton’s 28th career goal for the Reggae Boyz as Jamaica beat Canada 1-0 in an exhibition game on Sunday in Kingston. Dwayne De Rosario, one of my faves, wore the captain’s armband for the visitors.

FORMER PIONEER GETS TRYOUT: Former University of Denver player Leon Abravanel is participating in preseason training with the Rapids. The Tahoe Daily Tribune, a newspaper I almost worked for years ago, reports that over the next eight weeks Abravanel hopes to secure a contract. Read the whole story here.

“STRONG SILENT TYPE”: Britain’s Telegraph has a profile on Rapids owner Stan Kroenke and his likely influences on Arsenal. The story is here.

WOO-HOO! Major League Soccer is now following ColoradoSoccerNow.com on twitter. We already had D-Ro following us, so this is just gravy!

ANOTHER OF MY FAVES: Steve Ralston has signed with AC St. Louis in the new second-division league that starts in April, according to Tom Timmerman of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Ralston, played at Oakville High and Forest Park Community College in St. Louis. He will be captain of the team and will also serve as assistant coach. The 35-year-old’s contract with the Revolution had run out.

COMING SOON: MLS is scheduled to release the complete 2010 schedule at noon (Mountain time) Wednesday. My guess is the final Rapids game of the regular season will be against Real Salt Lake.

The match will be the team’s first Charity Shield fundraiser, patterned after similar games in England, where they are a longstanding tradition. Each season, the champions of the Premier League face the winners of the FA Cup, with all proceeds going to charity.

The Charity Shield is a change from the club’s preseason Burgundy & Blue Game. Last season, the Rapids hosted the men’s soccer team from Metropolitan State College in this exhibition at Dick’s.

Proceeds from this year’s Charity Shield will be donated to UNICEF to aid relief efforts in Haiti, which was devastated by a 7.0 earthquake on Jan. 12.

The Rapids Charity Shield is the first of its kind in Major League Soccer.

Tickets will cost $10 for general admission, $15 for club seats and $20 for field-side seats. Tickets will be distributed exclusively through Flash Seats, the team’s new paperless method of ticket delivery. This event will mark the debut of the Flash Seats technology at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park.

Rapids Season Ticket Holders will be provided one free ticket per seat on their account for the match, which they will be able to access through the Flash Seats system.

Larentowicz, 26, was drafted by the Revolution in the fourth round (45th overall) in the 2005 Major League Soccer supplemental draft and earned a starting role midway through the 2006 season. After registering four goals (all from outside the penalty area) in 2008 and three goals in 2007, he finished the 2009 season with one goal and two assists for New England. He started 28 games for the Revs last year. He helped Brown to two Ivy League championships. He trained with Sweden’s Malmo FF during the summer between his junior and senior years at Brown and with England’s Ipswich Town after the 2005 MLS season. Following the acquisition of Larentowicz’s rights, the Rapids agreed to terms on a new contract with him.

Thompson, 26, a wide midfielder who can use his left or right foot, was selected with the fifth overall pick in the 2007 MLS draft. He scored the winning goal in the final of the 2007 U.S. Open Cup, helping the Revs earn their first trophy. In 25 games last season (17 of them start) he registered one goal and two assists. While at Wake Forest in 2006, the Demon Deacons advanced to the NCAA College Cup for the first time in school history. He is the highest-drafted soccer player in Wake Forest history, and he is the fourth-highest-drafted student-athlete in school history, behind basketball’s Tim Duncan (No. 1 in the 1997 NBA draft) and Chris Paul (No. 4 in the 2005 NBA draft) and baseball’s Kyle Sleeth (No. 3 in the 2003 MLB draft).

Gibbs, pictured at right, joined Colorado in mid-August 2008 and was chosen as the team’s defender of the year that season. He appeared in 20 games (19 starts) in 2009. He scored his first career MLS goal, which was also an MLS goal of the week nominee, against Los Angeles in October 2008. He has 19 caps for the U.S. men’s national team. He was on the roster for Nats’ match against Guatemala in November 2008 at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park but did not enter the game. Gibbs, who turned 30 this month, has played for St. Pauli, Charlton, Den Haag, Feyenoord and Dallas.

The Rapids acquired Burpo in a trade with the Earthquakes for Jovan Kirovski and Kelly Gray. Bupro spent nine years with the Seattle Sounders as one of the top goalkeepers in the USL First Division. In 2009, he started 11 games in goal and had a record of 1-4-6 with 23 saves and a 1.45 goals against average. He posted a shutout at Kansas City in September. He got his first significant time in goal for the Rapids in 2008 when Bouna Coundoul was away with the Senegalese National team, and finished the season with a 5-6-2 record and a 1.85 GAA. He’s also played for Chivas USA, the Boston Storm and New Hampshire Phantoms of the USISL, Harbor View of Jamaica’s first division and New Hampshire College (now Southern University of New Hampshire).