Despite last playing in a competitive match in late 2019, Argentine attacking midfielder Braian Galvan may make his Colorado Rapids debut sooner than later, at least if his form in training is any indication.
"He hasn't played for a long time, and to be quite honest he's been pretty sharp in a lot of ways," Rapids head coach Robin Fraser said Saturday ahead of their meeting with Real Salt Lake in their MLS is Back Group D opener on Sunday night. "He’s definitely ahead of where I thought he would be fitness-wise, and certainly the possibility exists for him to get playing time.
"He’s a different sort of player and one of the things I really like about our team is that we have so many good attacking players and so many of our attacking players are stylistically different. He just adds another wrinkle that I think is a really good complementary piece to the puzzle that we have."
The 19-year-old has a smattering of Argentine Superliga experience with Colón, and can play either centrally or wide left. Signed to a pre-contract in January, he officially joined the Rapids during the MLS Two-Day Transfer WIndow on July 6 and 7.
From Fraser's perspective, the best news is he won't feel pressured to insert Galvan before he's ready, given the team's two wins to start the season and a current clean bill of health.
"We do (have a full squad), which is a great thing given some of what we’ve had to go through," Fraser said. "We will have everyone available to us and certainly we feel like at full strength that’s a great advantage for us."
Colorado have not been among the teams to have positive tests in their camp, Fraser said. And while the health protocols have been mentally challenging to observe, one silver lining is they have exposed the squad's dedication to each other and to the success of the group.
"Drew (Moor) mentioned it, that as a group they have talked about the importance of having everyone available," Fraser said. "That’s not even me driving that, that’s not me telling them they need to follow these protocols. That’s because this is a really responsible, mature group. They know that one of the factors is we have a really deep team. And to give ourselves the best possible chance, we want to make sure that everyone’s available. And it’s certainly something we’ve touched upon, but they’ve taken it upon themselves."
