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Empire of Soccer had several notes from Cosmos' training yesterday, from players no longer with the club to a trio of players on trial at the moment. One of that trio is goalkeeper Steward Ceus, who had spent his entire professional career with the Colorado Rapids before being released in December.
At the moment, the Cosmos are down to just one keeper currently under contract. Kyle Reynish signed on with the Chicago Fire earlier in the winter, while Bryan Meredith joined up with the San Jose Earthquakes. The club will likely be looking for two keepers in addition to Jimmy Maurer, with signing at least one in the next 60 days being absolutely critical.
Ceus is a local product, attending North Rockland high school before playing collegiately at the University of Albany. He's huge, standing 6'6" tall with an unbelievable wingspan, and has elite physical tools for the position. He was a bit of an enigma in Colorado though, and fans grew pretty frustrated with his performances in 2013.
Ceus has shown flashes of excellence at the MLS level, looking good enough before last season to earn himself the backup keeper position entering last season. Before rejoining the Rapids, he spent some time training with Sunderland in England. Interestingly enough, Jimmy Maurer was one of the players Colorado took a look at to provide insurance behind the erratic Ceus, or as a potential replacement if Steward moved overseas.
As a potential backup, Steward strikes me as a decent low risk, very high reward option. If everything was to click all of a sudden, New York could find themselves with one of the elite goalkeepers playing in the US. Even if that never happens though (and at 26, it's becoming increasingly less likely that it will), Ceus should be more than capable of providing a quality depth behind Jimmy Maurer this season, while potentially pushing for a starting role if he impresses Gio Savarese.
