MLS Draft Preview
Alllow me to confess: I don't really care about the MLS Superdraft, which in case you have forgotten is scheduled for Thursday in St. Louis.
Frankly, I don't find it super at all.
I am in the minority, I know.
Other soccer blogs have dissected the combine, held mock drafts and speculated about trades and the eventual draft order.
All I can say is - yawn.
It's not just because I'm English born and there's no such thing there.
Back in the dark '80s, when there was no real football in the U.S. and I was a big fan of the pointy-ball version I loved the NFL draft.
Mel Kiper. Live ESPN coverage. All of it.
But MLS is not the NFL.
In American soccer, most of the best players leave college early to sign with pro teams.
In MLS the draft is arguably the least relevant of any held by a major American sport. And that's how it should be. It speaks to the continued maturation of the league that the draft is becoming less and less important.
Want proof?
Here's last year's draft picks.
How many of those players made a major impact on MLS last season?
Well, yes, No. 2 pick Brek Shea is still just 18 years old (for instance), so I'm being a little unfair.
But still, is the draft hype anywhere close to reality?
Um, no.
I was reminded of that recently after a Galaxy official pointed out how successful the draft was for the team last year compared to other MLS clubs.
The team's first three picks were Sean Franklin (No.4 overall), Ely Allen (No. 21 overall) and Julian Valentin (No. 29 overall).
All played quite a bit for the Galaxy. And look at the impact they had. My, didn't the Galaxy do well last season?
My point: the apparent success of the Galaxy's draft picks was more reflective of a weak team and desperate management than anything else (quick, name the top Chivas USA pick last year).
Frankly, even those who purport to have insider knowledge of the draft don't seem to know what they're talking about.
I read one recent article that talked about how the Galaxy's most desperate need was for a goalkeeper, the author apparently not remembering (or rating) veteran Donovan Ricketts, the Jamaican international the club picked up in the off-season. Frankly, with playmaker Landon Donovan all but gone and the memory of last year's Swiss cheese-like defense lingering, the Galaxy need a helluva lot more than another goalkeeper at this point.
But look, now that I've pissed all over the importance of the draft, it's still going to be held.
So here are the basics: there are four rounds and 60 selections beginning at 11 a.m. live on ESPN2 (only the first hour is televised).
The Galaxy on Tuesday traded away the MLS rights for 2007 Defender of the Year Ty Hardin (who retired last year to enter the nonprofit world you'll recall) to Colorado for another third round pick. That gives the Galaxy five picks: one in the first round (3rd overall), two in the third round (33rd and 35th overall) and two in the fourth round (48th and 49th overall).
Chivas USA picks No. 9 and No. 19, BTW.
Want rumors and speculation? Go here.
Expect lots more today as the pre-draft wheeling and dealing gets under way in earnest.
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About 100 Percent Soccer
Sportswriter Nick Green has written the 100 Percent Soccer column since 2005 for the Daily News, Daily Breeze and other Los Angeles area newspapers. The blog of the same name began in 2007. A native of England, he began writing about soccer in the mid-1980s and in 2000 permanently exchanged a seat in the stands for one in the press box. He lives six miles from Carson's Home Depot Center, home of the Los Angeles Galaxy, Chivas USA and the training headquarters for U.S. Soccer and is married to a long-suffering soccer widow. Join Nick on FaceBook and follow him on Twitter.
I find this new vogue thing of bashing the draft (Goff is into it too) funny for several reasons some of which will probably be redundant"
1. You guys are in the information business yet have decided that because the MLS draft isn't as important as the NFL or NBA draft that it's not even worth following. Sure, most guys don't turn out to be anything, but some do. Why not find out who those guys are? A year ago, Franklin was at the combine. Now he's with the MNT. Maybe one of the guys we're not expecting to go high could be that guy next year and the combine helped someone make the call to draft him.
2. As the reporting has shown, much more happens at the combine than looking at new players. The few who hold their nose up at the event were slow to get the Ezra coaching news and Namoff's re-signing (Ives beat Steve on that one cause Ives is there).
3. I don't see the hype you are referencing. I see a handful of blogs covering the event and very clearly stating what is there - players with lots of frailties who will have a hard time making a huge difference in MLS right away. I don't see gushing and praise and rose-colored glasses. I see good reporting.
4. Lastly, and my biggest point, when did it become a bad thing for MLS fans to have a deep connection to their team and want to know more information? This seems to be the unintended effect of these kinds of columns. The writers think the combine is a waste of time and a geek fest so the fans get nothing and like it.
I've known guys who have covered the winter meetings for MLB and the NFL combine and have said that they are tedious exercises that don't yield a lot of fruit, but they are part of the landscape of the league and they can't be ignored. As soccer grew, I thought coverage would as well, but instead some writers are saying they know better than the fans.
If money were the issue keeping people from going there, that would be understandable, but this notion that the combine and associated activities isn't worth the time is a troubling point of view.
Nick replies: Hadn't had a chance to respond until now, but wanted to clarify a few things.
1. Who said the draft isn't worth following? It's importance is, however, grossly overstated.
2. Agreed.
3. Hype is relative. I meant I've just seen more effort this year devoted to analyzing the draft than ever before. That's not bad reporting. But it is curious because I'm not alone in believing the draft's importance is diminishing, not increasing.
4. It isn't. But part of a journalist's job is to put an event MLS is overhyping in the proper context. That's what I was intending to do, rather than simply "bash" the draft.
Thanks for reading
Thanks for all the Chivas rumors and draft info!
You are the Tim Vickery of the MLS.
You may also recall the young forward Fraser Kershaw who graduated from a smaller University in Southern California. Seems, after graduation he drafted to join the Morelia Monarcas of Mexico. This is another example of quality players skipping MLS chances; and joining other international professional soccer players overseas. Bottom line: More lucrative & more promising.