With two games left, the Revs are tied with Chivas for the #2 pick (Chivas has the tie-breaker in goals scored). The Revs are guaranteed a top 5 pick. Is it too early to start talking about the draft? MLS on Campus: Pro tug-of-war ahead for IU's Zavaleta? October 8, 2012 Daniel Robertson MLSsoccer.com Bolding is mine.
The majority of MLS team boards on this forum just started up their "2012 Playoffs" thread, meanwhile we're already focusing on the SuperDraft. Depressing.
To be honest, only 6 teams really make the playoffs. The other 4 make the wild card round, which is a complete crap shoot. You play a midweek game, then the #1 seed after they have a week of rest.
To be honest, 12 out of the league's 19 teams still have a chance at making the playoffs. Meanwhile we've been rooting for a higher draft pick for the past two months.
Well, most of those teams are delusional. With the current setup, only 8 teams have a chance to win the league, and in two weeks, only 6 teams will have a chance. Everyone else should be thinking about the draft.
With the current setup ten teams have a chance at raising the cup at the end of the season. The Revs won't be one of them.
This is the only Draft worth thinking about regardless if your team is playoff bound or not. Guaranteed to select an MVP (Most Valuable Pint) every time. MLS Draft is overrated. Beer is not.
While MLS has moved well past having the Draft be the primary way a team can add quality to their rosters it still is a significant element in the process. It may be a bit early for us the past three years because we have been hovering at the bottom of the standings. Our lowly standing in the League aside it does in fact make for a lot more excitement in this specific draft because we will have a very high draft pick while those teams hot on the trail of the Cup will not. They have their chase to be excited about, we have ours. I'd rather have their chase than ours but I've learned in life sometimes you just have to eat beens and find them a feast
We got the #3 player in the draft last year and people were happy. How did that work out? Maybe he might turn into a player next year, but I haven't seen anything to suggest that so far.
Not particularly. He's young and obviously has a long way to go before calling him a bust, but I don't see the same traits in him that I've seen in some of the other impressive rookies in this year's and prior draft classes.
This isn't against you in particular, but this amuses me. The last couple of years, late in the season, we've been told that we shouldn't give up on the season because if we get into the playoffs, it doesn't matter what seed we are ("see how often the Shield winners actually win the Cup?"). Now that we're out of it ... eh, it didn't really matter, those last couple of teams in the playoffs have no shot anyway.
Not that he's a bust, but my point is the glee surrounding us getting a high pick, probably somewhere around last year's #3, isn't necessarily going to be a guy who is a game-changer. Sure, we might get a guy who can step in and start for a bad team, but Rowe couldn't even do that. This isn't the NBA or NFL draft, where the #3 player is expected to be a star, and certainly a starter. If Rowe improves next year after a year under his belt, great, but I don't expect us to be saved by whoever our top draft pick is.
No one player is, no matter where he comes from. I thought he did pretty well, all things considered. There were clearly ups and downs over the season, but I think he's shown improvement in recent games. We shouldn't forget he's only 20 and only played 2 years of college (graduating seniors are often considered more "MLS" ready). I think it's reasonable to expect a big jump next season in impact and consistency. I agree that it's unreasonable to expect a lot from any draft pick in his first year. Whether or not they do start that 1st season isn't really the most important measure - it's how they develop and what they do over several seasons.
See, I think things have changed. No Wild Card team will ever win MLS Cup as long as that WC game in midweek. Our season was over in July. We need to be competing with NY and KC, not Houston and Columbus.
Based on the years of MLS playoffs that have shown this? At this point, we just need to be competing....
We all know there have been #1 overall picks that turned out to be a bust and deep picks that turned out to be gems. However, I think it's reasonable to postulate that the higher the pick in the first round the better chance that the player will turn out to be a solid addition to the roster. If one could build a roster by retroactively selecting from all the first five picks in the draft over the past 7 or 8 years I think it would be very competitive in MLS. Obviously to be a real contender in 2012 teams would likely need a few top SI's but building a roster from a top five pick pool would be hard to beat.
Rowe was an step up in quality from Soares, and a giant leap from Schilawski the year before, but after watching Rowe the entire year I'm really scared his ceiling is "okay MLS starter." The general problem with the Revs' younger guys is a lot of them (Rowe, Diego, Polak, Soares, McCarthy) need to be "coached up" and honestly, the Revs don't have a coach who can do that. I think Jay Miller was *supposed* to be that coach but I'm not sure YNT tactics will get them over any significant hump.
"Okay MLS Starter" isn't actually that bad for a draft pick. You don't have to hit a home run in the draft every year. You just can't afford to strike out all that frequently.
Oh really? Because I thought it was subjective, and I'm entitled to my own opinion. Based on the fact that you're taking two average MLS teams, handicapping them with tired legs, then pitting them against the two best teams in the league (with fresh legs to boot) in a home and home knockout tie with a 2-3 day turnaround. If they make it through the conference semis, then they face another home and home 2-3 days later with a quick turnaround. If by chance they make it to MLS Cup, they'll almost certainly be playing in a hostile atmosphere at their opponents stadium. Good luck with those odds.
Are you new to MLS? The regular season doesn't matter; time after time we've witnessed teams back their way into the playoffs only to go on to the MLS Cup final.
Yes, but we've only had the current 10 team setup for a year. Prior to last year, every team was on equal footing when they entered the playoffs. Now, the 1 and 2 seeds have a HUGE advantage, while the 7-10 seeds have an enormous disadvantage. Let's say Houston is a play-in team this year. This would be their road to MLS Cup: Oct 20: Philly Oct 23: Olimpia Oct 27: Colorado Oct 31: Play-in game Nov 3: home Conference Semis Nov 7: away Conference Semis Nov 10: home Conference Final Nov 17: away Conference Final That's 7 games in 22 days between Oct 20 and Nov 10.