Never too early to start speculating! With that, MLSsoccer.com's first Mock Draft is out: http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/artic...-mls-campus-peers-crystal-ball-two-months-out
I don't care what everyone says about the draft or how much weight we should put on it yadda yadda yadda, it's easily the most exciting time of the offseason. And who doesn't love a good mock draft.
And as I posted in the other thread, the draft classes have actually been trending upward in terms of overall quality. A lot of people assumed the home grown rule would negate this, but it appears the USSDA has actually led to better draft classes. This may be because, realistically, there are only so many MLS teams. Many really good players never play in MLS academies.
Well, and there are large areas of the country, including some soccer hotbeds, that are nowhere near an MLS team.
Well many of these areas are already claimed by affiliates, but still, players fall through the cracks. The USSDA has done such a good job of creating depth that there are more than enough good players to go around. I think the US and MLS is on the verge of a youth revolution.
Not to take away from the actual thread topic, but I'm kinda curious to see how this will all pan out with the Academies. For example, UCLA (currently the #1 seed going into the NCAA Tournament) has commitments from 7 or 8 LA Galaxy Academy players. They can't go in the draft of course, but that just shows how some of these Academies are benefiting from location (not that that is a surprise).
I say this every year ... and one of these times, the team will actually do this. Find your international players prior to the draft. Have an idea (or have them signed) prior to the draft, and then you can just go for the best player available instead of having to pick for a position.
That's a lot of youtube videos to go through in such a short period of time. I don't know if it's possible.
Sounds like an interesting combination of size and touch. be interesting to see how well he does at the combine
I am interested to see if any interesting Carribean players make it into this draft through their little combine. I have a feeling their could be some amazing value available from that region!
I think MLS's investment in the Carribbean is a longer term strategy. For the time being I think a lot of these guys will be on the younger side and projects.
I'll bet Heaps feels that there's enough of a core in place that he will be drafting the best player available, whether or not the international signings are done before the draft. Unless they trade up to one of the top three picks, I doubt very much that they'll be looking for a starter from the draft.
Can we trade up and pick that German kid at UCLA? He played for the 1860 Munich youth and reserve teams. He's a real stud, an all around versatile midfielder.
Goalkeepers aren't much prized in the draft, it seems. Blake may be an exception, but I wouldn't be shocked if he fell to #10 or whatever we are.
Being a UCLA fan, I've seen him play online and on TV a couple of times this year. He really is ready to play at the MLS level right now.
That's not neccessarily true. Top tier GKS have typically gone in the top 6-8 of the draft, there just hasn't been that much GK talent coming through the draft recently.
In the last 5 years, only 2 keepers have been picked in the first round, and only 1 of them in the top ten: Code: First Round GKs, Superdraft 2013: none (Brad Stuver, MON, 2nd round, #32 overall) 2012: none (Ryan Meara, NRB, 2nd round, #31 overall) 2011: Zac MacMath, PHI #5 2010: none (Brian Perk, PHI, 4th round, #49 overall) 2009: Stefan Frei, TOR, 13th overall
That's not what I'm arguing. I'm saying that there haven't been any quality GK prospects coming through the draft in recent years. Sean Johnson is the only young MLS GK that I can think of who has come through the draft and not been picked in the first round. Just because a guy is the first GK taken doesn't mean he's a top prospect, as we've seen with Sofner.