Looks like we don't have to go to Africa to get our African players. By the way, Akpan made Ives top 25 draft board. Here is what he said: 11. ANDRE AKPAN, Harvard, F An experienced and polished forward who has been linked with moves to MLS for years, Akpan could be the victim of a slide in the draft if MLS succeeds in signing all the Generation adidas targets it has in mind. That won't stop Akpan from being a first round pick, or from potentially being this class' Chris Pontius.
Kwame Watson-Siriboe (University of Connecticut) - 6'3 200 pound defender who has good speed. This kid would look good next to Barnes in the back line. Got a sniff with the u18 Nats. Hope he falls in the Revs lap
It doesn't look like Revs Academy player Scott Caldwell got a lot of time on the field this year at Akron. Seems like he was used sparingly as a substitute. We'll see him in three years I guess. Akron plays in the finicky four at 8 pm tonight. I think it's on ESPN News or Classic.
I missed what time Scott came on, but he just missed a rebound on a somewhat open net (2 defenders, no keeper). I didn't even realize he was in the game until I saw him take the shot.
Yeah, watching college soccer is a bit weird. I tune into games late at night and am excited when I see 11 minutes on the clock and then am confused when the game (or half) ends 11 minutes later.
Akron through on PK's 5-4. Scott took one, keeper was a few inches out on it. UNC player pulled a Donovan on one of the kicks.
While I was at DePaul University, I tried to get to as many games as I could. As I stood there, singing a few cookie cutter chants, and wondering why the NCAA is trying its hardest to make a mockery of this sport (like MLS in the 90's), I was always impressed by two player on my little Blue Demons team, Brian Visser and Steffen Vroom. Visser, a GK, is now on the Portland Timbers, and Vroom is in the MLS Combine this year! Vroom is an striker (done, sign him now!). He's actually good at playing the target man, and the layoff man. I always thought of him as an CAM, but we played him up top. I'd see him drop back every now and then to get his feet on the ball, and then make his runs back through the back line looking for the cross or through ball. Overall he does his job of finding the back of the net one way or another. On his bio page they have a small video of one of his goals. It's very Twellman esque, you don't really think there is a goal scoring opportunity coming, but a strange little flick on cross into the box and Vroom poaches the box and smashes in a header. His numbers kinda tell his story. He can score goals, but he also has assists. He's not the kind of striker who will just wait 90 minutes for a golden cross, he'll drop back and get his feet on the ball if he must. Is he a good fit for the Revs? We need strikers, that's for sure. I think he could be a mini Twellman and develop into the type of player TnT is today minus the headache. He does play the active striker role, which I like more than the sleeper striker, so overall I think he could fit in with our system. His downsides are that he's not coming from a prestigious program like Wake Forest, and at 6-0 he's not small nor large, but I still question how he'd handle the bigger MLS defenders. Anyway, that's all I got. I watched this guy play for 4 years and always thought he was good. This is the first time I actually know a guy in the combine, so I wanted to take this chance to write my first post about a possible draft pick.
You'll find that most prospects heading into the draft have something to the effect of "started every game as a freshman" or something impressive to that effect. Sure, he's hardly wasting away and his team is undefeated and ranked #1. However, it's nothing to get excited about. We'll see what he does over the summer and starting next college season. They do have a lot of talented freshmen on the team, so they'll be a good team for at least one more year..
Yea reminds me of that goal by Lassiter that should have been Goal of the year in 96...but he shot it right before the "buzzer" at half time...MLS has come a long way.
Forget scouting college games...most of the players are way beyond getting the right coaching. Most are tainted beyond repair. Revs should be scouting youth games...under 14, period..and I'm serious. Get them while they still can be coached and prepped accordingly, and not get their head full of some lame ass who'd rather be sitting on the couch watching college gridiron than be teaching kids 1 - 2 passing...! Serious investing in this game at pre-high school is where the future lies.
Before wasting time doing that, you have to figure out who is going to develop teenagers into pros, because MLS isn't doing it. That job, for the most part, has fallen to colleges by default. The academies are a start, but they are likely to develop only a few players each. Until MLS teams have the resources to field complete development programs (if ever) like their European and Latin-American counterparts, I suspect we'll be relying on the NCAA for years to come (just like the NBA, MLB, NHL and NFL do). The NHL and MLB have historically done most of their player development themselves, but even they are moving towards relying on colleges more and more. I think that same trend will continue to send most soccer players into the college system. I think improving the current NCAA system is a more likely path to improving US soccer than developing a comprehensive national development program. To expect thousands of US kids to forgo a college education to pursue extremely slim odds in pursuit of a pro soccer career (with low salaries for the few who "make it") is unrealistic, not to mention a bad choice for almost all involved. It's already a national tragedy that so many kids put so much effort into the slim hopes of a dream of a pro sports career and end up with so little left when the dream fizzles out. And, that same thing happens in soccer all over the world, yet those aren't the stories that get publicized. I agree that there are plenty of things wrong with college soccer, but the answer isn't having thousands of kids skip college.
One more tidbit on Andre Akpan, but he's graduating early, so he'll be immediately available to any MLS club that decides to draft him.