2010 Los Angeles Sol Draft Thread

We're still waiting to find anyone who can really produce at the Nat level whose first name isn't Abby and last name isn't Wambach,* but your reservations make sense. Yet the bright spot is this, even if Tina D doesn't become consistently dangerous enough for the dream team that Charlie's building, even if, say, Nikki Washington takes over the 4th midfield spot - to have, at some point this season or next, DiMartino and Enyeart coming off the bench is going to be pretty impressive.

It reminds me when the Lakers landed Pau Gasol and one former GM said, "When Lamar Odom is the 3rd best player on your team you know you have a good team. And he may be the Lakers' 4th best player."

I don't see any of the other teams coming close to having that depth, or at least the promise of that kind of depth, where you have Nikki Washington, Tina DiMartino, and Michelle Enyeart and two of them may not even see the field every game.

* just for the record, Natasha Kai, injured shoulder and all last year, clearly looked like the #2 striker for the US for now.

 

kool-aide: Rydahl Bukh is a left-footed player, so I'd move her over. On the other hand, I don't know if you're just having trouble with your left and right again . I would think she was going in at left back, but maybe there's a multitude of reasons I don't know about for why this would be unlikely to happen?

 

I see your point about DiMartino and time will tell whether the players from FCGP perform better elsewhere. However, I think counting on Washington to be right back where she was before the ACL at the start of the season is overly optimistic. And I hadn't seen that Franco was coming back. If she is, then she'll likely get a chance to start in central defense, provided she's back 100% after pregnancy.

You are the one that said she isn't a defender in the first place I didn't realize Rydahl Bukh was a lefty. I thought Cox did very well last season as the left back. I think she'd be on the field either but maybe Naimo will shift her to left center back.

 

Charlie still has us all pretty confused with the defender picture, doesn't he?

I'm still a little worried there. I also hadn't thought of moving Cox into the central D but that's a possibility. Same with Dallstream who was probably brought in to play the right side and we know has real attacking skills. But we have to put out there the most solid backline we can and if that means sacrificing some of the things they bring to the table when they play on the outside, it may be what we gotta do. We don't know if Franko will come back 100%. And we love Bock but central D is still a new thing for her and to expect her to be the leader in central D may be asking a bit much.

It's going to be very interesting to see the lineup on opening day.

Now in the middle of all this we're not even talking about our 3rd round pick Estelle Johnson out of Kansas. Probably because none of us know anything about her and also because generally you don't want to pin too much of your hopes on a 3rd round pick but the interesting thing is some of the defenders that Charlie passed over to take Johnson with the 25th pick, players who went a little further down in the draft:

Kristi Eveland (North Carolina)
Kat Reynolds (Santa Clara)
Melissa Henderson (Boston College)

So Charlie must think very highly of Johnson...

 

Don't forget that Charlie resigned Christie Shaner. She is a very smart center back and excellent in the air. She would pair well with Bock, having played with her at ND.

 

Speaking of Bock, how's her foot? That injury kept her off the field vs Germany and has caused her to miss another camp. Does anyone know the actual injury and prognosis?

 

True! But she is coming back from a serious injury. Seems like we have a few of those, don't we?!

 

Oh, golly. Really?

With Val gone, I really thought we'd see her sometime this year in action as our 3rd goalie... along with everywhere else.

 

Okay. I'll take a stab at the "Opening Day Line Up"

Marta Noguiera
Miyama Scasna or Sorensen Washington*
Boxx
Bukh Cox** Bock Dallstream
LeBlanc

*substitute with DiMartino if Washington not fully ready to go
**insert Johnson for Cox as Cox/Bock lacks speed (experience versus speed an issue on defense)

 

She may be fine now. Or not. The announcements from ussoccer never specifically mentioned what the injury was. That could be anything from turf toe to a break to plantar fasciitis to ?? Has anyone heard anything about Bock of late?

 

The Athletica Just traded with Atlanta for the first pick. Guess our biggest enemy just got a whole lot better.