2016 adidas MLS Player Combine List

What to make of a couple of juniors on the list?

 

Someone should let MLS know that Brendan Hines-Ike already signed with a club in Sweden.

 

A few items of note in regard to juniors and GA targets:

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According to a source, top GA targets right now are Fabian Herbers, Josh Yaro, Richie Laryea and Abu Danladi. #MLS

— Travis Clark (@travismclark) December 12, 2015

 

Interesting all non Americans including two right to dream players.

 

http://www.omaha.com/creighton/crei...cle_c0d6d22a-a37c-11e5-ae59-a38a1104e6a2.html

Creighton coach Bolowich believes Herbers will sign a Gen Adidas deal with MLS before Christmas.

 

From that article:

Bolowich said Pitter and Keller, like Herbers natives of Germany, have expressed a desire to stay in the United States to continue playing soccer rather than exploring options in Europe.

“They all understand it is extremely difficult to become a professional player in Europe with a decent salary,” Bolowich said. “They all love the U.S. system and they’ve loved their time here as students.

“They feel like they already have one foot in the door. It’s like, ‘If we can extend our stay, let’s see how far we can take it.’ The European option would still be there is things don’t pan out.”
​

It seems a bit hard to believe that European born-and-raised players would see the U.S. as a better path to a paying career in pro soccer right out of college unless they are guys like Herbers, who is clearly highly coveted by MLS. (And even then -- have they spoken with Leo Stoltz?) Do Pitter and Keller fit that description?

 

No, not so hard to believe. Please see my post in the 2015 result thread: http://forums.bigsoccer.com/threads...lts-and-streams.2026643/page-14#post-33364628

 

Interesting read; IMO, the 2015 GK senior class was much better than the 2016 GK senior class.

 

Thanks. With respect, I don't think your point contradicts mine.

The attraction of an American college degree, particularly if it's paid for and from a well-respected institution, is obvious.

My point was specifically addressing the idea that European players, generally speaking, might see an American college degree as a better path to professional soccer.

 

I'd think they'd see it as a way to hedge their bets in a way, if they want to stay in the US regardless of whether they make it as a pro or not.

 

I think there is multiple reasons why a European player would think he has an opportunity to succeed in MLS although the harsh truth is mostly it is a fantasy and not reality.

Almost all European players coming to NCAA have been told in some way to be a professional soccer player in Europe they are not good enough to play in the top division and to try to make it as a pro they will have to start in a lower division first. Most lower division leagues in Europe pay the equivalent of what MLS minimum salary or less so college is a great alternative since not only in the lower divisions the pay is crap but the chance of a player being recognized in a lower division and becoming a success is also very slim.

Once in America or prior they see the quality of MLS and feel they are good enough for MLS. They also play in NCAA and see players they play with or against get opportunities in the MLS. MLS itself also sees them as a potential player in MLS by inviting them to the combine and publishing friendly media reports and I also think NCAA coaches promise players a chance to potentially play in MLS. The issue is once drafted they take up an international roster spot so they are not competing with US NCAA players but other foreign players MLS brings in and the lively hood for any none American and non DP in the MLS is lucky to last a year or two at best.

Now there is some success stories such as Dom Dwyer and many foreign based players I spoke too also like the American lifestyle over their home country so some will try playing for a USL or NASL team even though the pay isn't great. The other issue for these foreign players is many don't have much potential back home, they are out of the loop locally so will have a difficult time finding a club and the fact they are in their twenties hurts their value as most likely a club can not make any money off them from the transfer market.

The smart business move is a club in the third/fourth division in England or a team in Scandinavia has direct relationship with former NCAA players with EU passports as I think they could be successful in that type of environment although we are mostly talking about players that are at the end of their footballing careers (including Americans) once they graduate NCAA soccer. So the reality is once a player is finished playing NCAA soccer we will never hear about them again in the USA and even Europe.

 

Speaking of the challenges of college players (both US and foreign) playing pro soccer in the USA beyond their college days, I recall this insightful March 2015 article / interview from the quite interesting "Everybody Soccer" website with Patrick Wall, former GK for Notre Dame who was the starter for the Fighting Irish national championship team his senior year. Wall tried out and was offered spots with a few USL teams, but decided to hang up the cleats and gloves given the very poor nature of deals he was offered, e.g., the article includes this quote from Wall:

"I was shocked to think a high school student working a fast food job would be making much more than I would while I could call myself a pro athlete.”

http://www.everybodysoccer.com/even-the-goalkeepers-like-to/2015/3/24

 

The original combine list is shrinking already having players sign HG deals (Allen - Georgetown - NYRB, Bourgeois - Tulsa - HOU) with others still seemingly have options of going a similar route (Philly: Madison - UMBC, Columbus: Souders - Akron, Los Angeles: Verso - Stanford, Seattle: Herman - Washington, Schweitzer - Denver) while others are apparently free to enter the draft despite HG status being an option (Vancouver: Irving - Kentucky, New England - Taintor - Rutgers) or had their HG claim rejected (Philly: Rosenberry - Georgetown). Will have to wait or week or two for announcements related to some GAs and obscure international players who will help make up the combine numbers.

 

Additional senior HGP not mention Corboz for NYRB, Connor Klekota and Kyle Culbertson for Columbus, and Eric DeJulio for Sporting KC. Red Bulls also have a few other options but probably not good enough Seattle have a few others especially if Morris doesn't sign like Adekoya or Olsen signing early.

I actually mentioned this prior to the season that NCAA soccer in terms of MLS prospects now is mostly HGP or Foreign players and why I see the draft itself dying off.

 

Red Bulls took those options

 

So, in your visionary approach, the only future players in the MLS (from the US) will be the ones fortunate enough to live near an MLS affiliated club. Also, in your soccer world, the best players will be defined by those clubs at an early enough age to be declared an HG.

This philosophy is similar to the National team approach, where younger players get into the system, and players developing later in their career are less common (and we see how that is working).

 

It is the reality of what is going on. I've always been against homegrown contracts from the start and sort of brought this up on bigsoccer about four years ago when Zardes was going to be given a homegrown contract oppose to allowing Toronto FC to draft him.

In terms of what is happening now I wrote this at the beginning of this college season - http://forums.bigsoccer.com/threads/top-prospects-for-mls-2016-in-ncaa-d1.2023501/ which I still stand by

My approach would be to force MLS teams to only sign four foreign players like they do in Asia and South America and have the NCAA system as the main source of players like other North American sports. Although what the MLS wants is EPL light with 50% players foreign and Academies so they can control the rights to players at a young age (mainly their transfer fee if applicable) and also have it as a marketing tool to say they are involved in grassroots soccer.

 

Tell you what I'll throw in Doug Logan and a pair of JNCO's for you. Deal?

 

So 3 of the first 16 picks in the draft have been georgetown defenders.

 

2 of the top 3 picks, 3 in the first 20 plus Allen and Muyl signed by Red Bulls. Seems to me a team that if their team was truly this talented, they should have rolled over people. Either that or they are really going to struggle next year.

 

MLS Draft.

ACC is pretty happy (and proud):

A national-best 13 #ACCMSoccer players were selected in the @MLS #SuperDraft today: https://t.co/HAscXnEseU

— ACC Men's Soccer (@ACCMSoccer) January 14, 2016

Collegesoccernews' analysis. http://collegesoccernews.com/index.php/articles/900-2016-superdraft-anaylsis-by-ben-roth

PS: started to watch the video stream. Then it broke and impossible to restart it. Only for overseas viewers, or did you also experience troubles watching?

 

the acc soccer circle jerk is almost as annoying as the sec football circle jerk. yes they play good soccer, but god am i tired of hearing about it. do the other member schools do the ACC! ACC! ACC! chant when another school wins a non conference game?

 

SEC football fluffing seems a much more tangible thing nationally.

Where does the ACC soccer hype exist beyond a conference dutifully tooting its own horn and Sandon Mibut threads/posts on this board?