Clark: A look at the top players remaining in Day 2 of the Superdraft Rafael Andrade Santos MF, VCU The best No. 10 in college soccer tumbled out of the top two rounds, with teams likely scared off by his international status. The left-footed attacker has plenty of quality that would benefit the right organization, and could even be trotted out at left back having played there during his youth soccer days.
Looks like Kinnear may have played a role in the Galaxy drafting two Stanford kids in THA and Drew Skundrich... Galaxy's Hilliard-Arce goes from buying Beckham jersey to earning his own “I was telling my dad when they were about to pick, I remember going in to go get my [David] Beckham jersey right after he was signed,” Hilliard-Arce told reporters just after the Galaxy selected him with the No. 2 pick in Friday’s 2018 MLS SuperDraft. “To have a Galaxy jersey without me having to buy one is pretty cool. And just to be able to continue the tradition of winning and being in contention for MLS Cups, I think, is great.” Hilliard-Arce knows a lot about a winning tradition himself, having led Stanford to three straight national championships. And the Galaxy charted his college career closely — particularly LA assistant coach Dom Kinnear, who was nearby in the Bay Area as the former head coach of the San Jose Earthquakes. “I’ve seen a lot of him,” said Kinnear, who spoke to the media after the draft because Galaxy coach Sigi Schmid did not make the trip to Philadelphia. “He’s a great competitor, a good athlete, especially in the air, and has a wonderful attitude. Stanford kids are generally on the smarter side of things. When you look at it, he’s a winner.”
oh man the supplemental draft is still a thing. They should just call it the USL draft at that point.
With the 12th pick in the 3rd round of the @MLS #SuperDraft, #Quakes74 select Kevin Partida from @UNLVRebelSoccer.— San Jose Earthquakes (@SJEarthquakes) January 21, 2018 1. Who 2. Clearly we're all in on this Vegas -> Reno pipeline 3. Was Kevin Partida on any mock drafts or big boards? 4. I hope guys like Andrade Santos and Guirassy were off the board already... Edit: some info http://www.unlvrebels.com/sports/m-soccer/mtt/kevin_partida_859390.html https://www.topdrawersoccer.com/college-soccer/college-player-profile/kevin-partida/cpid-10032121 Midfielder, red shirted his senior year in 2016 after a knee injury, tried out with Tijuana in 2011 through Alianza? Partida was born and went to high school in Sparks NV, so the pick makes sense in that the transition to Reno 1868 should be fairly easy for him....
We have passed in the 4th round of the @MLS #SuperDraft.— San Jose Earthquakes (@SJEarthquakes) January 21, 2018 I'm never a fan of passing, even in the fourth round... why not bring in another guy for Reno to look at, there is zero risk besides the airfare and per diem or whatever. In any case, that's it for the draft. Clearly the Quakes' most important pick up today was Eric Calvillo...
Hmmm...seemed like a really good collegiate player until he hurt his knee. Started 19 games and only 2 assists since then??? Ian must have some first hand knowledge or something more than we can glean from the info so far.
From the Draft Tracker, fourth round: 74 overall DC United Rafael Andrade Santos Midfielder - Virginia Commonwealth Univ. 81 overall was the Quakes passing... Quakes development academy kid goes soon after: 84 overall Chicago Fire Josh Morton Defender - California 87 overall Portland Timbers Mamadou Guirassy Forward - NJIT
He can live at home with his parents and play on the cheapest contract? They sell season tickets to his extended family and friends?
They could stash folks at Reno, I suppose. But when it comes to forwards, they have so many forwards already...Mark Anothny Gonzalez, Brian Brown, Dembakwi Yomba. Also Christian Thierjung and Antione Hoppenot are listed as midfielders on the roster, but they're forwards so I don't know what's up with that. And we want to likely get Danny Musovski and Mohammed Thiaw playing time there as well. So major playing time log jam already. Gonzalez and Yomba are certainly young players with potential for developing to make the first team so they want to give those existing signees a chance... plus the new draft picks. So I don't know there really is a place for Guirassy. I think it's fairer to the players to just let them go to a club that really has a place for them. Where Reno still need depth it's especially outside back, and maybe they just don't see someone remaining on the board to fill that position. Maybe they had intended to sign Colvey if Colorado hadn't taken him the waiver draft (and now he'll get stashed at Charlotte instead). But that is one thing that's still to watch this offseason I suppose...does Reno sign defending prospects as they round out their roster or look for USL veterans.
There may still be "value" in the draft after all: https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2018...y-make-4-5-million-offer-nycfcs-jack-harrison Harrison was the first pick in the 2016 SuperDraft. Including the incentive, NYCFC would receive up to $4 million for him (although only $650,000 could be used for roster salary). A tidy bit of profit that I suspect few would turn down.
(spoiler alert, our guy, not listed) Armchair Analyst: Five late-round picks who could make a dent in MLS Ken Krolicki, Montreal Impact (CM) Brian Iloski, Colorado Rapids (CM) Matt Danilack, Philadelphia Union (CB) Cory Brown, Vancouver Whitecaps (LCB) Mamadou Guirassy, Portland Timbers (F) I had Guirassy going in the first round of my final mock draft because of the mistaken information that he had American citizenship (he does not). If he was domestic he'd have gone that high, but it's hard for teams to justify taking a flier on an international attacker from a small school when they have the cash to go out and import more proven talent from overseas. Still, Guirassy was wonderful. He did all the grunt work you'd want out of a No. 9, was relentless in his pressing, made good runs in possession, checks all the physical boxes you want, and scored a great header on a fundamentally sound near-post run The France-born Guirassy has international experience, having represented Guinea at the 2016 Toulon Tournament (a U-21 competition), and scoring a goal against a Paraguay team that featured, among others, new Orlando City DP Josue Colman. So he's played and produced on big stages against good players. I don't think he'll win a roster slot with the Timbers right away, but it would not shock me in the slightest if he became the star of T2 in the USL and then carved a path up into MLS. Worth noting he'll be competing with another late-round draft pick, center forward Tim Mueller of Oregon State (who never developed across his four years in Corvallis as I thought he would).
I think it's hard to say exactly what it means without asking the Quakes what it does mean. I think it means that they've been watching Marie, and maybe the other guys they drafted. Taking a second player from UNLV probably means that they watched some games and said: "Hey, that striker dude is worth a look too." But they might have watched video of the games, rather than actually attending. We just don't know. Vegas is close enough to send someone. East Coast colleges maybe not. Also, we were concerned about the glut of strikers at Reno. It is possible that Reno will trade some guys to other USL clubs. It's also possible that Reno will loan some guys to other USL clubs. They are not all MLS team affiliates, so conceivably, you could loan a guy to another team (at least one not run by an MLS club). It could even be that some of the guys listed on Reno's site are either out of contract, or still in negotiations with Reno. (Our roster page is notorious for not being kept up to date.) Again, there's a long ways to go before all of this shakes out. USL rosters change a ton, every season. Most of those guys only sign one year contracts. In any case, I'm actually getting excited for the coming season. Go Quakes!! Go Reno!! - Mark
Wow, that’s shocking — $4-6M for Jack Harrison? We should expect a huge influx of 15-17 year old British players who’ve been cut from their club academies. They will start applying en masse to get soccer scholarships at small private high schools in the USA.
I think we've already seen that. But....this draft also showed that MLS teams are now reluctant to draft foreigners (in general). With the GAM and TAM budgets they can sign proven players that take up those coveted international slots. Very little incentive to take any but the very best foreign college players (obviously Jack Harrison is one). However, they still will be able to sign with USL teams and prove their worth. What are the foreign player limits on USL rosters? Anyone know?
7, but I don't know if still current. And also they can designate 3 priority players where an MLS affiliated club can own MLS rights...if that still exists.
I wish the Quakes media folks would do a behind the scenes video like this, RSL has done one the last few years... The interview questions are interesting. They were fine with trading their pick within the conference to LAFC for $85k in GAM over $75k from Chicago until the latter matched that number. Also we'll know if they made the right call based on how their homegrown signing Aaron Herrera does compared to the guy they wanted to draft 10th (but went 9th) Mark Segbers... Also the MLS upload of the draft itself was deleted and then put back up for some reason, here it is:
I think if you watch the RSL bit, teams are aware that guys after the first 2 rounds probably arent going to make it. They dont want to pull in a kid who doesnt have a real shot of making the MLS roster. My guess is the thing with Partida is we already have our roster spots planned out, and the idea is to sign him but loan him to Reno for the season.
I know it’s the bias of a highlight video, but I really liked what I saw on his 13 minutes of season highlights. I’d really like to see how he’ll do at Reno. He plays a position where they lost a key cog.
Yeah the games don't count yet but Chris Mueller has scored four goals in four preseason games... Orlando City rookie Chris Mueller aims to adjust to steep learning curve "We're all pushing each other." -Chris Mueller https://t.co/fvJEQxg76V— Orlando City SC (@OrlandoCitySC) February 16, 2018