The official 2019 superdraft thread

Rivas and Aune are both out of Seattle University, as was the Sounders Alex Roldan. Looks like they have a decent program there under Peter Fewing.

 

If only that helped in predicting who would turn good! Akeem Ward is from Creighton. They've had a good track record with guys making it in MLS too, but some dudes from Creighton suck.

And yes, looks like the program at Seattle University is good. If only I knew a kid who was trying to decide which quality soccer school to attend ...

Go Quakes!!

- Mark

 

Yeah, I noticed this, too... I guess this shows you what the value of draft picks really is in MLS.

Also, this happened: "FC Dallas selected goalkeeper Dylan Castanheira from Columbia with the 16th selection of the fourth round despite the player having already signed for Atlanta United 2. This means Dallas owns Castanheira's MLS rights for two years. Atlanta United passed on making a selection earlier that round."

 

Whomever you are quoting doesn't know how to spell Colombia.

 

It's Columbia University.

 

Ackpht!

Crap. Meant to type that we should not need Aune this season, but perhaps next season or the season after he can start contributing.

Here's a thought I've had off and on. We could try snagging players for Junior or Community Colleges, because they are younger, and then in what would have been their junior and senior years, they could get real minutes in Reno.

Of course, our academy should obviate this.

Go Quakes!!

- Mark

 

We have heard that Russell fits the interested USL coach line. Supposedly the picks being made are based off of his recommendations.

 

Was he invited to the combine?

 

Yes

 

The one picture of all the coaches, etc. at the combine had Ian Russell in it. He was not, however, in the group at the MLS Super Draft table on Friday. I would believe his input was gathered from his presence at the combine.

 

Totally makes sense for USL to snap up the majority of the college players. Only the top 5-10 players are MLS ready (i.e. ready to make a roster). The rest have varying amounts of ability that has been held back in the college system (limited practice and number of games). Some of them surely can develop into MLS level players given a professional training environment and competitive games.
An additional 'fit' is that a lot of these guys can live with a USL size contract with part time jobs in their area of study. That supplemental income will often be more than the barista and home depot jobs of the non-college athlete. So USL gets an influx of viable soccer players that can live on USL salaries for a few years.

 

Given what Ian's been accomplishing at Reno, I sure hope he's involved.

 

No speculation needed

 

I'm going to whine some more, because I'm good at it.

So if only the top five to ten players "might" be MLS ready, then perhaps Siad has a shot at the first team this year? (And is he a forward or a midfielder? I've seen him listed as both.)That's your thinking? And I've seen other people, including "pundits" express similar views.

But of course, he might not pan out at all.

Then we took three other guys: Rivas, a midfielder, Camara, a forward, and Aune, a defender.

Let's assume - for the sake of argument - that a one-out-of-three rate for making the first team is really successful. Doesn't that suggest that we want to make a lot of picks? Because we think that very few of our drafted players will ever make the roster, much less become starters? Until our academy becomes a reliable player pipeline, shouldn't we use every draft pick? Shouldn't we grab players drafted and discarded by other teams and send them to Reno to see if we can make them into something? The more times we roll the dice, the more times we will find useful players. (And I'm guessing that maybe one in five or six guys turns out good enough to provide useful sub minutes.)

I just don't think we're doing enough to build our roster. We are not using every avenue available to us.

Our roster last season was gagh! We were not competitive in most of our matches, so we really need to rebuild.

I'm depressed.

Go Quakes!!

- Mark

 

Sorry, but to me 6’4” and 185 = Pencil Neck Geek. Boy needs to hit the weight room hard if he wants to be a professional central defender.

 

Clarence Goodson is listed as 6'4" and 181 lbs. on the web.

 

The youtube vid I saw, I was surprised he wasn't listed at 200+. He certainly looked more solid than Clarence.

 

This isn't handegg.

You do know the two starting CBs for the US national team are John Brooks (6'4" 172) and Matt Miazga (6'4" 185), right? Those two were sold for $22.5 million and $5 million respectively, so clearly some teams out there think they might be passable as "professional central defenders"...



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Nathan Aune's frame seems just fine for a professional CB. Let's see if he's fast enough to keep up with Alberth Elis' types to begin with, before adding a bunch of mass he'd have to carry around while running for 45 minutes at a time...

 

And even if it were. the Mad Stork is in the Hall of Fame.

 

I just looked up some other prominent American center backs in MLS:

Walker Zimmerman: 6'3" 185
Matt Hedges: 6'4" 185
Ike Opara: 6'2" 180
Justen Glad: 6'1" 160
Tim Parker: 6'2" 195
Aaron Long: 6'1 175
Matt Besler: 6'0" 170
Mark McKenzie: 5'11" 185
Auston Trusty: 6'4" 181

The bolded are currently in January Camp with the US national team...

Even (three time MLS defender of the year) Chad Marshall who is now 34 and has packed on some weight over the years, is 6'4" 190

 

I doubt that number on Brooks. It is very difficult to be 6'4", an athlete, and 180. Combined with "posting accurate heights and weights for your players is a very low priority, with disinformation being more useful", I say that Brooks is close to 190, based on a known accurate weight of a 6'3" (i.e. shorter) recreational player friend with a very similar upper and lower body build, who is also not quite as muscular. And knowing that I am 6', thin, not a professional athlete (but a dedicated amateur), and thin, and I weigh 170.

 

It's true that the "numbers" that MLS posts are not always accurate. They used to be way off, frequently adding two inches to a player's height. (Got that from Tim Hanley!) But I think in recent years, the MLS numbers have gotten much closer to accurate. I've no idea if the NCAA numbers are accurate or not.

Whatever, 6'4" and 185 should be fine.

Go Quakes!!

- Mark

 

This also might make your head explode, but we have Qwiberg for backup left back.

 

Qwierg is shit. The guy is dreadful, he's not MLS quality.

And this is part of our problem. We have, and last year played, really substandard players at a number of positions. Qwiberg is crap. Shea should never play left back unless in extreme emergency, Eriksson is crap, Godoy was awful most of last year, Vako was barely MLS quality early, then got better later. Tarbell is lousy. Ockford is slow like Kashia, but tougher and much less expensive. Also, he's more comfortable playing against faster guys than Kashia, but he's really not starting caliber either. Wondo is really too slow to start.

Yeah, we stink. Look at our "depth chart" and imagine those guys getting serious minutes. Make sure you have a barf bag close to hand.

Go Quakes!!

- Mark