http://blog.soccersiliconvalley.com/archives/2008/01/and_the_selecti_1.html Welcome to the new guys! Adam Smarte, F, UC Santa Cruz Tim Bohnenkamp, F, Creighton Greg Curry, D, UC Santa Barbara Tim Jepsen, D, Duke
dammit!!! how could we F up the supplemental draft? We could have had Balc AND Reyering or however you say 6'6" German in German. They were the two most obvious choices in the world to pick. No one was gonna pick my fellow slug. he coulda been had in the 3rd round or even undrafted. When everyone getting picked has the odds against them for even making the teams they are being drafted by, don't you want to pick the guys with the best resumes? ...The guys who had been the most productive at the most competitive schools? The Quakes better do something exciting because right now...I'm underwhelmed by the progress of their roster. Grabavoy is no starting AM. we don't have any starting Forwards. the left side is a total question mark. Guerrero can play LB or LM...not both. let's find someone to fill the other role. Lord knows what became of those local tryouts that were all over the papers. I'm sitting here trying to get myself excited to go see the Quakes play the Dynamo bbut believe me, no one is helping me. At this point, I'm going to see MY team, the Dynamo kick some more ass like the good ol' days.
Not sure what you expected. We're an expansion side. I think based on what we could draft and what we could trade for we've got a pretty solid team. Most of the pundits are saying we've got the best expansion side since the Chicago Fire. We're probably not going to win the MLS cup our first year, but we could possibly end up above .500 with the guys we've got. Which in itself would be a victory and something to get excited for. And the argument against picking guys like your 6'6" German are that they could just as easily decide to go play elsewhere. The picks we took were solid guys who won't go overseas on us. We've already had that happen once this off season.
Highest predraft rated players were from the East, but the majority of the top picks when the money was on the table were from the West. I wonder why?????? go quakes!!!
Greg Curry could turn into a huge pickup for your backline. He was a stud with Andy Iro (Columbus) in the back until he tweaked his knee. Definitely a gritty guy who will mix it up. Decent speed to keep up with 90% of the quick fowrards. Can run it up the line and distribute well. With some good individual coaching of the MLS caliber, he can be very good and I say even next year or the year after might be getting quality sub minutes before he gets a starting gig. That will come with experience.
Ummm.... may I suggest a change in strategy? Yeah. I wish we'd taken Balc. He sounds like the sort of player who will do well if given the chance. Reyering never did it for me, but he might have done well too - though, for $13K, he will most likely decide not to do the MLS. Maybe Yallop and Doyle had something other than pre-draft hype in mind when they were drafting. I'm okay with what they did - supplemental draft players rarely do anything other than make a dev roster (if that). Maybe. Maybe not. I can certainly see the logic in picking (mostly) local players to fill the Dev roster. The other thing I might draft for would be attitude and team spirit (sorry Nirv fans) - especially given the emphasis Yallop places on teamwork. Maybe taking a player from a big school often entails taking a player with an oversized ego (for the skill level anyway)? And maybe taking local players in the draft (instead of just bringing them in for a trial) starts the team-coach-player relationship out on the right foot with the player really happy to be there and feeling indebted to the team and coaches? Just speculating. At his best, Grabavoy is an excellent starting AM. His knock is a lack of consistency, but he's certainly a decent MLS-level player who still has upside. They may not be sexy right now, but that's just because Glinton used to play for LA and Kamara is young enough to be not so well known. These are two players who could very well make names for themselves playing for us. Or they could be crap. We'll find out over the next two seasons or so. We certainly have room for a veteran, proven forward, but I'm okay with the potential we have on the roster. We do need to add to the depth and experience though, and I expect SJE will address that over the next several weeks (and on into the future). Riley. I'd pencil him in as your day one left back. Guerrero should be in front of him at left mid. And that will be a solid left side. Riley is fast, and Guerrero is crafty.