Not sure how the drafts thing works, we've never has them in the UK so I've got no experience with them..... It's the first time I've experienced them!! Thanks people.
Re: Help please with drafts dicription.... The draft works as follows: The teams with the worst record is given the first pick - however, expansion SJ will have the first pick this year. They rank the teams who did not make the play-offs and assign them an order based on how much they sucked. Then they take all the teams who lost in the first round and rank them on how much they sucked in the regular season and so on and so on until the team who wins the Cup has the last pick in the round. The players eligible for the draft are mainly kids who are graduating from college with a few Generation Adidas players thrown in there for good measure. The Gen Adidas kids are coming from Bradenton or opting out of college early. There is a combine before the draft where the kids who were invited are split into four teams and play a series of games. This, unfortunately, is where most of the scouting of these kids occurs. The draft is pretty much a crap shoot and as the youth acadmies becomes more established the hope is that much of the young talent a team acquires will be through its youth academy as opposed to the draft. That is an overview - if there is something more specific you want to know just ask. As an aside - the team that drafts a player retains their rights for two years even if they don't sign with the MLS team. For example, DC drafted Jay Needham who decided to play for Puerto Rico in the A-League instead so if he decided to play in MLS this year his rights would belong to DC.
Re: Help please with drafts dicription.... [Background: MLS, like all other pro sports leagues in USA and Canada, is a business club designed to (eventually) make profits for all the members - Besides meaining NO Promotion/Relegation, that also means Parity - All USA & Canadian sports leagues are designed to help the lousy teams get better - MLS actually went much further in the beginning by penalizing the better teams, but for now the major way to institute parity is by a Salary Cap and the Draft - USA soccer fans may bemoan the Salary Cap from preventing their favorite team from signing better players, but its undeniably kept the league financially alive long enough for clubs to get their own stadiums (or at least sweet-heart leases)] The Draft is the way USA and Canadian sports leagues divvy up the young talent coming into the league - No pro sport here has their own youth system for youngsters below the age of 17/18 - They all rely on either College or High Schools to develop the young talent - Baseball and Hockey still sign 17/18 year olds into their farm teams, but even these are using college players more and more - Only just recently has MLS instituted rules and a system for the clubs to start their own "Youth Academies" which will give these teams exclusive rights their kids - MLS uses college and various national youth team pools for their draft All the pro sports have off-season drafts where the worst teams choose first for the best young talent - That helps achieve parity in the long run - MLS has also used Expansion Drafts to help brand new clubs get established quicker - Usually that means the existing MLS teams can put 10 (or 11 or 12) players on a protected list, and the new team can choose anybody else on the existing clubs' rosters for their club - When two teams (ChivasUSA and Real Salt Lake) were added to 10, this was a pretty big hit - When it was 1 more team (Toronto) added to the 12 it was less of a hit - With San Jose joining, it won't be terrible either - I think MLS rules will allow only one player from each existing club can be chosen in the Expansion draft - This means that the new clubs (while they won't get really good starters) will at least start with some pretty good role players - At least by MLS standards - And usually Youth Development players (like Aguez) are protected in the draft For DC United, we have to make some hard choices about which starters to protect, and which fan favorites to leave un-protected - See the other threads for these discussions MLS may have some "rules" about the upcoming draft, but as we've all seen over the years, in MLS rules aren't made to be broken, they're made to be re-written
Re: Help please with drafts dicription.... JH6 offers a nice explanation of the SuperDraft, one path where existing teams acquire new players. Then there's an expansion draft. A new team (San Jose this year), or teams, get to pick a player or two (depending on that year's rules) from each existing team. But the existing teams get to protect 11 (or so, once again depending on that year's rules) and the new team gets to pick from the leftovers. The expansion draft will occur Wednesday Nov 21, and the Superdraft will be in late January or so.
Re: Help please with drafts dicription.... Just out of sheer curiosity, where is Super Draft this year?
Re: Help please with drafts dicription.... I'm going to be able to make it out to both the ACC tournament and the NCAA college cup. Any players that any of you know that I should keep an eye out for? I'm obviously familiar with the UNC plaeyers, and know most of the Dook and Wake players to look at. Anyone I should watch for from Maryland or UVA? Any word on if villnueva will opt of his last 2 years for a GenAd?
Re: Help please with drafts dicription.... Track down JoeSoccerFan - he has been to more college games than anyone I know.
Re: Help please with drafts dicription.... Of course, it isn't like the NBA where the player can simply declare. MLS, by means of requests from the teams, has to offer them a contract if they are underclassmen. The players can pressure MLS to give them one by courting overseas offers, but it is still no guarantee. So for Villanueva, for example, it will depend if a team has an eye for him - since he has not become a star on the level of expectations yet at Virginia. Personally, I'd say Jeremy Hall of Maryland is the better choice at the moment, although Maryland is having a pretty poor season by their standards. Virginia's Yannick Reyering will definitely be one to watch - a 6'6 forward, but I believe only one season before he will be a senior international in MLS. MLS did not sign many GenAd players last year. Hopefully, they will get a few more this year before they lose them to European sides. The senior portion of the draft should be pretty typical - a very small handful of solid prospects and then a mess of question marks. The teams who bother to scout and think about roles will do well, as usual. I do think this senior class has an unusual bounty of defenders (especially central), and a thin group of about everything else.
Re: Help please with drafts dicription.... I didn't know that a player couldn't simply leave school early for the draft. So, even if a player wanted to enter the draft after one or two college seasons, he must get an offer from GenAd first? He can't just say he wants to be drafted and be in consideration?
Re: Help please with drafts dicription.... That's great people. Thanks for making that informative and factual. Looking 4ward to the 21st now. Thanks again.
Re: Help please with drafts dicription.... November 21st is only the expansion draft where San Jose gets to pick one of our players. Nothing to look forward to at all. The "super" draft is in January. That is where United gets to pick up college kids (or gen Adidas kids) to play for them. Unfortunately, given DC's recent history with this there isn't much to look forward to here either.
Re: Help please with drafts dicription.... Hey dont forget we did draft Justin Mapp, but then again we also drafted Jason Moore.
Re: Help please with drafts dicription.... Look at the bright side, they could take Jay Nolly. Roughly one pick a year is OK, not outstanding, but decent enough. Folks tend to expect too much from #1 picks thinking they'll have immediate impact, a la the NFL or NBA. But the college game just doesn't get players in a professional frame of mind. It usually takes a couple of seasons to turn into true professionals.
Re: Help please with drafts dicription.... Pants. I'll be looking forward to the start of the season in that case! Thanks again.