College Recap: Six Aztex Players Meet in HBU v. UNM Clash HBU Huskies - Athletes of the Week: Kristopher Tyrpak
Congrats to Dillon Powers (College Seniors: Pre-Draft Signing) and Kekutah Manneh (Generation adidas signing) for signing with MLS. http://www.3rddegree.net/2012/12/13/2013-mls-generation-adidas-preliminary-list/
So what does this mean exactly? As long as I've been following MLS I still don't understand the homegrown/GA/college-type stuff at all. The GA people are signed with the league? How will they wind up on a specific team?
Manneh & Powers signed a contract with the league and teams will choose the players they want in the MLS "Super"draft. Yes. Generation Adidas players are signed with MLS and they don't count on a MLS team's salary cap if that team decades to pick that player. In the MLS "Super"draft on January 17.
Thanks. Any thoughts on what teams might be interested in Manneh and Powers? For Manneh I was thinking that Portland (under Caleb Porter, with his long experience at the college level) or DCU (with its culture of encouraging young, individual, attacking players: Pontius, Najar, DeLeon, etc) would be good.
If I recalled, the L.A. Galaxy & Sporting K.C. had a look on Manneh during last season. Especially when he met both Landon Donovan and David Beckham (via his twitter). So the Galaxy might be his best bet. As for Powers, I'm trying to figure out which MLS team desperately need help in central midfield. I'm think New England & Sporting K.C. BTW I was reading Austin Aztex's & Laredo Heat's twitter updates from their USLPDL meeting in Tampa: "Just confirmed at @USLsoccer AGM that the Austin Aztex and @LaredoHeatSC will represent the @USLPDL Mid-South Division in #USOpenCup" And also, Oklahoma City will be the new PDL team in the Mid-South Division.
MLSsoccer.com's mock drafts have Manneh going to the Fire as the 11th pick (Borg and Doyle) or Dallas as the 7th pick (Saghini). They have Powers going to SKC as the 14th pick (Borg and Doyle again) or to Vancouver as the 5th pick (Saghini again.)
4 - Manneh: Vancouver 8 - Blake Smith: Montreal 11 - Dillon Powers: Colorado I wonder if any other team of any kind (college, PDL, youth) had as high a group of draftees.
I think the Aztex hold the title of most PDL players from a team in the first round, but Reading United had 5 players taking in the draft as a whole. My source was the USL PDL article on this.