Buddle, Edson F 6'1" 170 05/21/81 0/0 New Rochelle, N.Y. selected by coach Bruce Arena to the National team for Sat. game , and passed over by our trusted and loved coach Bob Bradley in the draft. Nice going . http://www.mlsnet.com/content/03/firstXI0325.htm By Jeff Bradley "Back when Buddle was playing for the Long Island Roughriders, Michael Lewis projected him to be an MLS star and, after the 2001 draft, wondered aloud why the MetroStars had passed on a player who grew up right in their own backyard. Buddle, who has the look of a U.S. national team forward, was not taken until the 27th pick, selected right after the Metros took a fellow by the name of Kerwin Jemmott. Ouch." and this : "Did you know, with the elimination of the Tampa Bay Mutiny last year, the MetroStars are now the only team in MLS that has not appeared in either an MLS Cup final or a U.S. Open Cup final? " also " The MetroStars have been cautioned 407 times in seven years. That's 10 more yellow cards than the Revolution, their closest competitor in that category ... Also surprising, the MetroStars have had more shots on goal (1,322) than any team in league history,"
Bruce Arena didn't ! ...from all the reports the kid is very good and has been good for sometime, it's not like a big discovery, or an unknown I don't see Your point with your point
You do realize, I hope, that Arena is picking him based upon 2 years playing in MLS for the Crew. It wasn't the 2003 draft where the Metros blew it and passed on him ... it was the 2001 draft, where Octavio Zambrano passed on him (in order to take Rodrigo Faria with their first pick, despite no one else being interested, and Kerwin Jemmott with their second, who didn't even survive spring-training if I recall). You're right, however, in stating that it was a mistake, for even at that time, some of us urged that Buddle be taken - both because of his potential and his local roots. But, of course, OZ made very few good picks in his draft history. (As to Bob Bradley passing on him, he was still coaching Chicago at the time and probably didn't have the benefit of local NYC area scouting).
Hang your head in shame. Buddle has been one of the most talked-about young forwards in the league for two whole years. If you didn't know Buddle was on the Crew ... Do you know who Ed Johnson is? Do you know who Santino Quaranta is? Heard of Freddy Adu?
let's not be so dramatic , I am not a Crew fan. and yes I heard of Santino and Adu, thank you. Now relax.
Oddly enough, despite 9 goals and 5 assists last season, Buddle has rarely played against the Metros, getting only garbage time for the most part (I think the longest stretch he had was about 20 minutes).
just curious but how old was Buddle during the draft? With the teenagers that are forming the top part of the draft it's hard to project which ones will become stars and which will be busts.
That was the year that LI finished ahead of Rochester in the regular season, although Rochester won the playoffs. We ended up with a local player from that team- Paul Grafer, their starting goalkeeper. We also chose O'Neill Peart (the soccer player) in round 4, who actually had a slightly better season than Buddle. Peart was dropped in preseason and surprisingly never re-emerged in MLS. (Maybe it had something to do with citizenship??). Over the years, the LI team has produced talent- Armas, Savarese, Rooney for example. Metros did pick John Wolyniac from LI and Fordham. However he did not last here or in Chicago. He was the MVP of the 2002 A-League final though. I'm not sure Buddle was with the ODP or U-xx. He did not play in the ncaa. So without any pedigree, he would have been a "risky" pick to some. I also do not know if there was a "citizenship" question at the time. But obviously enough was known about him to justify him as a top draft choice.
He was actually on the US U-20 at the time of the draft, and went with them in June of that year to the FIFA Championship in Argentina. He was on the U-18 teams in '98 and '99. He had the pedigree, and he had the promise, and it was criminal that Octavio let him go.
So it's OK for you to ridicule Bradley with an embarassingly ill-informed comment, but it's not OK for me to ridicule you for it? Buddle 2001: 17 games, 3 goals, 2 assists Quaranta 2001: 16 games, 5 goals, 1 assist Adu: not so much. Buddle 2002: 21 games, 9 goals, 5 assists Quaranta 2002: 11 games, 3 goals, 4 assists Adu: not so much. Take your lumps. No need to lash back.
Wasn't that the same year that Zambrano blew the #1 pick in the draft on Steve Shak, a real stiff that could have been drafted in the third or fourth round?
No, that was 2000, where OZ picked Shak #1 overall over such other defenders as Bocanegra, Garcia and Califf (and such other players as Victorine, Convey and Vagenas), not to mention the possibility of trading down to get extra picks, considering that the Metros didn't have another pick until the 4th round; with the other picks, OZ drafted Daniel Alvarez; Orlando Perez; Colby Jackson; and Jake Dancy. In 2001, he followed that stellar performance with picking Rodrigo Faria with the Metros' first pick (a 2nd round pick), despite no other team having any interest in, or knowledge of, him; Kerwin Jemmott next, while local youth national Buddle was still on the table; then Martin Klinger; O'Neill Peart; and Russell Payne.
Well, Faria did win rookie of the year and scored twenty-some goals in two years. Not bad for a 2nd round pick. Certainly not the worst move by OZ.
It wasn't the choice of Faria, as a player, it was the use of the team's first draft pick on him despite the fact that no other team had ever even heard of him before the combine, and apparently he didn't play impressively at the combine either (allegations of dogging it). Chances were nearly 100% that he could have used the top picks on other players, and Faria would still have been there in the later rounds. But even if you want to let Faria slide, and there's certainly a decent argument to do so ... there's no defending some of his other disasters.