Who do we draft? The hole on the team right now is a back up goalkeeper. Adin is brittle and will likely spend some time this season on injured reserve. With a heavy schedule of MLS and tournamnet games, we need a reliable backup. The name that keeps popping up is ....Doug Warren from Clemson and US national Youth teams. A 6' prospect who appears to be the cream of the crop. Almost, but not quite ready, for prime time. If Warren is gone, then maybe we go back to the Bundesliga for another US returnee, Phil Salyer. Hey, the last American we got from germany seemed to work out ok.
So I checked out Todd's bio, and I'm surprised to find he's a defender. What does he bring to the Revs that we don't have? Not that I'm doubting you, mind - I figure he's got something good going, I just don't know what. Is he a lefty?
Up until last week, I would have said either a left defender or a left mid. Now that we have Nowak for a year or two, I would love to see them get a young attacking mid who could develop his game watching Nowak. Also, if it's feasible, I'd like to see a good P-40 (maybe the same attacking mid). I'm sure that most, if not all, of the other teams get more from their 4 non-roster spots than we did from Downing and Asad last year. With small rosters, it makes a difference. Whether we could use an extra defender or not is somewhat dependant on whether Joseph is projected as a D-mid or defender. The players we have that can play D-mid (Joey, Leo, Daniel) all concern me in the amount of space that they could cover. A little more speed and athleticism (which Joseph is said to posess) would be great to have since we will be playing 1 D-mid and not 2. I wouldn't pick a keeper until round 2 or 3. They should be available, because no teams are probably looking for a starting keeper. I'd rather risk it that whoever we want will be there and grab someone from the A-league or another team's discard if I'm wrong than waste a high pick on someone who might not play regularly for a few years.
One of the keys to who we pick may well rest in the realities of roster size and Cap space and the insanity of the pay scale for the Dev Roster.. I've read there will be eleven P-40's. With the 9th and 12th picks the Revs can possibly get two if some team picks a non P-40 or they can pick a non P-40 who they think will be able to make the reg roster and then take the remaining P-40 with the 12th pick. The P-4o list is due out today (thursday) I don't think getting a good back up keeper will be any trouble and I would be surprised if they would use a high draft pick to get one. I suspect we will use one of our lower licks to get a 4th striker. There are a bunch to pick from. Key will be getting one who is willing to play for lunch money on the DV Roster.
So I checked out Todd's bio, and I'm surprised to find he's a defender. What does he bring to the Revs that we don't have? Not that I'm doubting you, mind - I figure he's got something good going, I just don't know what. Is he a lefty? I've read through a number of match reports as well as his bio and it sounds like he might not be a bad pick-up. He's 6-1, 174lbs., not bad size... Aside from starting for Stanford he's also played for the Boulder Rapids Reserve in the PDL, including the 2002 PDL National Championship where Boulder lost to the Cape Cod Crusaders... It sounds like he has good distribution skills, seemingly responsible for taking all of Stanford's corner kicks, and through 20 games in 2002 he had 2 goals and 11 assists as a defender... He IS a left-side player according to The Stanford Daily. He'll be a member of the West team in the MLS combine Jan 12 - 14th... He sounds like a balanced player with a good touch... If Nicol's looking for someone who can play wide left either in defense or on the wing, it sounds like this guy is a good option: composed, smart, better than average distribution skills... makes sense to me. The Magpie
We don't have the 12th pick, Dallas does. It's been mentioned as something we might try to get in a trade in some recent thread.
Dunivant IS a left-sided defender that can also play left mid. My notes on him from my player database, which will hopefully be available very soon on RevsNet...
We're fine with starting-caliber offensive firepower (Twellman, Serna, Harris), central midfielders (Nowak, Hernandez, Cullen, Cloutier), right midfielders (Ralston, Cloutier), right backs (Pierce, Heaps), central backs (Kante, Llamossa, Pierce, Joseph), and starting keeper (Brown). What we need before the start of the season are a backup keeper, a 4th forward, another option on the left (or at least a better one than Griffiths), and/or the best available young/Project-40 type player (we seem to be just about the only team without one). Assuming Rooney and Chacon are gone, we have 4 roster spots to fight for (exlcuding Joseph and Griffiths). One would be for the backup keeper, the other three are hopefully between Joseph, Griffiths, a fourth striker, and a leftisded player or any other players. I'm more inclined to find a backup keeper through means other than the Superdraft, meaning I see the following needs for #9 and #19: Left-sided player: Between Franchino's shaky play at some points last year and Kamler's age/injury history, this is an outstanding need as far as I'm concerned. I believe Franchino to be the weakest of our 5 starting-caliber defenders, yet the only one that can play left back (leaving us with Nick Downing or playing someone out of position, should Franchino not be able to play). And at left midfield, Griffiths has his moments but we know his limitations. Young prospect: We don't have one of the new generation U-17/U-20 type player to develop - a Convey, Quaranta, E. Johnson, Martino, Capano, Beckerman, Mapp, Stone, etc. This draft is supposedly going to feature a lot of them, and we can't afford to miss out again. Fourth striker: Our 3 strikers are all starting caliber, yet we'll still need another backup striker on our roster opening day. I'd prefer someone cheap out of the draft as opposed to some kind of waiver pickup. 3 of the guys I'm most interested in have been mentioned above - Eddie Gaven (yound midfield prospect), Phil Slayer (left-sided defender), and Todd Dunivant (left-sided player). Between those 3 players and the supposed top guys - Alecko Eskandarian, Ricardo Clark, Diego Walsh, Mike Tranchilla, David Stokes, Guillermo Gonzalez. Mike Magee, etc. - there should still be quality at #9. Alecko, Clark, Walsh, Magee, and Gonzalez are expected/projected (whatever that means at this point) to be gone before we go.
Re: Todd Dunivart Are you referring to Stanford's other defender, former U-17 member? The one who set up Levensque for their goal in the semis? I think his name is Chad Marshall. It's been rumored that he's going to sign a P-40, but who knows.
Re: Re: Todd Dunivart He was referring to Eddie Gaven, but speaking of Marshall I thought he was head and shoulders above Dunivant and, if Marshall leaves early, I hope we take him. It is true our more immediate need is at left back but: Franchino, while the weakest of our pool of 5 defenders, is not bad and probably not going anywhere; Cullen can play left back in a pinch; and there is alwasy the chance that the kid out of UVA, whose name escapes me, could turn out to be good. The fact is we don't have pressing needs at any position save backup goalie, and we could easily fill that slot by discovering someone in the a league. I'd hate to see us miss out on the next big US prospect for the sake of getting a serviceable reserve left back.
Re: Re: Todd Dunivart If this guy played at Stanford as a 16 year old...he should be a quick learner! ;-)
From what I've been told, Chad Marshall won't sign a P-40 contract, because he has his eye on Europe after the upcoming U-20 World Championships. Of course, I might end up looking VERY silly a few hours from now when the P-40 signings are announced.
I don't think anyone on this Board would ever call your contrabutions silly Mike. I'm wondering just how deep the draft is shaping up this year? The Revs with 9-19-22-29 don't have a lot to work with but with our roster failrly well set , with the exception of maybe our first pick we are really looking at finding a players with an up side who will be willing to take a DV Roster slot.. I'm wondering if MLS has gotten to the point where the overall quality of players on most team rosters has reached sufficiently high quality where it's unlikely that the average player in the draft pool will be able to compete for roster space. George
Won't Downing (number of years on the list) and TF3 (past the age limit) be coming off the DV Roster? If that is correct our only DV Roster player at this point is Marshall Leonard.
here they are http://www.mlsnet.com/content/03/p400109signings.html plenty of talent to get a good player at #9 imo.
Sorry for the confusion This is who I am talking about: Eddie Gaven Position: Midfielder College: NA Ht: 6-0 Wt: 145 Hometown: Hamilton, NJ Born: October 25, 1986 Club: Hibernians FC - At the age of 16 years and 2 months, he becomes the youngest player ever to sign with MLS - Recently began his fourth semester in U.S. Soccer’s Full-Time U17 Residency Program in Bradenton, FL - A creative player whose size and athleticism make him an excellent ball-winner on both offense and defense -MLSNet "In their final match of group play on Sunday, the U.S. U-17’s topped Yugoslavia 2-1 in Formia, Italy to advance to Monday's final against Group B winnner Uruguay. U.S. midfielder Eddie Gaven paced the U.S. to the win over Yugoslavia, scoring the opener and then setting up Guillermo Gonzalez for the gamewinner. The U.S. finished group play with two wins and a draw. After a scoreless first half, Gaven gave the U.S. the lead in the 42nd minute, scoring after a set up from Jacob Peterson. On the hour mark Gaven assisted on Gonzalez’s goal." -ussoccer.com “As an attacking center midfielder, Eddie is extremely creative. He turns and goes forward very well with the ball, and he is an excellent finisher around the box. He works very hard defensively and can win balls in the air. As he develops physically, he’ll be a beast.” --U.S. Head Coach John Ellinger Played every minute of all three games at the U.S. Soccer / Nike Club Tournament … Scored the opening goal in the USA’s win against FC Delco … Has scored five goals with the Under-17s … Scored game-winning goals against Region II (‘85s) on November 26 and against Jacksonville University on Nov. 10 … Also scored against the Lakeland Lazers and Blackwatch … Played in all three matches in Mexico, starting two … Began the U.S. Soccer residency program in Sept. 2001 … A member of the U.S. Under-16 National Team in 2001 … A member of the U.S. Under-14s in 2000 … Traveled with the Under-14s to Mexico in 2000. -ncsoccer.org
I wonder what it would take to get two of the twelve. We probably wouldn't have to move up too many spots in the second round.
Well with guys like Philip Salyer and Ian Joy coming back from Europe and going into the draft, that adds 2 more. Plus you got the seniors like Dunivant, et al. Should be a pretty deep draft.
Mike or anyone else, who are the likely non-P40s to be taken in the first few rounds? The only name that I'm thinking of is Salyer. Also, I've seen in several places that metros are likely to take Eskandrian at #1, and Chicago to take Magee w/ their first rounder.
Here's the list of players participating in the combine: https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&postid=592667#post592667