Here are the picks, team by team. I've also added grades and comments based on my combine experience. They're not definitive, of course. Just putting them out there: Columbus Crew Grade: A Sigi impresses on his return to MLS. Jason Garey could be the next Twellman. Kei Kamara could contribute this year. Jed Zayner should also fight for a starting position. Both Zayner and Kamara are roster protected. Brandon Moss also might be a surprise at DMid. Duke Hashimoto has the wheels and killer instinct in front of goal to work effectively as a late game sub. 1 3 Jason Garey Maryland F 21 6'0 180 Gonzales LA USA 1 9 Kei Kamara Cal State Dominguez Hills F 20 6'2 165 Lawndale CA USA 2 13 Jed Zayner Indiana D 21 5'11 165 Orland Park IL USA 3 27 Brandon Moss New Mexico M 21 6'1 185 Albuquerque NM USA 3 33 Dayton O'Brien Memphis M-F 22 5'11 155 Memphis TN USA 4 38 Duke Hashimoto Southern Methodist F-M 21 5'7 150 Kapolei HI USA Los Angeles Galaxy Grade: A I hate Steve Sampson. I hate him for taking what may be the two best defenders in this draft with picks 12 and 25. I hate him because he's making me accept that he knows what he's doing. 1 12 Nathan Sturgis Clemson D-M 18 5'10 150 St. Augustine FL USA 2 24 Marc Burch Maryland F 6'2 190 Cincinnati OH USA 3 25 Kyle Veris Ohio State D 21 6'3 170 Strongsville OH USA 3 36 Chris Dunsheath Bradley GK 22 6'3 196 Rockford IL USA 4 48 Aaron King NC State F 21 6'0 175 Denver CO USA MetroStars Grade: A I hate Mo Johnston. He got Wynne, a brilliant prospect in Altidore, and a guy who could well start at Dmid within a year or 2 at pick 41. Blake Camp has great feet for a big guy, holds the ball well, and plays excellent combinations. He and Carroll may be the steals of round 4. 1 1 Marvell Wynne UCLA D 19 5'9 171 Poway CA USA 2 17 Josmer Altidore U.S. Under-17 F 16 5'10 175 Boca Raton FL USA Pick comment: Acquired from Real Salt Lake. Originally the MetroStars pick. 4 41 Blake Camp Duke M 22 6'2 194 Danielsville GA USA FC Dallas Grade: A- Dax McCarty and Moore are smart picks. Wagner won't contribute soon, but he's roster protected. They took a flyer on a flyer in Oduro. I don't think he has the brains for soccer. Burse could develop. 1 6 Dax McCarty North Carolina M 18 5'9 142 Winter Park FL USA 2 15 Justin Moore Clemson D-M 22 6'0 177 Snellville GA USA Pick comment: Acquired from Columbus Crew. 2 18 Blake Wagner U.S. Under-17 D-M 17 5'10 160 Tampa FL USA 2 22 Dominic Oduro Virginia Commonwealth F 20 6'0 155 Accra Ghana 3 30 Ray Burse, Jr Ohio State GK 21 6'1 185 Prospect KY USA 4 42 Mike Dello-Russo Maryland M 22 5'10 165 Columbia MD USA 4 43 Mike Ambersley Indiana F 22 5'7 155 Ballwin MO USA D.C. United Grade: B+ Justin Moose will probably start at right wingback, pushing Gros to the left side. Jeff Carroll was a steal at 39. No info on Dychenko. Bertz will be hitting the reserves. Disappointed that DC didn't trade up to take Kyle Veris. He has the perfect built for DC's defense and can man-mark or play in the middle. Give that the team is still overpaying Brandon Prideaux, I'd hoped they'd find a way to dump Prideaux and take Veris -- if only for his versatility and talent. For those making the Stokes comparison, Veris is quicker, has better balance, and better feet. 1 7 Justin Moose Wake Forest M 22 5'8 145 Statesville NC USA 3 31 Rod Dychenko UNLV F 22 6'0 165 Vancouver WA USA 4 39 Jeff Carrol St. John's M-D 21 5'10 160 Springfield VA USA 4 47 Kenny Bertz Maryland D 22 6'1 195 Liberty Township OH USA CD Chivas USA Grade: B Bradley had very little to work with and turned the #1 into 2 potential starters (kKjestan and Hernandez). Bornstein was a bad pick with Carroll and Camp still on the board. 1 5 Sacha Kljestan Seton Hall M 20 6'1 150 Huntington Beach CA USA 4 37 Jonathan Bornstein UCLA F 21 5'9 145 Los Alamitos CA USA **Plus Jason Hernandez in trade. Colorado Rapids Grade: B Peterson at 21 is a good pick. Brown could be their next Borchers. 2 21 Jacob Peterson Indiana F 19 5'10 160 Portage MI USA 4 45 Josh Brown New Mexico D 22 6'2 180 Portland OR USA New England Revolution Grade: C+ I know I give Nichol a bad grade at my own peril, but I really didn't like this draft. Willie Sims is just sllooooow. But I'm sure Nichol and Mariner will find a way to help each of these players blossom and demonstrate, once again, what genuises they are. 1 11 Leandro de Oliveira Alabama - Birmingham M 23 5'8 155 Bryan TX USA 2 23 Willie Sims Cal State Northridge F 21 5'9 142 Los Angeles CA USA 3 35 Kyle Brown Tulsa F 22 5'11 165 Southlake TX USA Houston Grade: C Pick up a potential starter in Ianni, but that's it. 1 8 Patrick Ianni UCLA M 20 6'1 175 Lodi CA USA 3 32 Andre Schmid St. John's F 22 6'4 200 Sacramento CA USA 4 44 Mike Chabala Washington M 21 6'0 178 Fresno CA USA Kansas City Wizards Grade: C The Movsisyan pick surprised me. I thought it was early. If he's a star, it's a good pick and a good draft. I was totally unimpressed with the rest of their picks. Tyson Wahl reminds me of Tahj Jahkins. As for the other guys, I guess Bob wants more Jack Jewsburys on his team. 1 4 Yura Movsisyan Pasadena City College F 18 6'0 180 Baku Azerbajian 2 16 Lance Watson New Mexico M 22 5'6 150 Nederland TX USA 2 19 Tyson Wahl California D 21 6'2 185 Newport Beach CA USA 3 28 Matt Groenwald St. John's M 22 5'8 173 Mt. Prospect IL USA 3 29 Stephen Shirley Virginia Commonwealth D-M 22 5'10 170 Carrollton TX USA 4 40 Eric Kronberg California GK 22 6'5 210 Santa Rosa CA USA Chicago Fire Grade: C- Carr has a chance to contribute if Rolfe goes to the WC: a gamble. Jeff Curtin is going to have issues with speed and they took him way too high. Plotkin has issues with both size and speed. Wouldn't be suprising to see him in the A-League shortly. Russolillo and Marshall: reserve players. Sarachan and company didn't help themselves much, if at all. 1 10 Calen Carr California F 23 6'0 150 Berkeley CA USA 2 14 Jeff Curtin Georgetown D 22 6'3 190 Oreland PA USA 2 20 Brian Plotkin Indiana M 21 5'9 150 Lisle IL USA 3 34 Jordan Russolillo Southern Connecticut D 21 5'11 165 Middletown CT USA 4 46 Jeremy Ashe Marshall D 22 5'10 170 Cinnaminson NJ USA Real Salt Lake Grade: C- This draft officially begins to countdown to the day Salt Lake fires Ellinger. Ryan Johnson's the reason they don't have a D. Mehdi Ballouchy at 2 was idiotic. They needed bodies. They could've gotten at least 2 for that #2 pick. Ugh. Johnson may contribute on the wing. Ellinger... 1 2 Mehdi Ballouchy Santa Clara M 22 5'11 165 Casablanca Morocco 3 26 Ryan Johnson Oregon State M-F 21 6'1 175 Boston MA Jamaica
So, by your accounts, three of DCU's most hated teams (two in the conf) had the best drafts. Scum Crew Gals Looks like the Burn didnt do too bad either. And I hate any team repping the city of Dallas.
I like what NPK did today. They didn't trade any future picks which will give us some flexibility next season. We have been undone in the past by draft day trading, IMHO. I like our picks and I like no trading better.
Ignores the fact that (I think) they picked up goalie Matt Jordan from C-bus for a third-round pick. That just depresses me, to think we could have gotten a goalie who looked so good at the end of the season for a 3rd-rounder--didn't we blow a 2nd-round choice on Mike McGinty? The most depressing thing about the draft is that it drives home the fact that we'll yet again have Nick between the posts when the season starts. After the 0-4, I thought it was a foregone conclusion we'd try to upgrade.
We weren't gonna get a keeper out of this draft -- this year's keeper selection was weak -- so a change of keepers could/can only happen by trade. Are you bummed we didn't trade our first round pick + Prideaux + something else? Because we weren't going to get Cannon for a third or fourth round pick.
Joe is a drunken crack head. Jaime's hair was brilliant as the Guiness guys would say. Reminds me of those heady days back in '97
Mike is a drunkened fool that can't handle his scotch. All I say is that scotch was all over the back of the van. All, ignore Mike's feeble attempts to explain - they're lame.
Am I the only one who finds it interesting that Mr. Chemistry, Steve Sampson, took a player who has an uneven reputation on the practice field (Burch)...this when he's already got a a mainstay player who all but admits he's not into practices a lot? I think Lalas did a great job for NY, not just for the players he landed (really, Wynne, Altidore...sit down, your work here is done Alexi...who cares if we even have more picks). But this draft will play well in the NY press. DCU? A Moose and a yawn. Really, Carroll sounds like a great pickup too, except he'll be battling his brother for a spot.
I think Carroll the younger may be shifted to the back line. He is reportedly a much more physical player than his brother. His early experience playing A-mid in high school would suggest he has decent ball skills. If he has a Carroll motor, decent ball skills and is willing to mix it up physically, he could fit into a Namoff/Erpen/Wilson outside back mix. (I assume Prideaux is gone for salary reasons, but the trade won't occur until training camp when teams have a better sense of need/injury situations. Brandon is a valuable commodity then, because he is a proven journeyman defender who will step in and play competently, but not brilliantly, for your side. If you need to fill a hole late in the pre-season, he is exactly what you are looking for.)
I've posted my grades with all my other draft and combine writings. Edit. I lied. But I think it's up now.
Knave, I like that you're not in the tank for anyone and not seeing the results with rose-colored glasses. But, that said, you're taking a deep draft with a lot of potential (just not a lot of impact players) and concluding that most of the teams flunked. That makes mostly if you're arguing they got talent but it wasn't how you'd have played OR that they drafted a lot of guys they shouldn't have and there are a bunch of real talents in the supplemental draft.
D is technically a passing grade, just one that's below average. I set the criteria without any regard to what the particular talent was this year. I've used similar criteria in years past, and each time I tweak it a bit. Today I think it's reasonable average for teams to TRY TO draft one solid player and one project. That's the average - a C. Then I set the higher and lower grades dependent upon that average. In other words, I'm not grading on a curve here. There's set criteria and I'm seeing how the teams measured up against that criteria.
Not if it's in your major. And I'm pretty sure these guys major in soccer. Well, not the Metros, but most of the rest
After catching up on some combine reading and rethinking some of the selections, Metros I think by far had the best draft of all the teams. Which kills me to admit, but Alexi did his job. Piotr and KP did, well what was expected... :\ I think J.Carroll may just be a steal for us. And as I have said in the van back and at the infamous beer garden, when Moose first walked into the draftee seating area, I could swear his mom was holding his hand, which totally frightens me, especailly because I made the comment" man that kid is short, and looks lost without his mom, I feel for any team that drafts him." and then we draft him and I learned who the kid was, well he's got his work cut out for him, but if he starts on the wing he better bring some intensity.
I wasn't there, so I don't know how Moose "looked" with his mom. However, maybe he was proud to be there with her (you know the "soccer mom" who drove him to practices when he was too young to drive.) He's short, I'm sure a number of people/coaches held that against him, yet he excelled at Wake Forest and now he is clearly a potential professional first round pick. I'm glad he came with his mom, because it means he wanted to share his success with one who raised him.
I'm getting pretty wary of Mr. Mo Johnston up in NY. I think we saw at the end of last year that he got the team turned around in a hurry and now in the draft he seems to have performed as well as anyone. Also, when is the supplemental draft?