1st rnd: all signed, most before draft (MLS ought to consider signing more pre-draft I think) 2nd rnd: COL Gregorio, Adolfo R2P05Y04 now at Darlington, England Div 2 (4 really), went overseas and likely not ever in preseason camp 3rd rnd: LA (f CLB) Arzate, Guillermo R3P02Y04 ?Portland, A-League NE (f LA) White, Jeremiah R3P03Y04 went to Yugoslavia COL (f COL t CLB) Taylor, Kevin R3P05Y04 I think he didn't impress preseason in camp with Rapids MET Occean, Olivier R3P06Y04 left preseason to Odd Greenland (Norway), would've been offered some sort of contract likely SJ (f KC) Wilson, Mike R3P07Y04 waived preseason, Minnesota A-League SJ Pecorelli, Lindon R3P10Y04 finished college, reportedly to tryout midseason after that, maybe in camp next year? maybe on USL squad (think I saw his name somewhere); SJ with unfilled DEV spot all year 4th round: LA McGill, David R4P03Y04 COL Richards, Kevin R4P05Y04 KC Alberts, Jay R4P07Y04 Minnesota A-L CHI Hucles, Phil R4P09Y04 ?A-L SJ Puseck, Marin R4P10Y04 waived preseason 5th round: CLB (f DAL) Crew, Adom R5P01Y04 i think he didn't impress preseason LA Perry, Jason R5P03Y04 ?Syracuse DC Hudson, Kevin R5P04Y04 ?left soccer (someone seems to know) MET David, Johnny R5P06Y04 ? went trying out in Portugal KC (f NE) Barber, Ryan R5P08Y04 ? might have seen his name USL 6th round: CHI (f DAL) McGowan, Ryan R6P01Y04 CLB Haefner, Matthew R6P02Y04 DAL (f DC) Miranda, Edwin R6P04Y04 waived preseason COL Pulido, John R6P05Y04 ? Canadian USL IIRC CHI McManus, Tony R6P09Y04 ? Virginia Beach I think one of the Fire draftees here returned for HOF game I'll update this a little later. LA, KC, & CHI didn't have the roster room for a lot of these guys. COL seemed to draft and then not offer (instead Erush, Cila, D dlt all undrafted to DEV)
If it's a non-guaranteed contract, it gives MLS the ability to bring the players in to training camp and know they'll be there on draft day when making the selection. Guys like Occean wouldn't slip away. Fans of COL and NE wouldn't have to stand for their teams drafting Gregorio and White when many knew they were going overseas. It isn't a great solution. I've considered the NHL system as possibly useful. In the NHL, teams can draft Europeans, and if they don't come over to North America, the team retains their rights until they do. Most player rights are held until 31 y/o unless a player isn't offered a new contract or gets older and is stuck in the minor leagues (has to clear waivers). Guys like Spector, Gooch, etc could be drafted and the team could wait on them instead of the current allocation system being used. It'd be interesting. LA has done this sort of speculation on the 2 year system using late draft picks on guys like Gibbs and Robbie Russell (2nd round) and now teams are taking the gamble on White and Gregorio. Sometimes it works like with Whitfield and Stephen Armstrong and the players return. I guess it'd just be interesting to me to see where teams place value on all US talent. Practically it'd be dangerous cause some of these guys might not return for a long time if ever. But it'd make round 2 & 3 more exciting and maybe the draft would be expanded to 8 rounds.
updated list: (not sure if "waived" players still have MLS rights retained, probably) . I scanned USL rosters again but only the "top" PDL teams. There's some league in the west that's semi-pro but I can't remember their website and I think it had some recognizable names documented released/waived: Wilson, Puseck, Miranda, and maybe a couple of more, will double check later found some team for all but Haefner, McGowan, Crew, Hudson, and Richards
Adom Crew got postgraduate scholarship http://brownbears.collegesports.com/sports/m-soccer/spec-rel/031004aaa.html
Richards was on trial with Ross County in Scotland over the summer. He got good reviews on the fan sites, but this link (near the bottom) suggests that money was a factor in their not signing him ... http://www.overthebridge.info/forum/viewthread.php?tid=2846&page=1 "How can we afford to bring in Mahood when we couldnt afford to bring in either Kevin Richards or Karim Boukraa?" I couldn't find anything more official.
A bit more info on Richards ... currently, he's apparently living in London but not attached with any club. As an '81, he could be a TI in MLS next year. http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cach....info+richards&hl=en&start=1&client=firefox-a http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cach...rmuda+football&hl=en&start=6&client=firefox-a
I believe that this is the recent history of college seniors whose signings were announced prior to the MLS draft: 2004: None? 2003: Dunivant, Levesque (When Levesque tore his ACL before the draft, he was given developmental status to keep him in the league. He later agreed to annul his contract and become a Developmental Player.) 2002: Gbandi, DaPra, Fahim, Nusum, L.Gonzalez By and large, the signings weren't very successful. Unless the league gets hit with a larger number of surprising foreign-bound departures (Gregorio and White were not surprising), it doesn't seem worth the effort of negotiating.
2004 included Wingert, when Nunez was also signed. I read somewhere Ngwenya was signed before the draft, so I think MLS doesn't announce all the signings. Taylor and Buete may have been signed, cause they were on the senior roster all year and no other first rounders were unsigned (it'd be dangerous to have a first rounder leave like Gregorio and White when 3 p40s and Wingert were all on the board. In 2003, Noonan, Cole, and Thomas were also signed in addition to those 2. For 2002 I'd have to go back and look. I wouldn't suggest negotiating too much and if it impeded signing the second and third rounders to DEV contracts, then there might not be too many out there being left unsigned. But it's a shame top draft picks sometimes go overseas, just makes it tough to plan a draft. I just wish I could see where teams really valued Gregorio and White to track their progress vs the rest of the draft pool. So Richards would have been a TI? How about any of the others not joining MLS. This is why guys like Brillant, Dorman, etc fall in the draft. The increase in TI spots and SIs will help their case. But it doesn't help that a lot of these guys are already 23 & 24 when graduating. Guys like Sumed and Cann got cut this year probably cause of their age and impending SI status.
What's also interesting is the list of players who didn't attend the MLS combine. Some may have been injured or in school. And Adu and Wingert were signed before the draft. But it's no mystery that some of these players might have not been looking too seriously at MLS careers. Some may have attended preseason camps, still collecting that info. NON-COMBINE draftees KC Barber, Ryan R5P08Y04 NE Brilliant, Felix R6P06Y04 CHI Clanton, Denny R4P08Y04 MET David, Johnny R5P06Y04 KC Hesmer, Will R2P07Y04 LA McGill, David R4P03Y04 CHI McGowan, Ryan R6P01Y04 MET Occean, Olivier R3P06Y04 MET Parke, Jeff R6P10Y04 CHI Pilarski, Ian R5P09Y04 COL Richards, Kevin R4P05Y04 COL Taylor, Kevin R3P05Y04 NE White, Jeremiah R3P03Y04 SJ Wilson, Mike R3P07Y04 CLB Wingert, Chris R2P02Y04S1 Brillant, Parke, Clanton, Hesmer, and Pilarski all ended up on the roster. Adu and Wingert too of course. Parke I read had his coach send a videotape to the Metrostars. Occean left preseason for Odd Greenland. For some reason I noted "attended" next to Kevin Taylor (don't remember why). White left for Europe. As did Richards (not sure if he showed for Rapids camp). Wilson was officially cut preseason. David was in Metrostars camp. That leaves Barber, McGill, McGowan as the mystery cases. McGill went back to Ireland. I can't find anything really on Barber or McGowan. McGowan played with a Seton Hall alumni team this summer. I'm not sure either pursued pro soccer. Barber was a local guy with U Missouri-KC and KC PDL connections. Guys like Jay Alberts, Matt Haefner, and Adom Crew were Ivy Leaguers so they likely have other career opportunities quite comepetive with MLS (esp DEV) pay. Pusek is Canadian. Richards - Bermuda. Sounds like Hudson turned down a dev contract or didn't show in camp (someone seemed to know, will search DC forum). Wilson is from New Zealand.
found this on Kevin Hudson https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showpost.php?p=3172461&postcount=87 sounds like he never attended camp and got a decent job. not to easy to search for (Ray Hudson, Kevin Payne, Kevin Ara)
Thanks for augmenting the list of pre-draft signees. FYI, Kevin Taylor definitely attended the combine ... he may have been a late replacement. Will Hesmer was the only injury absentee that I know of. I think it's interesting how many of the other draftees came from colleges that were local to their MLS teams, or because of other fairly direct connections (e.g. Clanton playing for the Fire Reserves, Parke's coach being a friend of Bradley's). It lends some support to the idea that the league's scouting really is inadequate.
I believe Haefner was signed by the Crew and then released. He appeared in several matches for us in the preseason, during his college spring break.
several of these players on the list played preseason. they don't have to sign to do so. Occean played for Metrostars during the preseason but wasn't under contract and was signed away by a team that saw him play an exhibition in Europe. i'll update the list at some point to include those that atteneded preseason camps & played in exhibitions Columbus with Ritch, Sutton, Traeger & 3 p40s didn't have room on it's dev roster for all its picks and even cut a former DEV - Ueltschey (GK). Same deal with Chicago (10 picks, 3 p40s already). With the bump of dev spots to 10, I expect most draft picks now can get a dev contract if they want one. Many of these guys were facing full dev squads or would have been TIs. A few went to Europe. A few got nonsoccer opportunities. Some may be back in camp next preseason, since MLS draft rights last 2 years.
I'm probably going to try and figure out who exactly went pro in 2004. It'll be a while before I review all the yanks abroad and USL info, but as a start, I'm going to try and put together a more complete list of what happened to the 2004 draftees. I'm still calling it p40 here. I'm not looking at age yet for 05 stats. Round 1 Pick Team Player 2004 teams, 2005 status 1 D.C. United Freddy Adu DC p40; same 2 Columbus Chad Marshall CLB p40; CLB SNR 3 Los Angeles Joseph Ngwenya LA TI; LA SI 4 Kansas City Matt Taylor KC SNR; CDC SNR 5 San Jose Ryan Cochrane SJ p40; same 6 Dallas Ramon Nuñez DAL JI (DEV/TI); DAL YI/DEV 7 Dallas Clarence Goodson DAL p40; same 8 New England Clint Dempsey NE p40; NE SNR 9 Chicago Scott Buete CHI SNR; same 10 San Jose Steve Cronin SJ p40; LA p40 Round 2 Pick Team Player 11 Chicago Leonard Griffin CHI SNR->DEV; CHI DEV or SNR? 12 Columbus Chris Wingert CLB SNR; same 13 Los Angeles Josh Gardner LA p40; same 14 Los Angeles Ned Grabavoy LA p40; same 15 Colorado Adolfo Gregorio Darlington (England 4); same 16 Colorado Adrian Cann COL TI->Toronto, A-League; ?same 17 Kansas City Will Hesmer KC DEV; KC SNR 18 MetroStars Seth Stammler MET DEV; MET DEV or SNR? 19 Chicago Matt Pickens CHI DEV; CHI DEV or SNR? 20 Chicago Sumed Ibrahim CHI TI->unattached; ??? Round 3 Pick Team Player 21 MetroStars Zach Wells --- MET SNR; same 22 Los Angeles Guillermo Arzate --- Portland (A-League); Portland (USL 1) 23 New England Jeremiah White --- OFK Belgrade-> Panserraikos, Greece; unattached 24 D.C. United Kevin Ara --- DC SNR; RSL (released preseason) 25 Colorado Kevin Taylor --- Michigan, PDL; ??? 26 MetroStars Olivier Occean --- (TI) Odd Grenland (Norway), same 27 San Jose Mike Wilson --- (TI) Minnesota (A-League); ??? 28 Chicago Khari Stephenson --- KC DEV/TI, KC 29 Dallas Ty Maurin --- DAL DEV->DAL SNR; DAL DEV 30 San Jose Lindon Pecorelli --- finished school->New Hampshire (PSL) - never played; released SJ preseason camp Round 4 Pick Team Player 31 Dallas David Wagenfuhr --- DAL SNR->DEV; DAL SNR 32 Columbus Jamal Sutton --- CLB DEV; CLB DEV or SNR? 33 Los Angeles David McGill --- Dublin City (Ireland); ?same 34 D.C. United Joshua Gros --- DC SNR; same 35 Colorado Kevin Richards --- (TI) trialed in Scotland, lived in UK, Bermuda NT; reportedly invited back to Colorado for a trial but 36 MetroStars Michael Bradley --- MET p40; same 37 Kansas City Jay Alberts --- Minnesota (a-league); KC preseason trialist 38 Chicago Denny Clanton --- CHI DEV; CHI DEV or SNR? 39 Chicago Phil Hucles --- injured while trialing Virginia Beach (a-league); ??? 40 San Jose Marin Pusek --- (TI) Toronto (a-league) - DNP; ??? Round 5 Pick Team Player 41 Columbus Adom Crew --- postgraduate studies; ??? 42 Columbus Luke Vercollone --- NE DEV; NE DEV or SNR 43 Los Angeles Jason Perry --- Syracuse (a-league); ??? 44 D.C. United Kevin Hudson --- non-soccer job; likely the same 45 Colorado Gary Sullivan --- COL DEV; retired (studies at Adelphi) 46 MetroStars Johnny David --- (US citizen born in Portugal) Chaves (Portugal 2); ??? (? still with club) 47 Kansas City Justin Detter --- KC DEV; KC DEV or SNR 48 Kansas City Ryan Barber --- ?unknown; ??? 49 Chicago Ian Pilarski --- CHI DEV->unattached;Rochester(a-league)-was there on loan in 04 50 San Jose Tighe Dombrowski --- SJ DEV; same Round 6 Pick Team Player 51 Chicago Ryan McGowan --- played with Seton Hall alumni in match; unknown 52 Columbus Matt Haefner --- Penn GK, may have finished degree? -> unknown 53 Los Angeles Alan Gordon --- Portland (a-league)->LA DEV; LA DEV or SNR 54 Dallas Edwin Miranda --- (US citizen born in El Salvador) Portland (a-league); Portland (USL 1) 55 Colorado John Pulido --- Boulder Rapids Reserves (PDL); COL preseason trialist 56 New England Felix Brillant --- NE TI; NE SI 57 Los Angeles Chris Aloisi --- LA DEV; SJ SNR 58 New England Andy Dorman --- NE DEV/TI; NE YI/DEV or SNR? 59 Chicago Tony McManus --- Virginia Beach (a-league); ?same 60 MetroStars Jeff Parke --- MET SNR; same undrafted: Troy Perkins DC DEV->SNR;same Jordan Cila COL DEV->RSL DEV or SNR? Michael Erush COL DEV; COL DEV or SNR? Brian Roberts Minnesota (a-league)->KC DEV; KC DEV or SNR? Perek Belleh Rochester (a-league)->NE DEV/GC; KC DEV or SNR? Baumstark was in the draft pool but already under contract to MLS and remained so. Combine players not to get drafted or make MLS: Simon Bird, England, ???; ??? Garthfield Whyte, Jamaica, ???; ??? Eric Cronkrite, USA, Portland; ?same 44 Andrew Pusateri M 21 5-9 160 St. Louis, Mo. St. Louis Univ. Attila Vendegh, Slovakia, Syracuse & Atlanta (a-league-order ?); ??? McColm Cephas, Liberia, Virginia Beach (a-league) Victor Guerrero, USA, , ???; ??? Mario Gonzalez, USA, ???; ??? Jack Cummings, USA, ???; ??? A.J. Herrera, USA, ???; ??? Kirk Harwat, USA, Borussia Monchengladbach; same Aaron Paye, USA, Minnesota (a-league); ?same Steven Kehoe, Wales, Pittsburgh (PSL); ?same Kenny Cutler, USA, ???; RSL preseason roster Josh Smith, USA, Charleston (a-league); ?same MLS draft pool, undrafted, non-combine, non-MLS in 04 (may search for clubs later) Jacob Banas Concordia University GK 6-1 180 23 Cedarsburg WI USA Tim Bezbatchenko University of Richmond M 5-9 Westerville OH USA Tim Brown University of Cincinnati M 6-1 178 Wellington New Zealand McNeil Cronin Furman D-M 6-1 185 21 Winston Salem NC USA Cesar Cuellar UCONN F 6-3 185 Santa Cruz Bolivia Nick Gannon St. Louis University D 5-11 185 22 Dallas TX USA Ryan Glynn Bradley D 6-1 175 22 Aurora CO USA Jeff Hare Princeton D 6-1 170 22 Richmond VA USA Kellen Hirota University of San Diego D 6-0 170 Riverside CA USA Joe Lampert UNC - Charlotte D 5-11 170 Golden CO USA Nino Marcantonio University of Maryland M 5-9 160 Bethesda MD USA Cliff McKinley UCLA F 5-11 155 21 Fountain Valley CA USA Kurt Ness Oregon State University D 5-10 170 22 Redmond WA USA Hector Orellano Cal State Fullerton F 5-6 140 East Los Angeles CA USA Damien Quinn Dartmouth M 6-1 170 San Diego CA USA Kevin Sapanli San Diego State M 5-8 150 San Diego CA USA Weston Saunders Wake Forest University D 6-2 180 Columbus NE USA Joe Vidmar University of Richmond M 6-0 Brookfield IL USA Kevin Wickart St. Louis University D 6-2 190 22 Lisle IL USA a-league draftees by US teams (nonMLSdraftpool) 13 Seattle Troy Ready M U of Washington (Spokane Shadow) 26 Rochester Matthew Delicate F Virginia Commonwealth (Richmond Kickers Future) 27 Charleston Ricky Charles F USC-Spartanburg 29 Seattle James Vert M Seattle U (Seattle Sounders Select) 30 Minnesota Bobby Lish M U of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (Wisconsin Rebels) 32 Milwaukee Chad Riley M Notre Dame (Indiana Invaders) a-league draftees by Canadian teams (nonMLSdraftpool) 2 Edmonton Damian Pottinger M/F Duquesne University 3 Calgary Aaron Richer D U of British Columbia 12 Vancouver Kevin Crouch F Simon Fraser 18 Edmonton Paul Dhaliwhal M/F Bowling Green 19 Calgary Mathias Mueller D Embry-Riddle 21 Toronto Kareem Morgan D U of Alabama 28 Vancouver Jordan Robinson G U of Victoria non of the US players have stats for the team that drafted them. I'll search more later. Charles (Grenada national team) was in Crew camp for a while this preseason. unique MISL draftees: ST. LOUIS Cal Thomas, F SIU-Edwardsville 3 DALLAS Trey Vaut, M/F Oral Roberts University 4 SAN DIEGO Scott Burcar, M Seattle-Washington 5 KANSAS CITY Drew Perkins, M Univ of Missouri – Kansas City 6 BALTIMORE Marco Angelini, F Univ. of Maryland – Balt. County 12 KANSAS CITY (from Dallas) Geoff Miles, M/D UMKC 13 MILWAUKEE (from San Diego) Dominik Jakubek, GK Cal State – Chico 14 CLEVELAND (from Kansas City) Tim O'Neil, D St. John's University 21 DALLAS Joe Crump, GK Univ. of NC-Greensboro 23 KANSAS CITY Jason Woods, D UMKC 25 CLEVELAND Said Ali, F Robert Morris University 26 PHILADELPHIA Jamie Mullarkey, F Lafayette 30 DALLAS Doug Pruett, D UNC-Greensboro 31 SAN DIEGO Tom McMenemy, F Columbia University 32 KANSAS CITY Justin Walker, M/F UMKC 33 BALTIMORE David Schofield, F Long Island University 34 CLEVELAND Oskar Tilly, F Long Island University 35 PHILADELPHIA Kamar Samuels, D East Stroudsburg University 36 MILWAUKEE Branko Savic, M Lindenwood University 39 DALLAS Scott Duhl, F Western Michigan University 42 BALTIMORE Graham Albert, M William & Mary 43 CLEVELAND Neil Krause, F Boston College 44 PHILADELPHIA Rinaldo Chambers, F St. Peter's I made some guesses about the international status of the players not in MLS. I'm not fully up to date if all the USL players are still under contract or not. Same for internationals playing abroad. Some players may have turned down developmental deals. Some didn't show up for preseason camp. Some did and got cut. Most teams had full developmental rosters at the beginning of 2004. LA, COL, DAL, MET, CLB, CHI, DC I recall as full. KC's was full until waiving Wolde Harris and promoting Jewsbury (I think at the last second) and later was filled by Roberts. NE didn't fill theirs but added Belleh and Thompson later on. SJ had 1 spot open but was reportedly saving it in case Pecorelli returned after finishing school. The TI's they waived (Pusek and Wilson) may have been too old for DEV. I'm pretty sure Kevind Richards hasn't been travelling with the Rapids. Bermuda's paper reported he didn't get a spot because of the foreign limits and now with more YI spots he was invited back (reported 2/5) and that was just before the Rapids "open tryouts" but I don't know if he attended. Most ever draft pick joined a team professionally in the US or Europe. Adom Crew got a scholarship for postgraduate studies that I'm guessing he used. I recall reading something about him trialing in USL and think he played preseason with the Crew. Haefner was in Columbus's preseason camp but after that I find nothing. I think Richards spent 2004 looking for a club in the UK but remains unsigned. Phil Hucles reportedly impressed at a USL trial but didn't sign due to injury. I think Kevin Hudson is the one who got a business -type job in Florida. I'm not sure if he attended DC's camp or was offered a contract. Ryan McGowan I have no club for except his participation in a Seton Hall alumni match. His PDL club from 03 (Jersey) folded early in 04 IIRC. So I think it's just these 6 players that didn't get pro contracts during 04 (not counting the 2 PDL players Pulido and Taylor and the USL no-appearance players in Pusek and Pecorelli) broken down MLS full roster 3 Los Angeles Joseph Ngwenya 4 Kansas City Matt Taylor 9 Chicago Scott Buete 12 Columbus Chris Wingert 24 D.C. United Kevin Ara (waived) 34 D.C. United Joshua Gros 56 New England Felix Brillant 60 MetroStars Jeff Parke MLS p40 -> graduated 2 Columbus Chad Marshall 8 New England Clint Dempsey MLS p40 1 D.C. United Freddy Adu 5 San Jose Ryan Cochrane 6 Dallas Ramon Nuñez (JI) 7 Dallas Clarence Goodson 10 San Jose Steve Cronin (traded to LA) 13 Los Angeles Josh Gardner 14 Los Angeles Ned Grabavoy 36 MetroStars Michael Bradley MLS full roster->DEV 11 Chicago Leonard Griffin 31 Dallas David Wagenfuhr MLS full->unattached 20 Chicago Sumed Ibrahim MLS full->A-League 16 Colorado Adrian Cann MLS DEV->full roster 29 Dallas Ty Maurin undrafted Troy Perkins (DC) MLS DEV 17 Kansas City Will Hesmer (promoted) 18 MetroStars Seth Stammler 19 Chicago Matt Pickens 21 MetroStars Zach Wells 28 Chicago Khari Stephenson (to KC 04; promoted) 32 Columbus Jamal Sutton 38 Chicago Denny Clanton 42 Columbus Luke Vercollone (to NE 04) 45 Colorado Gary Sullivan (retired) 47 Kansas City Justin Detter 49 Chicago Ian Pilarski (released) 50 San Jose Tighe Dombrowski 57 Los Angeles Chris Aloisi (traded to SJ) 58 New England Andy Dorman undrafted Jordan Cila (COL, RSL in 05) undrafted Michael Erush (COL) a-league->MLS DEV: 53 Los Angeles Alan Gordon undrafted Brian Roberts (KC) undrafted Perek Belleh (GC to NE) a-league: 22 Los Angeles Guillermo Arzate 27 San Jose Mike Wilson 37 Kansas City Jay Alberts (returns 05 trial) 39 Chicago Phil Hucles (injured before signed) 40 San Jose Marin Pusek 43 Los Angeles Jason Perry 54 Dallas Edwin Miranda 59 Chicago Tony McManus PSL 30 San Jose Lindon Pecorelli (returns 05 trial) PDL 25 Colorado Kevin Taylor 55 Colorado John Pulido (returns 05 trial) Europe: 15 Colorado Adolfo Gregorio 23 New England Jeremiah White (2 clubs, now unattached) 26 MetroStars Olivier Occean 33 Los Angeles David McGill 35 Colorado Kevin Richards (no club found?, ?trial in 05) 46 MetroStars Johnny David non-soccer: 41 Columbus Adom Crew (? graduate school) 44 D.C. United Kevin Hudson (? job with PriceWaterhouseCoopers) unknown: 48 Kansas City Ryan Barber 51 Chicago Ryan McGowan 52 Columbus Matt Haefner