I was watching the U-20 World Cup qualifiers and something suddenly struck me that hasn't really been broached on this board yet.... Assuming MLS starts next season in March (to accomodate the month long layoff for the Confederations Cup and the Gold Cup), United will be missing Justin Mapp, Bobby Convey and Santino Quaranta for basically the first month of the season and possibly longer based on how the USA does in the U-20 World Cup in the Middle East (UAE)... A couple of things could happen in the next few months based on this information.. 1) Both Moreno and Etcheverry could very well remain with the team considering the long absences of the youth trio.. Albeit the Bolivians will probably have to accept pay cuts to remain with the team.. If neither are willing to accept those terms, we will be without basically our entire attacking force for a month to open the MLS season.. Considering our scoring woes for most of the season, this doesn't bode well for us at the moment.. 2) the likelyhood of the trio missing games will in more likelyhood cause Hudson to bring in experienced players instead of going with youth in the draft.. A trade of the #1 pick for a solid MLS veteran is now probably the way Hudson will go (especially if United drafts a player like Ricardo Clark, Ryan Cochrane or Knox Cameron - who of course will be on the U-20 team as well, which would mean we would miss their services as well)... I've always maintained that Hudson would rather go with mediocre experienced talent rather than suffer through the growing process of any youth players (just ask Justin Mapp, who didn't get a sniff all season long but was arguably one of the best midfielders to play in qualifying, certainly the most dynamic offensively)... 3) Hudson will probably have no choice but to bring in some European or South American players considering the trio could be missing a lot of games... This entire thread could be a moot point if MLS does the smart thing and consider the U-20 championships and starts the season just as the tournament is ending.. Anyone know the exact date of the tournament?
Its great that the U-20's qualified, but a thought has occured to me. The tournament starts in March, considering current events there is a good chance that will be shortly after or even during a war in Iraq. Add to that the ability to find a terrorist under just about any rock you pick up in the region and the Israeli/Arab situation starting to come to a boil, I wonder if it is fool-hardy to send a team of young Americans to the Persian Gulf at that time. Personally I think the tournament should be postponed or moved to a more secure location in Asia or the Americas.
if mls decides to start in april, i think i would go insane, i miss it already and its only what, one month gone...
Grumpydcu's point is well taken. In fact, it's been much discussed on the Juniors board in the past. I tend to agree with Grumpy. While I would truly hate to see the US pull out of the competition, it's location doesn't inspire confidence and I do not think it's very safe. Luckily, these sorts of events just haven't had much appeal to terrorists in the past, and since even professional soccer is so low profile in the US, the shock value would be about the same as blowing up a school bus of boy scouts, and the security will make it a much tougher target. While I don't think there's much of a chance of something bad happening ... I just cannot bear the slightest prospect of being wrong about it. I don't like it being held there one bit. -Tron
As for Hudson's plans, yes, the coaching staff is quite aware of the tournament and our triumverate (and was aware of Eliseo's prospects as well) missing much time with United. I understand that this in fact was a consideration when choosing to not give Convey the sole keys to midfield for next season. With guys like Eliseo and Alegria, United feels it has cover for Convey while he's gone, but still intends to have a primary playmaker in either Etch or an acquisition (i.e. LaPaglia, Kucharski, etc.). The team is pursuing Dante Washington, but nothing is settled on that front and United is also continuing to search for finishers. This is in addition to Santino, but who would have the primary role while Santino is gone. As for the draft, I still don't think Knox Cameron will be the top overall pick. Don't get me wrong, he has some technical skill and a ton of size and speed, but he's just too raw to contribute for a while. He knows this as well, and the rumor is that he's probably not going to come out this year. Ricardo Clark is going to be an excellent player, I just hope it's in MLS. That said, I doubt Ray holds onto the top overall pick to select a collegiate 20 year old central midfielder. It just doesn't sound like him to me. Ryan Cochrane, while an excellent choice, isn't likely to be the overall first selection. I'd love to be able to get him with the top pick in the 2nd round though, and if lots of the prospects come out, we might be able to get him there. He'll likely be selected behind Ricky Lewis and David Stokes among defenders and behind Alecko Eskandarian, Diego Walsh and Guillermo Gonzalez among attackers. Then there are a lot of X-factors like Ricardo Clark, Mike Tranchilla, Pat Noonan, Nate Jaqua and a host of others who might come out and could possibly be selected ahead of Cochrane. But we'll have to wait and see how it plays out. In any event, I do not think the U-20 World Youth Championship forces Hudson's hand toward trading draft picks for established talent. On the contrary. I think P-40's will go quickly, and they provide Salary Cap space to get quality Allocation and Discovery picks, which Hudson intends to use. We seem to be in agreement that United will probably secure only one or none instant offensive options via the draft, and that we're not going to trade second round picks for established scorers with low salary cap numbers. The draft picks probably aren't going to start on our defense either. So, the picks are going to be depth and future prospects. Why trade these picks for someone like Bobby Rhine or an injury-prone player? If Hudson keeps the picks and selects consensus good players he'll be glad he did. If he's going to trade the picks, he should wait until after the pre-draft camp so that he gets good value for them. -Tron