We have been so busy discussing signing Frankie... that I have not seen very much about the draft as a whole. The few folks in the media who have written about the draft seem to think rather poorly of the Crew's draft day. I saw a grade of C given and also we were ranked 7th out of the 10 teams. Walsh seems to be a decent pick for the Crew and getting Akwari seems like a positive move, as well. What I wonder about are the later picks: did we waste them or did we find a few diamonds in the rough? Michael Ritch? Guy Abrahamson? Jake Traeger?
Very unlikely. As for the draft, go over to MLSnet and look over last year's Superdraft, and then look at 2001 and 2000. Even in the first round, you'll see very few guys who've made an impact. Just not that much out there. The only real way to evaluate a team's personnel progress is to view it overall, not just the draft. A in one year, Crew has dropped Dougherty, Yeagley, Lapper, Harkes and Perez and added Busch, Martino, Garcia, Leitch, Gonzalez, Walsh, Akwari and apparently Hejduk. Taken as a whole, nobody can say we're not doing very, very well.
I wasn't looking at the off-season moves... I was meerly looking at the draft. And obviously, it is not an total indication of who did the best this off-season. I was just wondering with the expanded development roster if the guys we picked were worth it or if the Crew should look in other directions.
The Crew's top draft pick was puzzling, but not bad. Diego Walsh is going to be a fine midfielder in MLS, but he's primarily an attacking midfielder. He is 6'0 with lots of dribbling and passing skills. With Kyle Martino on board, he'll likely not displace him. Walsh doesn't have the speed to play the flanks for Andrulis. So, I can only imagine 3 ways that he gets time for the Crew: 1) The Crew play a box midfield with two attacking players where Walsh and Martino pair as the attacking midfielders, 2) Walsh backs up Martino, or 3) Andrulis attempts to convert Walsh into a Dmid. While he has some defensive skills, he's never going to be a good defensive midfielder IMHO. If Andrulis wants max offense all the time, this would work for him, but make no mistakes, it will cost the Crew goals defensively. But man, would it be fun to watch! The best picks in the draft for the Crew were Ricardo Clark, David Stokes and Shavar Thomas, as any of those three would have provided dynamite defending from day 1. Shavar Thomas, possibly the best and most versatile of the back line prospects, fell to the Crew and they didn't select him. That shocked almost everyone. He is already a vital member of the Jamaican National Team, and as their games against the US show, their defenders are pretty good. He would have been a young T-Bone type of player. While Clark was no doubt a good pick at that spot, Shavar would have been equally as skilled and far more fitted to the Crew. Guy Abrahamson was a good pick so low, but it is questionable whether he'll make the roster. Their draft hinged on Walsh and Akwari. While Akwari has done well at the USYNT level, he's never been someone who I thought would be a great pro. The best case scenario is he could develop into a Carlos Llamosa, but the realistic expectations are far below that. He clearly isn't as good as David Stokes or Shavar Thomas. -Tron
Actually I don't think Akwari will become as good as Steve Jolley, but he's not a bad prospect. It seems all the more odd considering the Crew already have both Dunseth and McCarty, and Akwari isn't substantially better player or prospect than either. Frankly, I'd say he's behind both as a player currently, but he probably has a little more versatility. -Tron
Dunseth and McCarty are considerably more experienced and physically and mentally more mature. I don't think the experience Akwari has had will hurt him and he'll get a chance to develop his skills and sophistication. Clark, Dunseth, McCarty, Denton and the rest should give him some leadership. I hope Lapper is still around to help coach the D. I always thought he played a very heady game and survived after losing his wheels by taking the right angles and positioning. It should be interesting.