And college soccer is doing nothing - NO-THING - to reverse this tide. And the gap between pro and college soccer is only going to grow, which will only force more kids to skip college or turn pro early. At this point, USL is a bigger threat to college soccer is that MLS.
The truth is that the draft has never been that important to MLS. These were the top 10 picks in the 1997: Tahj Jakins, Mike Fisher , Rob Jachym , Alberto Montoya , Brian Kelly , Temoc Suarez , Brian Johnson , Mike Mekelburg . Steve Jolley . Danny Care How does that stellar group from the halcyon years of college soccer compare to the drafts in this decade? Furthermore, just because players like Nick Lima, Ian Harkes and Jordan Morris come into the league via home grown rather than the draft, they are still guys that went through the college system. While many of the top youth players are choosing to go directly into the professional ranks, the combination of education, facilities and competition will still attract a number of quality players just as it does for baseball and hockey. The biggest gap between the college game and pro game has been coaching. It has largely remained where it was when MLS started. I'm sure Sandon can rattle any number of current college coaches that were coaching back when the league started. Back then you had guys like Bruce and Sigi in the college game. Many of these guys still coach a primitive form of the game they once played. Meanwhile you have much higher quality of domestic and foreign kids entering college. For example, The pro game is increasingly middle class world wide. German Bundesliga Academy kids are more likely to be college track than the general population which is why you get guys like Gressel, Herbers and Buscher heading to American colleges.
It's been a farce as previously explained. Actually, much of what MLS is doing is the same. The Homegrown venture isn't much better -- only 74 players in the 2017 season were Homegrown. There's also 44 players from last 3 draft classes who have had double-digit appearances in their MLS career. It's not positive. MLS is also 51+% international. We have a real problem in upward matriculation of soccer talent in the US. No one is doing anything about it.
Is that by player or by minutes played. Do you know if there are stats for the percentage minutes played by internationals?
That's by player. I'm sure there is a minutes played (and/or games played) stat somewhere. The international percentage is even higher now for 2018. https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/major-league-soccer/startseite/wettbewerb/MLS1 -- 319/605 players (52.7%). I would imagine that the minutes played is even higher than that. Homegrown and American talent drafted is so small in percentages that those minutes won't outweigh the international minutes. The minutes/games played would also be an interesting statistic if you looked at it with AND without goalkeepers included.
Adding insult to injury ... http://www.philly.com/soccer/mls-su...hiladelphia-union-fc-cincinnati-20190110.html
While the overall level of college soccer continues to improve, the high end players in the college game are no longer as elite as they were a few years ago simply because so few of the top players play college soccer anymore and most of the ones that do leave after a year or two. This isn't to say there aren't still future pros in college soccer, particularly in the draft. There are. But the gap between college soccer and MLS has increased and we are reaching a point where we will start to see a lot of similarities with hockey and baseball where players taken out of college are expected to spend some time in the lower divisions before they're ready for MLS. As a result, the draft just isn't that important any more. Sure, you can find a role player still and you might get lucky and find a Julian Gressel or Chris Mueller who are ready to play right away. But players like that are fewer and further between than ever.
Let me add to your statements... If you play on a bad team, you're more likely to get minutes, now Gressel is the exception, but Atlanta was just forming their team - and international players are harder to justify for non-expansion teams. Likes to unpack in my statement. Also, with more money being spent on players (via TAM/GAM and SPAM), the depth is being taken by more experienced players and with the advent of USL, getting green cards and then promoting those players - is making it more difficult for college players to get first team minutes in their rookie year. Let alone the HG.
College soccer will be like college baseball, anybody really good will be in majors, anybody who isn’t a student will be in minors, some who could be a student will be swayed by money or desire to take a shot at being a pro. Everybody else plays in college sorted out between the major programs, the rest of D1 and then D2-D3
Anderson Asiedu (UCLA) supposedly is the combine's standout and is still around at 24 for Atlanta who's management claims he topped their board. College 5'6 MF are suspect in MLS no matter how skilled.
Yet there were still about 2,000 people there for the first round of the draft... One of the biggest attended events of the convention.
Jason Davis dropped a stat on his show today. I don't know if I've got it exactly correct, but it was something like only 10 of the first and second round draft picks from the last four drafts were on MLS rosters at the end of the 2018 season.
This is from the first round of the 15-17 MLS drafts. Players in bold are still with the team that drafted them (as of last night, when I did the research) and players in italics are with a different MLS team. 2015 1. ORL – Cyl Larin, F, Connecticut (2) – Sold to Besiktas in Turkey 87 MLS games 2. NYC – Khiry Shelton, F, Oregon State – Just signed with Paderborn in Germany 74 MLS games 3. MTL – Romario Williams, F, Central Florida (3) – Atlanta United 19 MLS games 4. SJ – Fatai Alashe, M, Michigan State – FC Cincinnati 85 MLS games 5. POR – Nick Besler, M, Notre Dame – Real Salt Lake 22 MLS games 6. TOR – Alex Bono, GK, Syracuse – Toronto FC 72 MLS games 7. CHI – Matt Polster, D/M, SIU-Edwardsville – Glasgow Rangers 82 MLS games 8. HOU – Zach Steinberger, M, Butler – USL 3 MLS games 9. TOR – Clementin Simonin, D, NC State – played briefly in the French third division in 2017 2 MLS games 10. KC – Connor Hallisey, M, California – Out of pro soccer 30 MLS games 11. TOR – Skylar Thomas, D, Syracuse – USL in 2018; just signed w/ Valour in Canandian PL 0 MLS games 12. KC – Saad Abdul-Salaam, D, Akron (3) – New York City 68 MLS games 13. VAN – Tim Parker, D, St. John’s – New York Red Bulls 105 MLS games 14. COL – Axel Sjoberg, D, Marquette – Colorado Rapids 81 MLS games 15. DAL – Otis Earle, D, UC Riverside – Out of pro soccer since 2015 0 MLS games 16. SEA - Cristian Roldan, M, Washington (2) – Seattle Sounders 122 MLS games 17. DCU – Miguel Aguilar, M, San Francisco – USL 23 MLS games 18. NYRB – Leo Stolz, Sr. M, UCLA – Last played in USL in 2015 0 MLS games 19. CLB – Sergio Campbell, D, Connecticut – USL in 2017 1 MLS game 20. KC – Amadou Dia, M, Clemson – USL 33 MLS games 21. LAG – Ignacio Maganto, M, Iona – Spanish third division in 2017 13 MLS games 2016 1. NYC - Jack Harrison, M, Wake Forest (1) – Sold to Man City; on-loan to Leeds 56 MLS games 2. PHI – Josh Yaro, D, Georgetown (3) – USL 23 MLS games 3. PHI – Keegan Rosenberry, D, Georgetown – Colorado Rapids 80 MLS game 4. CHI – Brandon Vincent, D, Stanford – RETIRED 85 MLS games 5. RSL – Omar Holness, M, North Carolina (3) – USL in 2018; free agent 18 MLS games 6. PHI – Fabian Herbers, M, Creighton (3) – Chicago Fire 53 MLS games 7. ORL – Richie Layrea, M, Akron (2) – Orlando City 21 MLS games 8. SJ – Andrew Tarbell, GK, Clemson (3) – San Jose Earthquakes 41 MLS games 9. TOR – Tsubasa Endoh, M, Maryland – USL 25 MLS games 10. NE – Jordan McCrary, D, North Carolina – Seattle Sounders 15 MLS games 11. DCU – Julian Buscher, M, Syracuse (2) – USL in 2018; free agent 27 MLS games 12. CHI – Jonathan Campbell, D, North Carolina – Seattle Sounders 72 MLS games 13. ORL – Hardji Barry, F, Central Florida – USL in 2018; just signed in Israel 11 MLS games 14. MTL – Kyle Fisher, D, Clemson – Free Agent 22 MLS games 15. COL – Emmanuel Appiah, F, Cincinnati – USL in 2018 1 MLS game 16. VAN – Cole Seiler, D, Georgetown – USL 2 MLS games 17. DAL – Ryan Herman, GK, Washington – NPSL (after NASL folded) 0 MLS games 18. NYRB – Justin Bilyeu, D, SIU-Edwardsville – USL 4 MLS games 19. CLB – Rodrigo Saravia, M, Florida Gulf Coast – Communicaciones in Guatemala 10 MLS games 20. POR – Ben Polk, F, Syracuse (3) – USL in 2017, out of pro soccer since 0 MLS games 2017 1.MIN – Abu Danladi, F, UCLA (3) – Minnesota United 43 MLS games 2. ATL – Miles Robinson, D, Syracuse (2) – Atlanta United 10 MLS games 3. NYC – Jonathan Lewis, F, Akron (1) – New York City 25 MLS games 4. POR – Jeremy Ebobisse, F, Duke (2) – Portland Timbers 23 MLS games 5. CLB – Lalas Abubakar, D, Dayton – Columbus Crew 30 MLS games 6. SJ – Jackson Yueill, M, UCLA (2) – San Jose Earthquakes 34 MLS games 7. VAN – Jake Nerwinski, D, Connecticut – Vancouver Whitecaps 45 MLS games 8. ATL – Julian Gressel, M, Providence – Atlanta Unite 65 MLS games 9. CLB – Niko Hansen, M, New Mexico – Columbus Crew 36 MLS games 10. HOU – Joe Holland, M, Hofstra – USL 5 MLS games 11. CHI – Daniel Johnson, M, Louisville – Free agent 15 MLS games 12. DCU – Chris Odoi-Atsem, D, Maryland – DC United 10 MLS games 13. RSL – Reagan Dunk, D, Denver – Free Agent 3 MLS games 14. KC – Colton Storm, D, North Carolina – Sporting Kansas City 0 MLS games 15. COL – Sam Hamilton, D, Denver – USL 3 MLS games 16. NYC – Kwame Awuah, M, Connecticut – Free Agent 10 MLS games 17. NYRB – Zeiko Lewis, M, Boston College – Playing in Iceland 0 MLS games 18. DAL – Jacori Hayes, M, Wake Forest – FC Dallas 19 MLS games 19. MTL – Nick DePuy, F, UC Santa Barbara – Free Agent 5 MLS games 20. NE – Brian Wright, F, Vermont – New England Revolution 12 MLS games 21. TOR – Brandon Aubrey, D, Notre Dame – USL 0 MLS games 22. SEA – Brian Nana-Sinkam, D, Stanford – USL in 2017 0 MLS games
Excellent work as always Sandon. That said, I'd be interested in to see an examination of players brought in through other avenues as well. For examples, how many homegrown players signed those years are still with their teams? How many international signings brought are still with their teams? Etc. Could be similar results? MLS roster turnover is like playing musical chairs.
so 27 out of 63 of the first round picks. maybe davis' stat was 10 per year? i wonder how much worse the second round picks fared.
I miss the old KC Cauldron at Arrowhead. What do we want? BJ! When do we want it? Now!!! KC's supersub. Three certainties in Gansler's Wizards - death, taxes, and Brian Johnson entering after the 60th minute.
You are right. But do you think the NCAA will ever do anything against it? The NCAA should look into a full year schedule. There is no time for development in College. Its a shame. Because you could have such a great player pool from the colleges.