Leo Gibson #14 of the Comets about to score another goal on his way to a record breaking night In this episode: In this first segment we discuss: MLS partnership with USL GOLD Cup qualifier locations Ivy Funds jersey sponsorship Kei Kamara receiving interest from Norwich The MLS draft and Sporting KC drafting Mikey Lopez The MLS supplemental draft and SKC drafting Chris Duke and 3
FC Kansas City's Lauren Cheney (#12) being tackled by FC Kansas City's Lauren Sesselmann (#16) In this episode we discuss: The SKC - LIVESTRONG divorce The MLS All Star Game announcement The MLS draft SKC Jersey sponsor Espinonoza, Cesar and Kempin news FC Kansas City's allocated players The NWSL draft The Missouri Comets and more.
Teams searching for talent in the 2012 MLS Draft found quite a few quality gems. Several players who were able to step right in and make smooth transitions from college to the pros.
Some high draft picks lived up to their draft hype, like Darren Mattocks and Luis Silva, while some other rookies emerged to surprise and impress, like Connor Lade and Ray Gaddis.
Just some ramblings tonight. On Monday night I was flipping the remote when I stumbled across
the MLB First Year Player Draft on the MLB Network. I'm certainly not a frequent viewer of the
station, but as a Mets fan (and yes the Santana no-hitter was an enormous moment in my personal
sports history), I happened to catch the portion of the broadcast leading up to the Mets' first
pick and I was struck by the low quality of the telecast.
When Andrew Wenger was selected with the first pick in the 2012 MLS Draft, the biggest question
about him was what was his best position.
A standout defender, midfielder and forward at Duke, Wenger made a good case for being able to
score goals in the pros when he delivered a classy finish on what wound up being the game-winning
goal in Montreal's 2-1 victory against TFC on Saturday.
Toronto FC rookie Luis Silva drew raves heading into the 2012 MLS Draft, and is beginning to
show why as he establishes himself as a real threat for TFC, which posted a 5-1 victory against
South Florida in pre-season MLS action.
The dynamic playmaker found himself on the score sheet early in the fifth minute as he slotted
home a 1-on-1 opportunity with the USF keeper to make it 1-0.
U.S. Under-23 national team defender Gale Agbossoumonde has endured a rough road in his quest
for regular playing time since turning pro two years ago. With a recent stint at Eintracht
Frankfurt failing to deliver him playing time, Agbossoumonde looked poised for a move to Major
League Soccer.
Yay, another day, another MLS draft. Today should be the last one for a while (that is unless
there is a lottery taking place which could very well happen here soon too). The MLS SuperDraft was
cut a round for the second straight season and because of that the Supplemental Draft's first round
will still feel like the SuperDraft's third round to some.
This Friday the Portland Timbers will officially convene back here in Portland to begin their
training for the 2012 season. With the SuperDraft behind us and a few weeks left open in the
international transfer window there's a lot expected to go on, but the beginning of the training is
probably the most exciting for the simple fact that it means.
The 19 blogs that individually cover each Major League Soccer team on the SB Nation network came
together on Sunday to conduct the annual mock MLS Draft. It's a very imperfect science as no one
has the long term plan of any front office at their disposal. We don't know if a big striker
signing is in the works so a team will pass on a talented ready to start forward and go defense
surprising everyone.
Galaxy GM and Coach Bruce Arena gave a handful of reporters an update this afternoon ahead of
Thursday's MLS draft (9 a.m. live on ESPN2). First, let's talk roster since that's likely to have
more of a bearing on the coming season: *Robbie Keane's pending loan to Aston Villa is
The MLS Combine got under way on Friday with hopeful MLS draftees descending on the Fort
Lauderdale areas to showcase their wares in front MLS coaches, executives and more. MLS' official
website has really ramped up the coverage of the pre-draft events, including live streaming of all
of the combine matches and video features.
The MLS Generation adidas class will feature nine players after the league secured the signings
of three players on Wednesday night.
South Florida striker Dom Dwyer, Creighton fullback Tyler Polak and UConn central defender
Andrew Jean-Baptiste were all signed to Generation adidas contracts after being made offers on
Tuesday.
The Portland Timbers off season looks to be in full swing as they announced another trade just as rumors of Eric Brunner to Houston surface. Michael Harrington was the number 3 overall pick in the 2007 MLS Draft and started almost every game since that time. Once Chance Myers grabbed the starting spot at Sporting Kansas City Harrington become a bench warmer.
CARSON, Calif. -- The result did not go according to plan in Danny Mwanga's
debut for the Portland Timbers, but the flashy forward had plenty to be pleased about in his first
match for his hometown club.
Interestingish article here on the Portland Timbers website. (yes, this is Rich, but I like
American things, too).
So while recent history suggests the Number 8 [pick in the MLS draft] has produced some
promising young players, perhaps the most famous MLS Number 8's of all time was the New England
Revolution's Number 8 selection in 2004: Clint Dempsey.
Finally! We started publishing the odds over a month ago and since then the same roster of 10
playoff teams have been favored to make the playoffs, and by a pretty good margin. In the first
edition I pointed out that the best chance at a shakeup was Columbus displacing Chicago.
The 2012 Men's College soccer season is ready to kick off tonight around the country and the
best teams and players in America will give soccer fans plenty of added entertainment to go along
with their usual pro soccer fix.
Defending champion North Carolina is back, and despite all the new faces, the Tar Heels should
be in contention again.
It's that time again. Time to talk all things soccer in the first SBI Live Q&A of 2012.
We have plenty to talk about today, from the MLS Draft, to the U.S. national team camp and
upcoming friendlies, to the U.S. Under-23 training camp and upcoming Olympic qualifiers.
The 2012 MLS Draft is set to kick off in a few hours as teams from across the league look to add
those missing pieces to the puzzle.
The 2012 draft class is a strong one, with depth at a variety of positions, such as centerback
and attacking midfielder. There are quality prospects available that have teams trying to trade up
into the top four, where the likes of Luis Silva, Kelyn Rowe, Enzo Martinez and Sam Garza have
drawn considerable interest.
Rookie Vancouver Whitecaps striker Darren Mattocks came into the league with high-expectations
as a speed goal-scoring threat and on Sunday he showed just what all the hype was about.
The No. 2 pick in January's MLS Draft torched the Dynamo defense to the tune of two goals as the
Whitecaps posted a 3-1 victory at BC Place.
The Montreal Impact will make the first draft pick of their MLS history today as the league's
19th team kicks off today's 2012 MLS Mock Draft.
The Impact are expected to pick between Darren Mattocks and Andrew Wenger as the top pick in
this year's draft, with Mattocks expected to be the selection.
The forward class in the 2012 MLS Combine is an intriguing one, as teams try to figure out who
the top strikers will be on the board once Akron star Darren Mattocks is taken, as expected, with
the first or second pick in the draft.
Three of the most likely candidates to go early from the forward pool are UCLA product Chandler
Hoffman (pictured), Maryland standout Casey Townsend and South Florida star Dom Dwyer.
The 2012 MLS Combine is set to kick off this afternoon in Fort Lauderdale, and SBI will be
providing coverage throughout the next five days, as players look to improve their stock ahead of
the MLS Draft.
The Combine will be live-streamed on MLSSoccer.com, while Fox Soccer and SBI will feature
extensive coverage, including game recaps, player rankings, video interviews and breakdowns of all
the action.
Today was the second MLS draft, there was no ball room in Kansas City for the draft though. The
Supplemental Draft took place on a conference call and took about as long as half the first round
of the SuperDraft. After trading for Michael Thomas' rights, KC only had 4 picks, 1 in the first
and second, and 2 in the third.
The process that brought him in was a little unexpected, but the end result really wasn't. Today,
Sporting KC acquired the rights to former San Jose Earthquakes draft pick, Michael Thomas for a 4th
round Supplemental draft pick, the 73rd overall. The fact that Sporting had to give something to
San Jose for Thomas is the surprising part.
The second MLS draft is coming up tomorrow, the Supplemental Draft is going to take place via
conference call. Sporting KC hold 5 picks in the 4 round draft. KC have the 16th, 35th, 43rd, 54th,
and 73rd picks in the draft tomorrow. KC currently has 27 players on their roster, although some
players will still have to earn contracts, particularly Cyprian Hedrick who has not signed a
contract as yet with the team.
For the 3rd year in a row in the first round of the MLS draft, KC selected a forward. This year KC
selected Generation Adidas forward from South Florida, Dom Dwyer. The native of Lonodon, England is
smaller than KC's last two forward, Dwyer is 5'9", but another good addition to the team. Will have
more, including quotes, later tonight.
When people look back at the 2012 MLS Draft, they will surely look at it as the first draft that
didn't feature a multitude of trades. What they might wind up really recalling of the draft,
however, is the amount of solid MLS talent that was available.
There were no draft pick trades in this year's draft, but teams still came away with some good
talent throughout the league after picking from one of the deeper draft classes in recent
memory.
The 2012 MLS Combine kicks off today in Fort Lauderdale as the nation's top college talent (and
seven random international players) look to impress MLS coaches and boost their stock ahead of the
2012 MLS Draft.
The MLS website is live-streaming today's matches, but SBI will be providing live commentary on
today's action, so please feel free to follow along here.
The MLS SuperDraft was held on Thursday and broadcast live on ESPN2. After two hours of
televised coverage, the feed switched to ESPN3.com. Adrian Healey manned the desk while Alexi Lalas
and Taylor Twellman handled much of the commentary heavy lifting and despite some hiccups, the
broadcast was generally well done.
Fire fans have certainly had an exciting week already. From the rumored signing of Rafael Robayo
becoming a concrete reality, to the report of Pavel Pardo re-signing with the Fire, there has been
a lot of news, and it's only Wednesday. Well, the news will keep on coming Fire fans, as business
is about to pick up even more with the MLS draft on Thursday.
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. Attleboro (Mass.) native Geoff Cameron knew from a young age that he wanted to
be a professional soccer player.
Growing up just a stone's throw from Foxborough, the young Cameron got all the inspiration and
motivation he needed by watching his hometown Revolution.
Fast forward through high school and a sterling college career with University of Rhode Island
that included an NCAA tournament run and getting named Midfielder of the Year, Cameron found
himself back in his home state on Saturday playing center back for the the defending Eastern
Conference champion Houston Dynamo.
We are still have one international slot open on our roster. I was holding it for Robert
Lewandowski, the great striker of Borussia Dortmund. I offered second-round MLS draft pick and
box of slightly-used practice balls. They responded with demands of €9 million. I tried to
sweeten the deal with Levi Houapeu and three more balls.
The SR boys are back to chat with Chris Heck, Red Bulls President of Business Operations. We
discuss the 2012 home schedule, ticket sales trends, staffing changes, marketing plans, and success
metrics for the season to come. First comes a review of Henry at Arsenal as well as roster
additions in and around the MLS draft.
