They could have traded the pick; they even took a timeout - possibly to discuss potential trades. But in the end, Ben Olsen and D.C. United exercised their 17th pick in the 2013 MLS SuperDraft and selected product Taylor Kemp of the College Cup semifinalist Maryland Terrapins.
Many pundits nailed this in their mock draft, but probably not for the reason they thought at the time.
D.C. United is firmly in the "take the best available player" camp when it comes to drafting college players. The thought process is pretty straightforward: Having too many good players at a given position is a "problem," not an actual problem. If United ends up with too many good players at a position, there's almost always going to be another MLS team in need of a guy.
The New England Revolution have four picks in Thursday's MLS SuperDraft, including the coveted number-one pick. Stick to this stream for news and analysis of all of the Revs' picks, trades, and miscellaneous decisions during the Draft.
Thursday is almost here, and the New England Revolution are set to be one of the most active clubs in the MLS SuperDraft, holding the 4th, 21st, 23rd, and 36th picks in the two-round draft.
INDIANAPOLIS The 2013 MLS Draft is a day away and teams all over the league are working the phones to try and secure the right trade to potentially move up or down the draft order in search of the right player to boost their roster.
Rumors are flying about nearly every pick at the top of the first round, with only Chivas USA's selection of Carlos Alvarez with the No.
We all knew that trading picks was a possibility this week, especially with the New England Revolution holding a commodity like the fourth pick. A high draft pick is always an attractive bargaining chip. Really, though, if anyone would have been willing to put money down that the Revs would not only deal their first-round pick, but deal it to Toronto for the number one pick in the draft, surely most Revs fans would have called them crazy.
Mock away! The MLS SuperDraft is upon us! It used to just be the MLS Draft but then it flew around the world really fast and turned back time to save its girlfriend from an earthquake (Not Frank Yallop) and then people started calling it SuperDraft. Okay? 　 One of the favourite pastimes for North American football writers is to try and attempt a series of mock drafts.
The 2013 MLS Draft is now less than a week away, and while the MLS Combine could do a lot to impact the ranking of some players, MLS teams have a pretty good sense of which players they like and which positions they think they can address at the draft.
Plenty could, and will change in the eyes of scouts over the course of the next five days at the Combine, but if you were wondering how the MLS Draft would play out without the Combine, we will offer you a glimpse of what that might look like.
The 2013 MLS Draft is officially just a month away, and teams all across Major League Soccer are preparing their draft boards and doing their final scouting ahead of the MLS Combine and draft.
The draft class is beginning to take shape as the Generation adidas class comes into focus.
Another link from a story I did for FC Dallas this week. And yes, another mock draft. Here are a
few names that I could see the red stripes selecting tomorrow with their lone pick. Let's see if I
get one of these right this year though with this news, the club could be looking at someone
else.
SB Nation Soccer held its second annual live MLS Mock SuperDraft Sunday night, with the results
being published online Monday. The first round was a flurry of action, despite blog managers not
being allowed to trade picks, or players, during the mock event. Drafting for the Philadelphia
Union, I selected Enzo Martinez, Aaron Maund and Hunter Jumper with the Union's three picks in the
two rounds of the mock SuperDraft.
Oh SuperDraft Eve. You have to love the excitement surrounding a draft.
So many things can happen though between now and tomorrow afternoon. Teams will be wheeling and
dealing all night in hopes of either moving up in the draft, finding some decent talent outside the
draft in a trade, or just hoping that the one special player you've had your eye on since December
is still available.
For those fanatics among you interested in getting a glimpse at MLS' stars and busts of tomorrow,
MLSS is offering some vids of the combine here from its three dates, the last of which was today.
It comes on the heels of their official mock draft, which we can throw into the ring with the host
of others popping up around the innernets in recent days.
2012 SB Nation MLS Mock SuperDraft: Bloggers Play GM For A Day
The real Major League Soccer SuperDraft will be held on Jan. 12. If past form is any indicator,
there will be more than a few surprises. Of course, that won't stop just about every outlet with
any kind of interest in MLS from doing their own mock draft.
It is the week of the MLS Combine, which means it is time for one final mock draft before things
get real interesting here.
I debated long and hard over the New Year weekend on whether or not to post this before the
Combine or wait for the Combine to take place. What I decided to do was just to post this now and
then have one final mock draft after the Combine.
The MLS Draft is less than two weeks away, and the MLS Combine is now less than a week away,
meaning it's getting close to time for clubs to start figuring out what needs they want to address
and which players they plan to target when the draft kicks off in Kansas City.
There is still plenty we don't know about how the draft will shape up.
Tim Ream's giveaway to Danny Mwanga that resulted in the Roger Torres game winning goal when New
York played the Union at PPL in April has been named the Gaffe of the Year by MLSsoccer.com. Yeah,
it was pretty gaffable.
An AP report at ESPN begins, "Major League Soccer player Freddy Adu will train with Rayo
Vallecano and may join the Spanish club.
The time is here. One of my favorite things to do each year as most of you know is talk about
the SuperDraft and even do a couple mock drafts to get ready for it next month. Hard to believe but
we are less than a month out of the draft in Kansas City.
This draft will be interesting, that much is already certain with top names like Darren Mattocks
and Billy Schuler attacking attention from clubs overseas.
A new article from Kerith Gabriel on Friday morning about a Gabriel Gomez to the Philadelphia
Union deal is headlined "Panama's Gomez signs with Union" but the copy says "According to sources,
the contract has been approved by Major League Soccer and awaits Gomez' signature before the Union
can schedule an announcement, which can come as early as next week.
It's still early but the draft boards are heating up. (Getty Images)
For the last few months I've been working on a list of players that could be available for next
month's 2012 MLS SuperDraft. Naturally a lot can and will happen between today's post and the
draft. Players could stay in school, go elsewhere in the soccer world or just decide to hang their
boots up for good.
Thursday is almost here, and the New England Revolution are set to be one of the most active clubs in the MLS SuperDraft, holding the 4th, 21st, 23rd, and 36th picks in the two-round draft. In preparation for the big event in Indianapolis, the blog managers and writers here at SB Nation MLS got together and held a mock draft, running through all 38 picks for each team.
There are a lot of names floating around out there connected with the Chicago Fire, and arguments can be made for or against every one of them. Thanks to teh Wells Thompson trade, the Fire will only have one pick in this year's MLS SuperDraft (11th overall), so they are going to need to make it count.
The 2012 MLS SuperDraft will start today at 11:00 AM CST. There have been rumors of trades
taking place but so far every team has stayed pat. If you have missed some of our pre-draft
coverage, be sure to check out how teams have fared in the Eastern Conference and Western
Conference between 2008-2011.
Somehow, it works out so I am off during the MLS SuperDraft 2012, and thus I've taken on the
responsibility of live-blogging the first (and maybe) second round. It's being aired on ESPN2, TSN2
and RDS2 at 11AM CST. That means there are about 3 hours remaining until the Montreal L'Impact --
barring any trades or moves, are on the clock for the 1st overall selection in the 2012 MLS
SuperDraft.
Their Words "I think from playing at the combine to have that week and know how you play, whatever
happens after the that is going to determine the rest of your future.... You realize that this is
your opportunity to do what you love and play the sport you've enjoyed since you were a kid."
Chicago Fire goalkeeper Sean Johnson.
Bye bye Timmy?Good morning! With MLS preseason training beginning in just three weeks and
the MLS Combine complete, there should be a lot of player movement and a ton of new signings
announced in the coming days. The 2012 MLS SuperDraft kicks off tomorrow, and though the New York
Red Bulls only have one selection (the 31st overall pick in round two), it's not inconceivable that
we could see a trade or two happen while the general managers and coaches are assembled in Kansas
City.
Today the SB Nation MLS blog network conducted a mock version of the 2012 MLS SuperDraft. The
advantage to doing this is that team bloggers should know their own teams better than a national
writer. The disadvantage is that most of us don't follow the national collegiate scene in ways that
a real experts like Maureci, Clark and Eskilson can.
Duke standout Andrew Wenger and Stanford senior Teresa Noyola were named winners of the Hermann
Trophy on Saturday in recognition of being the top players in Division I NCAA soccer.
Wenger, who signed a Generation Adidas contract after a stellar junior year at Duke, led the ACC
with 17 goals and eight assists.
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.
There is so much that can change the draft and the way that teams select that it's really hard to
look at KC's first round pick, the 16th overall, let alone the rest of KC's draft. So we're going
to just look at the 16th draft pick at this point and go through the rest of the picks as they come
up during the draft.
Kelyn Rowe signs his MLS deal. (Photo via UCLA athletics)
The 2012 Generation adidas class is a little more than half way there. Before Christmas we had
Darren Mattocks (Akron), Chandler Hoffman (UCLA), Andrew Wenger (Duke) and Sam Garza (UCSB) sign
their GA deals with the league. It appears one more can be added to that list in the form of UCLA
midfielder Kelyn Rowe.
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.
We'll have updates of today's SuperDraft throughout the day as well as reaction to the Union's
selection. On to the news...
Philadelphia Union
Ives Galarcep's mock draft at Fox Soccer has this to say: "The Union are believed to be shopping
forward Danny Mwanga, and even with the recent addition of young Costa Rican forward Josue
Martinez, Philadelphia can use some depth up top.
With the 2012 MLS Draft now less than a month away, I have unveiled my first Fox Soccer 2012 MLS
Mock Draft in an attempt to give people a sense of how things just might shake out when teams start
making their selections in Kansas City four weeks from now.
The 2012 SuperDraft has been criticized as being a weak draft, but the positions that the
Brotherly Game feels the Philadelphia Union should target have plenty of options from which to
choose. Left back is one of the few positions that this SuperDraft has enough depth to wait until
the second round to take a player, but it also has a few intriguing first round prospects.
So you guys all saw how I picked in SB Nation's mock SuperDraft. If you didn't then, well, I
chose GA cetnral defenders Andrew Jean-Baptiste for my 8th pick and then Aldo Paniagua for my 27th.
Why? Well you can read all about it right over here!
In any case, what probably isn't as well known about the mock draft is that we aren't allowed to
trade picks for anything.
First, some assorted draft links. Find out where Eriq Zavaleta was mocked to in SI's mock draft. Considering the connection between Zavaleta and Sigi Schmid, perhaps this pick should have been expected. In he end, the players being picked are young athletes, and there are no sure things. Seattle-native and former first-overall pick Nik Besagno is a testament.
The biggest qualifier in a mock draft is that these are best guesses about how a team will pick. With the Seattle Sounders FC having such a low draft pick, again, and demonstrating a willingness to develop players rather than pick for need the SB Nation MLS Mock Draft saw Eric Hurtado and Machael David fall to slots where the Sounders could conceivably pick them in real life.
Although many see the MLS draft particularly as a very hit or miss affair, the Fire have always done a great job of drafting players that end up being major contributors to the team. The list is really a who's who of Fire teams, both past and present. Carlos Bocanegra (2000), Damani Ralph (2003), Logan Pause (2003), Chris Rolfe (2005), Sega (2005), Bakary Soumare (2007), Patrick Nyarko (2008), Sean Johnson (2010), Jalil Anibaba (2011), and Austin Berry (2012) is a pretty star studded lineup to have as a draft history.
MLS teams gather in Kansas City to draft from their selection of college seniors, Generation
Adidas players and a few pre-signed internationals. You can watch live on ESPN2/3 or
MLSSoccer.com at 9 AM or just follow along here. MLSSoccer.com's final mock draft (their
third) has Puget Sound native Kelyn Rowe going as high as third or as low as
14th.
