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Philadelphia wins Agorsor lottery

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Chris Agorsor got his wish. He will embark on his professional career in Philadelphia.

The Union won the weighted lottery to Agorsor's rights Monday afternoon, competing against only the expansion Portland Timbers and Vancouver Whitecaps with the odds in its favor. The Union had a 96.3 percent chance to win. The other 13 lottery-eligible teams opted out of the chance to acquire a once-promising United States youth prospect.

Agorsor, the 2007-2008 Gatorade National High School Player of the Year and a former United States Under-18 striker, was a highly touted recruit at the University of Virginia until a severe knee injury derailed his path to stardom before it could really get going. He had trained with the Union during the 2011 preseason and reportedly hoped to wind up with the club all along.

Philadelphia, San Jose (winner of the David Bingham lottery) and Real Salt Lake (Cody Arnoux) are all prohibited from Tuesday's lottery for U.S. U-20 right back Korey Veeder and any other future player lotteries this season.

Do you think Philadelphia is a good fit for Agorsor? How do you see him fitting into the team this season?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. You do realize that RSL got Arnoux with like a 5% chance of doing so. Just because Philly played their cards right on this one and got a kid that wants to be there doesn’t mean its all fixed. The moon landing was staged too right guys?

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  2. Because they’ve already been handed a lot of stuff to get started with. 1st pick in the amateur drafts. An expansion draft to gut other rosters, additional allocation money, etc.

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  3. I think that the majority of teams didn’t participate because they would rather take their chances on Veeder…. get into this lottery for a kid with a lengthy injury history and your percentage for the Veeder lottery is ZERO because you are ineligible….. either that or cause Nowak gave called everyone and made them an offer they couldn’t refuse……

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  4. I know “pro-corruption” is hardly ever a sensible stance, but as with the Bingham thing, I’m going to say who cares even if it was fixed? Even if other teams participated and the Union only had a .01% chance, I’m fine with him going to the team he wanted, especially when it’s the team he trained with.

    These guys are not spoiled brats. Nagbe didn’t want to be drafted by Vancouver because of immigration issues, so they took Salgado. Bingham wanted to finish his college degree at Cal and now he can because he’s in San Jose. Agorsor’s career had pretty much been derailed, and now he gets to restart it where he already trained and is comfortable.

    The MLS pays pocket change and these kids have to deal with issues like parents wanting them to finish college. And many of these kids are economically worth closer to $0 than to whatever Eli Manning was worth when he refused to play for the Chargers (for no valid reason).

    But if it’s a sham why keep the system? Because one day MLS will be a big deal and these kids will be worth tens of millions instead of $65k, and then it will matter. Until then, relax.

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  5. As I understand, it’s based on your record a year back from the lottery. Vancouver and Portland had no record so if all teams had been entered, they probably had the same chance as say…Colorado.

    I don’t see a fix in here. A long time ago (like…the Gus Kartes days), teams would enter the lottery even though they had no interest in the player…they were just hoping to extort a draft pick or some money. Okay, in time that will become legit as a way of doing business. But right now, despite the growth of our youth programs, US soccer does not have talent to waste.

    Case in point: Danny Szetela. Okay, maybe he always would have been a bust. But Columbus got him and held out for an extortion from NY, who eventually passed. The reality with young players is that the wrong environment can result in a young talent flaming out.

    As for those arguing that a “fix” is in, that’s just laughable. Let me give you a far more plausible scenario: FIFA U17 World Cup ….in Mexico (Monterrey actually)…in June/July….2011. Does anyone happen to think that just maybe, possibly, unbelievably….a few players from that tournament just might be willing to sign with MLS and suddenly be available by lottery? I”m going to be shocked if there aren’t at least 2-3 US players who sign with MLS after that tournament. What about a Canadian or maybe someone from Central America or even Mexico? Bottom line is: this was a player who had trained with Philly and Nowak is big on loyality and “his” players. Vancouver and Portland are both incredibly thin right now and need bodies. Everyone else looked at this and probably thought “much better talent coming in with just a little bit of patience.”

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  6. Reverse finishing order of last year. But then almost every team opted out, so Philly’s chances soared. The expansion teams have the worst odds to win any lottery this year because they don’t have results from last year.

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  7. Just found out about the 96.3 percent odds so you could make the argument that this wasn’t fixed. But how do they come up with these odds?

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  8. Philly tried to sign him and the MLS said no…they had offered him a gen adidas contract, so he had to go through the lottery.

    I assume all 13 teams have mostly full rosters at this point. That, the injury risk, and the fact that most teams have not seen him play in the past 3 years were enough to scare most teams off.

    There is a very good Agorsor article on Potomac Soccer Wire today.

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  9. The other teams just simply decided to wait to see if better prospects were to become available down the road if none come up then that’s their loss

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  10. And Agorsor wanted to play for Philadelphia, so magically, against the odds, they win his rights!

    Oh wait, Philadelphia had a 96.3% chance of winning? Nevermind!

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  11. MLS makes me laugh. What a scam this lottery thing is. Bingham pretty much wanted to play for the Quakes since he goes to school in Berkley and magically, against the odds, they win his rights. Gotta love it.

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  12. I don’t know what the odds were but just like the other lotteries, Portland and Vancouver probably had a very very low chance of getting him (even with only 3 teams) so Philly getting him is no conspiracy.

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  13. Agreed. Why do they have to give the illusion that every team that participates has a chance??? Why don’t they just let the player go where they want to go and call it like it is???

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