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Timbers, Sounders and Earthquakes set for Fehr lottery

Former U.S. Under-17 national team defender Mobi Fehr will find out which MLS team he will join on Tuesday, and three Western Conference teams are in the running.

The Portland Timbers, San Jose Earthquakes and Seattle Sounders will be vying for Fehr in a weighted lottery MLS will hold on Tuesday. The Timbers have an 83.1 percent chance of winning, while the Sounders have a 15.5 percent chance. The Earthquakes are the long shot, with a 1.4 percent chance.

The winner of the Fehr lottery will also be ineligible to compete in any other similar lotteries for the coming 2013 MLS season. That didn’t stop the Timbers, Earthquakes and Sounders from taking part.

A centerback with the U.S. Under-17 team, the 18-year-old Fehr has spent time training with the Timbers, which saw enough of Fehr to make a play for him in the lottery. Fehr

Comments

  1. MLS needs to condense all of these drafts and re-entries and such in a much better way. I follow the MLS closely and still do not know the ins and outs, casual fans will never be able to keep up. Fans generally do not enjoy following a sport they do not know the rules of.

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  2. In my opinion, MLS rules are much more transparent now than they’ve ever been. As others have noted, a quick google search answer any questions you might have. Is it a perfect system? No, but it isn’t like the MLS’s rules are any more complex than MLB’s rules that includes crap like draft spending limits, sandwich picks, international signing limits, a blind posting system to sign Japanese players, a 40 man roster, limited DFAs, a “rule 5” draft, 6 years of arbitration, draft pick compensation for requirements when signing another team’s free agents, etc., etc., etc.

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    • That is probably totally fair. I think my expectations would be different if I were a baseball fan. I’m not, which means I wasn’t really considering that when thinking about the relative complexity of the MLS system. When you put that in the mix it does change things– baseball’s player system is pretty complicated and people seem to follow it intensely. I suppose over the years (if it stays the same) a person can just get used to it, pick up bits here and there. But streamlining, if it’s feasible given the financial realities and structure of the league, would probably still be a boost.

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  3. I was impressed with his play during the U-17 WC and wish him the best in MLS. If he does well he could find his way into the U-20 WC Qualifers since Brooks and Packwood will be tied up with their Clubs since CONCACAF refuses to schedule the qualifing tournament on FIFA dates.

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    • I find it interesting that where players used to show their wares in college up through U20 then go pro from that springboard we are now talking about rosters primarily of pro prospects, to the point where you almost have to be pro to be in the U20 mix.

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      • I find it refreshing that players at the U-20 level are finally coming (mostly) from Pro/Accadamy ranks. It will only improve the depth of the Senior Natioanl Team’s player pool in the future.
        More and Better Training and Compition at earlier age levels improves player consistancy…which in turn leads to more depth and a better overall Senior Team.
        I would expect in 5-6 years that nearly the entire U-20 squad (qualifying and WC) will be comprised of Pro players from MLS, MFL, and Europe.

  4. Weighted lottery I believe is independent from the allocation order which Portland apparently has a deal to hop over to the 1st spot or for Toronto to pass on Mix

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  5. Honestly, I give up. I was going to try to understand something about the team management aspects of MLS, but it’s apparently waaayyyy to complex. I’ll just accept that my team will start next year with whatever roster The Wizard deigns to assign them. Why are some players in special lotteries? What is the re-entry process? What does it mean to have a Generation Adidas designation? What’s a Homegrown Player? Who has seen the wind? What is on theother side of a black hole? And how could I care enough to try to figure it out now? Yeesh.

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      • Wow.

        Calling someone ignorant for giving up on the ambiguity of nearly every rule previously made or created on the fly?

        Our system is far too convoluted for the average fan and that’s never a good thing for a league.

        Save your insults for when you’re looking in the mirror.

      • I don’t think he was trying to insult anyone. Calling someone ignorant only means that they lack knowledge or information in a particular area. It’s not the same thing as calling someone stupid.

      • It’s right there in the name… but if MLS keeps things this complicated as it grows and ages, I won’t be the only ignorant one. I don’t have time to spend figuring that stuff out even if I’d like to. I have a difficult, complex, intellectually challenging day job. So I’ll just have to settle for not knowing what the hell is going on in the MLS off-season until it gets simpler.

    • though you dnt deserve it becuase yuo’re lazy and can’t find the information yourself, here’s a quick run down

      Re-entry process: For folks returning to MLS from another league who ARE NOT US national team players (think Edson buddle)

      Generation Adidas Contract: Used to encourage talented underclassmen to leave college for MLS. Adiddas pays the actual money, they don’t count against the salary cap, but after they become a productive part of their team, the Generation Adidas contract is done, and they’ll count towards the cap like any other player

      Homegrown player: A player that has come up in the team’s youth system that the team brings up to the senior level with a professional contract

      5 minutes of googling would have gotten you this information, but i suppose you’d rather complain about how how complex it is.

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      • Thanks, Patrick, even though you were a total jerk. In fairness, it is complex, and I am a fairly average representative of the fairly average fan– someone who understands soccer but grew up following other major American sports (and their systems) and Euro/international soccer, but would like to be supportive of and attentive to MLS. Your spot responses give me something I had read before, but actually don’t clarify a whole hell of a lot. For example:what I read on the Pressbox site for the MLS (when I was looking stuff up before) indicates that the re-entry draft has two stages. It does not say it is just about players returning from other leagues. Stage 1 involves players who have previous MLS experience but whose teams don’t wish to re-sign them at their previous salary. The way that site reads, it suggests players who are already in MLS whose club doesn’t want them anymore after their contract lapses (or want them for less than their previous salary) don’t go into a free-agency style situation, they are instead put into a hybrid draft process. Then you complicate matters further with a situation like this one– why is there a special lottery for Mr. Fehr?
        I also totally understand that in order to make the business of MLS work, at least in these still relatively early years, things may have to be complicated. But unwinding some of that complication will help grow the fanbase as the league matures.
        All in all, the point is less about helping me understand as it is to point out that the league will increase broader interest when (if?) it is able to streamline this and make it more accessible to the fans. It’s strange, but with ESPN, etc., these days, people follow the business of their teams almost as much as they follow their play. MLS can help sustain and grow interest by having a process that the average ignorant fan (like me) can understand more readily.

    • Yes, that’s one way to look at it. If you win a lottery such as this then you are no longer eligible for similar lotteries throughout the season. Other teams may be eyeing other youth US players entering the league in the future, or they may not believe their roster has the space availible for a young but inexperienced defender. Per the comment above, don’t see how Portland getting Mixx would be screwed up if Portland also acquire Fehr. That is a separate process done through an allocation order of team. I hope Portland land the kid since he had been training with them it suggests they have plans for the young pro.

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      • As a DC supporter, I wouldn’t have minded seeing a young CB with promise on our team. I think we’re a couple defenders and a proper striker away from another solid playoff opportunity.

    • One team with a 83% chance, how is that Fehr?

      I’d caveat your “only ones interested” by saying that it may reflect salary, a la EJ’s first attempt at coming back home. Maybe at whatever salary MLS worked out there are only three parties still interested.

      Also, since it applies to next year’s lotteries, even though it’s 2012 still, that probably scares people off.

      It may also be that teams have basically cleared the path for Portland with whom he trained. I get the idea at least some of the teams operate in a gentleman’s sort of way where if you train and trial someone they wink and let you past in drafts and lotteries. Not like a pure homegrown rule but a sort of informal respect.

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    • I’m no MLS rules expert, but if this is the case it’s a shame because I think a lot of people were really looking forward to getting an extended look at Mix. Having said that, this could be great for Fehr. He very much fits into the possession style that Porter and Klinsmann are working towards.

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      • Too many damn rules and drafts and special lotteries. How come Fehr doesn’t count against the allocation order? Is it because of his age or because Mix is a full International? Someone pull a copy of the 1,587 page MLS Guidebook to Special Drafts, Lotteries, Allocations, and Rock-Paper-Scissor Tournaments for Various Players.

    • Simply put, yes.

      Nothing “official” (but officially, we were never actually trying to sign him, those were all just rumors) but MP tweeted yesterday something about (paraphrasing) being frustrated when you think there is a done deal that doesn’t work out, but the next move may make more sense anyway.

      As soon as it was rumored that Mix may be getting attention from unnamed Eredivisie clubs, it was not surprisingly all over.

      Latest rumor is Bornstein coming back, whom the Timbers have the rights to via their expansion draft. We do need another outside back, badly.

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