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TFC wheels and deals, Revs make Farrell first pick in MLS Draft

By VINCE MADURI

Toronto FC lead the way at the 2013 MLS SuperDraft after trading the number one overall selection, then taking Canadian duo Kyle Bekker and Emery Welshman among other selections.

TFC traded the top pick to the New England Revolution, who used it on consensus number one prospect, defender Andrew Farrell of Louisville.

Rounding out the top three, Chivas USA selected UConn attacking midfielder Carlos Alvarez before Toronto selected the midfielder Kyle Bekker.

Throughout the entire afternoon, TFC President and GM Kevin Payne clearly set a priority on stockpiling extra selections and allocation money by trading down.  The fourth overall selection TFC received from the Revs was turned around and swapped with the Vancouver Whitecaps for the 10th overall pick, which was then spun to the Seattle Sounders.  Toronto finally picked again at 16 where they selected Bekker’s teammate at Sigma FC Youth Academy, forward Emery Welshman.

Generations adidas forward Jason Johnson, who went into the Combine as the projected top forward slipped down the draft board to the Houston Dynamo at number 13.

US U-20 defender Walker Zimmerman went number seven to FC Dallas, while Indiana forward/defender and Hermann Trophy finalist Eriq Zavaleta went to Seattle with the 10th overall selection.  Sigi Schmidt says he will wait to decide which role Zavaleta will fill for the Sounders but that he currently likes him better as a defender.

FIRST ROUND

1. New England Revolution – Andrew Farrell, DEF – Louisville

2. Chivas USA – Carlos Alvarez, MID – UConn

3. Toronto FC – Kyle Bekker, MID – Boston College

4. Vancouver Whitecaps – Kekuta Menneh, FWD – Austin Aztex

5. Vancouver Whitecaps – Erik Hurtado, FWD – Santa Clara

6. Colorado Rapids – Deshorn Brown, FWD – Central Florida

7. FC Dallas – Walker Zimmerman, DEF – Furman

8. Montreal Impact – Blake Smith, MID – New Mexico

9. Columbus Crew – Ryan Finley, FWD – Notre Dame

10. Seattle Sounders – Eriq Zavaleta, FWD/DEF – Indiana

11. Colorado Rapids – Dillon Powers, MID – Notre Dame

12. Real Salt Lake – John Stertzer, MID – Maryland

13. Houston Dynamo – Jason Johnson, FWD – VCU

14. Sporting Kansas City – Mikey Lopez, MID – North Carolina

15. San Jose Earthquakes – Tommy Muller, DEF – Georgetown

16. Toronto FC – Emery Welshman, FWD – Oregon State

17. DC United – Taylor Kemp, DEF – Maryland

18. Montreal Impact – Fernando Monge, MID – UCLA

19. LA Galaxy – Charlie Rugg, FWD – Boston College

SECOND ROUND

20. FC Dallas – Ryan Hollingshead, MID – UCLA

21. New England Revolution – Donnie Smith, FWD – UNC Charlotte

22. New York Red Bulls – Ian Christianson, MID – Georgetown

23. New England Revolution – Luke Spencer, FWD – Xavier

24. LA Galaxy – Kofi Opare, DEF – Michigan

25. Colorado Rapids – Kory Kindle, DEF – Cal State Bakersfield

26. Philadelphia Union – Don Anding, FWD – Northeastern

27. Montreal Impact – Paulo DelPiccolo, MID – Louisville

28. Columbus Crew – Drew Beckie, DEF – Denver

29. Real Salt Lake – Devon Sandoval, FWD – New Mexico

30. Chicago Fire – Yazid Atouba Emane, FWD – Rainbow FC (Cameroon)

31. Philadelphia Union – Stephen Okai, MID – Mobile

32. Montreal Impact – Brad Stuver, GK – Cleveland State

33. San Jose Earthquakes – Dan Delgado, MID – San Diego

34. Portland Timbers – Dylan Tucker-Gangnes, DEF – Washington

35. Seattle Sounders – Dylan Remick, DEF – Brown

36. New England Revolution – Luis Soffner, GK – Indiana

37. Houston Dynamo – Jimmy Nealis, DEF – Georgetown

38. LA Galaxy – Greg Cochrane, DEF – Louisville

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What do you think of the selections? Which ones impressed you the most? Which left you scratching your head?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. The thing about the draft, in any sport, is it’s the one day when every team’s fans have hope going forward. You get to think, hey we get these guys, if this and this happens, we might make the playoffs (for those of us rooting for bad teams at least). The NFL found out how good it was to have people get into the draft and free agency, because they kept up interest in the game in the offseason. A little bit of this in MLS is a good thing.

    We won’t know who did well in this draft for a couple years. TFC seems to draft well every year, but look where they are.

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  2. If the Rapids “coveted” Zimmerman like was said on this site why didn’t they pick him with the 6th pick.I don’t get it Zimmerman fell to them and they picked Brown.Only for Zimmerman to picked 7th.Am I missing something?

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  3. RSL with another mid in round one. I hear good things about stertzer but Lagerway better have a beat on another forward. JJ Johnson and others were around and they went with midfielder. I hope it pans out.

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  4. Kevin Payne “Also, we’re first in line to participate in the league’s new young, designated player program. So, as players are acquired by the league and made available to the teams, we’re at the top of the list. This is a key program because the players will come in at a discounted cap charge and they also will not count (as one of team’s three) designated players.”

    Ives or anyone care to comment on this quote? Is the league buying young DP’s an allocating them?

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    • Weird. Good question, though — and what would be the consequence to DCU, which just signed one?

      My guess is he might be misspeaking about not counting. I’m guessing he just means the teams wouldn’t have to pay other teams, as they would for an older 3rd DP — but the idea of a list/order to take young DPs…? Weird that this news would break this way…..

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    • i think most teams picking 1-13 thought they needed players, whether they be starters or depth, now. skc was one of the first teams with the luxury of drafting a project player.

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    • Biggest surprise to me, followed by Will Bates. My guess is the NYRB take one of those two with the first pick Tuesday. Henry isn’t there much longer and Cooper is going, going, gone.

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  5. We won’t know how good or bad this draft for years, just like all the previous ones. Back in 2008, Toronto looked to have had an amazing draft but traded away two of the guys almost immediately (Zaher and Phelan), had one guy not sign (Lapira) and ended up releasing another after a couple of anonymous seasons (Brian Edwards). The only guy who did anything positive for them was Julius James by being part of the DeRo trade. Dallas got Brek Shea and Eric Avila in that draft but also drafted Josh Lambo, who was eventually waived and is now back in college, kicking for Texas A&M in football.

    It’s a crapshoot, nobody ever really succeeds at it because the system from which they draw their players has its own inherent flaws. I understand that scouting has improved and we’ve come a long way since 2005 where the Quakes drafted Danny O’Rourke, Kevin Goldthwaite, Victor Arbalaez, Orlando Ramirez, C.J. Klaas, Antouman Jallow (a demon in the Swedish regional leagues), James Twellman, Brett Rodriguez, Robby Fulton and Noah Merl before they took Chico State/Chico Rooks goal machine Chris Wondolowski. However, they’re not completely there yet and part of the problem is the college/amateur soccer system. It’s unfit for the purpose. It might work for a couple of sports but it is not good enough as an incubator of soccer talent.

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  6. Not really sure why Dallas decided to use a pick on Hollingshead. When does he plan to return to soccer? Thought he was building houses in Haiti. Also it’s kinda sad to see Belashaw not picked up, best keeper at the combine, that international player situation hurt him, always supplemental draft though at least

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    • Bigger question is why did they draft Zimmerman? Had to be the best player available scenario, as they were likely shocked like everyone else that the Rapids didn’t take him. I’d look for Dallas to trade one of their now 4 deep CB’s. Doubt they’d trade Hedges, as he had a solid year for them and still has upside in his game. It will be interesting, probably depends on how good Zimmerman looks early in camp.

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    • If Christenson didn’t play for Georgetown in their magical season, neither he nor Muller would have been drafted. They are both very solid players, but there are many more like them out there. Christenson does have the benefit of being left-footed, but that doesn’t matter as much in the middle of the field. Both he and Muller have great of the field intangibles and will add depth to their teams, but they will need a lot of improvement before they are viable starters. Of the Georgetown players drafted, Nealis has the best chance to play well early. Next year Neumann will be an obvious early pick, and Allen may be a GA candidate. I think Reimer will go early in Round 3 (rd 1 of the supplemental) and his work ethic alone might help him hook on somewhere. All these guys benefited greatly from the success of their team in 2012.

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  7. I heard the ESPN commentators talking about the new Chivas approach: hire only mexican-americans.

    I can’t belive this actually happening!

    Sounds so racist! Why not an all irish NBA team? It would never be allowed. Do the FIFA police know about this?

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    • When Chivas USA was announced back in 2003, the concept was to be 100% Mexican. Then Jorge Vergara learned how MLS rosters and the salary cap worked and it was abandoned. Now he owns the team outright, he’s returned to that concept, wanting Mexicans or Mexican-Americans. The fact you’re outraged now would suggest you weren’t around 10 years ago to have a whinge about it when the argument was relevant.

      Besides, rent-a-mouth Lalas isn’t called GAlexi for nothing. He has a few good points, namely that to do the whole Mexican thing properly it will cost a lot of money over a lot of years, but he’s fairly anti-Chivas USA to being with.

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      • You haven’t countered his argument, that it’s racist. You’ve simply recounted for how long it has been racist. You also state it’s “no longer relevant” but don’t posit a reason why, as time has nothing to do, necessarily, with relevancy.

        Alexei Lalas also has nothing to do with his point.

      • You do realize that Spelman does accept non-black students? It would be illegal otherwise (though non-black enrollment isn’t that high).

    • I agree that it is a kind of confusing plan, especially in this day and age. Although I wouldn’t call it racist – not in a country where race privilege is maintained by white folks – maybe discriminatory or prejudicial, but not racist. Which is also why an all-Irish team of any kind would be such a problem: even though the Irish were once discriminated against in this country, we currently gain from all the benefits of white privilege.

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      • Last I look Mexican and Irish were not races. Have you ever been to Ireland? Or Dublin? I promise you there are people born in Ireland who have Asian decent, African decent, middle eastern decent. Not everyone in Ireland is white. Same goes in Mexico

    • It is not racist. Mexican is not a race it’s a national identity , so it would be nationalism.. Would having a team of only Americans be racist? Cause Americans come in all colors.

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    • I agree. It’s disgusting. I know that white people aren’t going to call them on this, but where are Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson? A major organization declaring no blacks allowed.

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      • It’s absolutely not racist. It’s clever.

        I see it as a club trying to unite itself under a particular culture. If they succeed in doing so (or coming close) they are likely to unite that culture as their fanbase, which could prove quite lucrative.

        Further, it’s about have similarly situated individuals play with each other – the idea being that doing so will form a stronger team bond. When you think about it, it’s not too different from Athletic Bilbao’s cantera policy.

      • Borders on illegal, clever or not. Harder to prove, but if the roster (and front office) ever end up being mostly Mexican-American, expect a lawsuit.

      • Instead of emphasizing heritage, they should just emphasize language. “We our a Spanish speaking club”. Then players, no matter what their background, could learn the language if they don’t speak it already. Even fans can learn the language and adopt the team if they want.

  8. I like how Portland not got back into the draft, but also swooped-in, in-front of Seattle and took Seattle’s local guy out from under them. Burn.

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  9. I think a lot of teams found players they were looking for and did well for themselves. Although, I have a feeling Philly could have done better.

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  10. TFC are hands down winners today. Got two Canadian players that they wanted and who knows how much allocation money and what not for trading down twice.

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    • That’s the question I guess. Who knows how much allocation money they got. Tough to grade any draft until we know how players will pan out, but particularly tough to grade this one until we know how much allocation TFC got and what they wind up doing with the allocations. I agree with everyone philosophically though. Ives said this is a deep draft, so trading down seems like the smart thing to do and to nab 2 Canadians without reaching is the cherry on top. They are certainly the team I want to track out of the draft. I’m also interested in tracking Dallas, Vancouver, SKC and RSL.

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      • Payne said they were able to get roughly 20% of the cap covered from allocation collected from these trades… soo essentially thats 400-550k in allocation money. Not too bad assuming he told the truth.

      • While you can keep your green card as long as you return to the U.S. frequently enough (Obviously won’t be a problem Washington/Away Games) I think you need 5 years continuous residency to apply for citizenship.

      • Green cards differ. Some are good for 10 years and have no presence sort of restrictions. Others come with those restrictions, shorter validity periods, both…

        The naturalization process can start in as little as under 3 years but may also vary.

      • There are all kinds of rules on how you keep the Green Card through residency, but Vancouver offers an easy out. Because Vancouver is so close to the US border, there is a neighborhood of the city that is actually in the US — Point Roberts. A number of Americans live there to simplify some things (though they have to cross the border every day).

        If the kid has a GC, he can show US residency by living in Point Roberts (or other points in Washington) to show continuous residency while working in Canada. (There’s a good chance that LaToux did this when he played for Vancouver since he wants to get to US citizen status asap).

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