Photo: California's Stephan Frei will be the first goalkeeper taken in the 2009 MLS SuperDraft.
There are a few things you must know before we start discussing the upcoming MLS Draft. First, 70 players just competed in the MLS Combine in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Second, there will be 60 players selected in this year's MLS Draft (15 teams and four rounds). Third, probably every team will select at least one player in the MLS Draft that did not attend the MLS Combine. Therefore no more than and probably less than 45 of the 70 players who attended the MLS Combine will be selected in the MLS Draft. So who will be taken and what round will they go? Well without attending this year's combine or having any inside information I have a decent idea of how it's going to look. I know that may sound crazy, but performance and/or participation in the MLS combine has never been the best indicator of draft projection. I've followed MLS and the MLS Draft every year and I've coached or coached against approximatley 100 players that were eventuallly drafted by a MLS team. I was at the MLS Combine in Los Angeles in 2006 and saw first hand the relation between combine performance and selection. I am very familair with many of the top MLS prospects this year. The following list is not a list of who I think is necessarily the best 40 players from the combine but instead a list of who I believe the MLS coaches and technical directors will pick. I am listing the players by who will get drafted and what round they will be drafted. I'm not going say who is going to be picked by what team because which team has what pick is going to change a lot between now and 5 seconds before the very first overall selection will be made. A team could have two first round picks and trade both picks away for an already proven player. And the needs of those two teams immediately change. Expect as many as five of my projected 1st rounders to be selected in the second round and as many as five of my second round projections to move into the first round. Goalkeeper Stephan Frei will be a first round pick but with reduced rosters (28 in 2008 to 24 in 2009) goalkeepers probably will not be in demand. None of my opinion is based on inside information other than some personal experience coaching with or against some current MLS prospects at a youth, ODP, college or PDL level.
Projected Selections 1-15 (1st Round Picks in alpha order):
Kevin Alston (Indiana)
Matt Besler (Notre Dame)
Sam Cronin (Wake Forest)
Daniel Cruz (UNLV)
Stefan Frei (California)
Omar Gonzalez (Maryland)
Jeremy Hall (Maryland)
Baggio Husidic (U-Illinois-Chicago)
Peri Marosevic (Michigan)
Yohance Marshall (South Florida)
Kyle Patterson (Saint Louis)
Chris Pontius (UCSB)
Brad Ring (Indiana)
Rodney Wallace (Maryland)
Steve Zakuani (Akron)
Projected Selections 16-30 (2nd Round Picks in alpha order):
Lyle Adams (Wake Forest)
Quincy Amarikwa (U California Davis)
Calum Angus (Saint Louis U)
Darius Barnes (Duke)
Josh Boeteng (Liberty)
A.J. DeLaGarza (Maryland)
Jokull Elisabetarson (UNC-Greensboro)
Andrei Gotsmanov (Creighton)
David Hertl (Michigan State)
George John (Washington)
Michael Lahoud (Wake Forest)
Babajide Ogunjihi (Santa Clara)
Jordan Seabrook (South Florida)
O'Brien White (UConn)
Graham Zusi (Maryland)
Selections 31-45 (3rd Round Picks in alpha order):
Trevor Banks (Old Dominion)
Brandon Barklage (Saint Louis)
Evan Brown (Wake Forest)
Doug DeMartin (Michigan State)
Jack Traynor (Notre Dame)
OK, I know you want me to list some more players from the MLS combine to be picked...but I'm not feeling it. I think around 25 players who were not in the combine, players MLS teams wanted to hide or have known about for a few years or come recommended by very trusted sources will be picked in the final 25 picks. How accurate are the predictions? We'll soon find out.
