Who is going to make it in their rookie season?
As I spoke about earlier with Mike Ambersley , making the jump from college soccer to the pros is tough. Many draft picks will slowly fall through the cracks as the season wears on. However, at this early point in the pre-season it is fun to speculate on who will make it and who will fall through those cracks.
Since the league kick-off is still over a month away it is hard to tell who is performing well in pre-season practice and who is not keeping up. On the other hand, the CONCACAF Champions Cup can provide us with some insight. The two "best" teams in the 2005 MLS season kicked their participation in the annual tournament Wednesday night with the New England Revolution taking on LD Alajuelense from Costa Rica and the Los Angeles Galaxy playing against Deportivo Saprissa, also from Costa Rica. Neither MLS club got good results, in fact they both tied without scoring any goals. Not inspiring, exciting soccer to say the least, but for our purposes we can take a look at the starting line-ups to see which rookies, if any got playing time and who played well.
Let's start with New England. They took seven players between the two drafts. With the constrained MLS rosters there is no way all these guys will sign contracts and play for the team in 2006. Did any of them play on Wednesday night in the first leg of the CCC quarter final round? Nope, but Willie Sims, their second round pick out of Cal State Northridge, did suit up and sit on the bench.
How about LA? I was able to watch some of this game so I know first hand that at least one rookie got the start last night. Nathan Sturgis, LA's first round pick out of Clemson got the start at left back in the place of injured Todd Dunivant. Sturgis looked strong in tackles and confident on the ball. There was some rookie sloppy play but this is the first game of their season and only a two months into pre-season. Sturgis is a former US residency program player and played very well last summer at the U-20 FIFA World Youth Championships, so it should be no surprise that he can play the game. My surprise came when I saw his stature last night, in his first pro game. If he can continue to improve and play the way he did last night, there is no reason he won't have a good MLS career. It also shows why Steve Sampson may be willing to part with recent US National Team revelation, Todd Dunivant, since he and Sturgis are playing the same position. So there is one of the nine draft picks getting some early playing time.
This is obviously not an indication of the upcoming season and which rookie will play well, but it does give us an idea of who isn't going to get cut.
Since the league kick-off is still over a month away it is hard to tell who is performing well in pre-season practice and who is not keeping up. On the other hand, the CONCACAF Champions Cup can provide us with some insight. The two "best" teams in the 2005 MLS season kicked their participation in the annual tournament Wednesday night with the New England Revolution taking on LD Alajuelense from Costa Rica and the Los Angeles Galaxy playing against Deportivo Saprissa, also from Costa Rica. Neither MLS club got good results, in fact they both tied without scoring any goals. Not inspiring, exciting soccer to say the least, but for our purposes we can take a look at the starting line-ups to see which rookies, if any got playing time and who played well.
Let's start with New England. They took seven players between the two drafts. With the constrained MLS rosters there is no way all these guys will sign contracts and play for the team in 2006. Did any of them play on Wednesday night in the first leg of the CCC quarter final round? Nope, but Willie Sims, their second round pick out of Cal State Northridge, did suit up and sit on the bench.
How about LA? I was able to watch some of this game so I know first hand that at least one rookie got the start last night. Nathan Sturgis, LA's first round pick out of Clemson got the start at left back in the place of injured Todd Dunivant. Sturgis looked strong in tackles and confident on the ball. There was some rookie sloppy play but this is the first game of their season and only a two months into pre-season. Sturgis is a former US residency program player and played very well last summer at the U-20 FIFA World Youth Championships, so it should be no surprise that he can play the game. My surprise came when I saw his stature last night, in his first pro game. If he can continue to improve and play the way he did last night, there is no reason he won't have a good MLS career. It also shows why Steve Sampson may be willing to part with recent US National Team revelation, Todd Dunivant, since he and Sturgis are playing the same position. So there is one of the nine draft picks getting some early playing time.
This is obviously not an indication of the upcoming season and which rookie will play well, but it does give us an idea of who isn't going to get cut.
posted by Bonji at
11:12 AM
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