MLS teams are setting their rosters... Part II

A week ago I started the conversation about MLS teams setting their rosters for the upcoming season. To say that information is coming out of league headquarters at a trickle would be an overstatement. MLS HQ has not released official signings, rosters or anything to help our inquiring minds. So I’ve been forced to cobble together some of the data with the help of team websites and Soccer America Magazine.

Before the MLS SuperDraft four college players signed MLS contracts, so you know they are going to be on the rosters of the teams that drafted them because they’re already on the league payroll. Those players, their order in the draft and the team that drafted them are listed below:

Jason Garey - #3 Columbus Crew
Brian Plotkin - #20 Chicago Fire
Mehdi Ballouchy - #2 Real Salt Lake
Yura Movsisyan - #4 Kansas City Wizards

The league signed them to contracts before the draft because they knew they were strong talents and a team would select them. MLS also doesn’t want to lose all the young talent to European clubs, so signing a contract before the draft helps keep them from looking overseas. At this point it is not clear if these players were signed to Developmental contracts or Senior contracts. In a couple months the Players Union will “leak” the salary list to Soccer America, or at least that is how it has happened the past two seasons since the collective bargaining agreement was signed, and we’ll learn who is dev and who is senior. You’ll recall that the developmental roster doesn’t count against the team’s salary cap, while senior does.

After the above list of four it has been the team announcing who’s signed and who hasn’t. We’ll start with the Rapids, since they are my club and I follow them closest. At one point the Rapids had over 45 players in camp competing for places. Six of those players were from the SuperDraft or subsequent Supplemental Draft. Others we’re already on the team, or were invited by the club, or had been spotted in the second annual open tryouts. The Colorado Rapids’ website now lists 28 players, the magic number according to the league. One of those players, Leo Cullen, has left the team to coach at The University of Maryland, his alma matre, so the Rapids have one spot open. Of the draft picks and open trialists, five can be considered “rookies” to professional soccer. The rookies are:

Colin Clark – Midfielder. Colin is a Colorado Native who played three years of college soccer at Southern Methodist University. He wasn’t drafted, and wasn’t even in the draft pool. He played for the Boulder Rapids Reserve in the PDL.

Jordan Harvey – Defender. Jordan was selected by the Rapids in the Supplemental Draft out of UCLA. He played for the Orange County Blue Stars in the PDL last summer.

Aaron King – Forward. Aaron was drafted by the Los Angeles Galaxy out of NC State and then traded to the Rapids. He’s a Denver native and played for the Boulder Rapids Reserve in the PDL.

Jacob Peterson – Forward. Jacob was the Rapids’ first overall pick in the 2006 SuperDraft. He played in college at the Indiana university as has been a part of the US National U-20 & U-17 teams and in 2002 was a teammate of Freddy Adu at the US Soccer residency program.

Daniel Wasson – Midfielder. Daniel was selected by the Rapids in the fourth round of the 2006 Supplemental Draft. He played at Tulsa University and with the Chicago Fire Premier in the PDL.

As an aside, the Premier Development League (PDL) is a league of small teams made up of amateur players, mostly college kids on summer break. Instead of getting traditional summer jobs, they play soccer. The league has proven a great place to continue training these youth soccer players. Many people think PDL is a prerequisite to playing in MLS if you’re not playing with the US Youth National Teams.

So that is the Rapids. You can see their full roster on their website, www.coloradorapids.com.

In an effort to keep these updates brief, I’ll look into other team’s rosters in future updates.