A Kicker gets the call

Today the USL Second Division club, The Richmond Kickers, announced that their 19th player has moved on from their club to MLS, the big leagues. Who is that lucky number 19? None other than Joey Worthen, who was signed by Real Salt Lake. Joey who?

Personally I think it is fun to look at two aspects of this story. 1) Who is Joey Worthen and where did he come from, what has his American soccer career looked like? 2) Who are the other 18 former Richmond Kickers who have played in MLS and have I ever heard of them? So there you go, two focuses to today's post.

1) Who is Joey Worthen and where did he come from, what has his American soccer career looked like? It turns out Joey Worthen is one of those guys who had a solid college career at South Carolina, played in some US Youth camps but wasn't drafted by MLS coming out of college. He was good enough to be drafted by the Pittsburgh Riverhounds and earned the Riverhounds' Rookie of the Year award in 2002 after being the only player on the team to play in all 28 games of the season. In between the 2003 & 2004 seasons he was traded to Richmond and played for two seasons in Virginia. So now he is making the step up to the big leagues. It will be interesting to remember his name halfway through the season to see how he is doing for Real Salt Lake. That club needs some major help after a dismal first season. So you have to imagine new blood will be welcome and if he plays well in the pre-season a spot will be open to him.

Joey's road to MLS is similar to many other guys who didn't get a lot of recognition after college. It proves that players will develop at different speeds and not everyone is suited to the early jump after high school or before graduating from college. Now we'll see if he can make good on his chance.

2) Who are the other 18 former Richmond Kickers who have played in MLS and have I ever heard of them? Well, here is the list:
Mike Clark (Columbus Crew)
Dwayne DeRosario (San Jose Earthquakes)
Brian Kamler (D.C. United, Miami Fusion, New England Revolution)
Brian Bates (Colorado Rapids, Dallas Burn)
Scott Budnick (Miami Fusion, Tampa Bay Mutiny)
Jeff Causey (New England Revolution, D.C. United)
Ben Crawley (D.C. United)
Ted Gillen (NY/NJ Metrostars)
Gary Glasgow (Kansas City Wizards)
Onandi Lowe (Kansas City Wizards)
Mike McGinty (D.C. United)
Mark Simpson (D.C. United)
Todd Yeagley (Columbus Crew)
Ihor Dotsenko (Kansas City Wizards)
Rob Ukrop (New England Revolution)
Richie Williams (D.C. United, NY/NJ Metrostars)
David Testo (Columbus Crew)
Clyde Simms (D.C. United)
and Joey Worthen (Real Salt Lake)

Many of those names are no longer in MLS but some of them are. Dwayne DeRosario has probably made the biggest impact in the league. If you didn't see his wicked free kick last year you're missing out. Follow this link to the MLS sights and sounds page and click on the 2005 goal of the year drop down list and Wk 29. It was truly a world class goal you expect to see in Spain.

So the Richmond Kickers aren't a gold mine of talent in any way, but the case of DeRosario shows there are some guys who slip through the cracks and are waiting to become stars as DeRo truly has.

MLS needs to figure this one out, don't they?

Soccer America Magazine is today reporting that FC Dallas draft pick, Christopher Joyce, is signing with Odd Grenland in Norway after not liking the contract offered by MLS. Joyce was picked with the 6th pick in the Supplemental Draft, in other word he was picked after 53 other players. He was obviously not the most heralded player coming out of a non-soccer power, Franklin-Pierce. So why is he skipping MLS and jumping straight to Norway? In one word, Money.

Soccer America says he was offered a developmental contract with MLS and FCD worth $12,000 per year. That is right, that is not a type-o. $12,000 to play a professional sport in the top league in this country. Joyce decided to shop his services around Europe and he is signing a $200,000 per year contract in Norway. Who wouldn't make that choice?

This is the problem MLS is up against. How does the young league develop young talent into pro-soccer stars while the lure of money pulls them overseas. MLS can not compete with teams like Odd Grenland who see $200,000 a bargain. Odd Grenland has now signed two young Americans recently, Nat Borchers formerly of the Rapids being the other, and they will continue to do so easily if MLS isn't more competitive with salaries. However, MLS has bigger fish to fry. They have to sell the sport to Americans, they have to bring in foreign names to give the league credibility, they have to build stadiums, they have to expand, they have to...

The list of things MLS has to do seems endless. They have their priorities and right now expansion, stadiums and attracting new fans top that list. The league is right not to try and compete with Odd Grenland for the 54th pick out of a small college soccer program. MLS is able to hold many other young players attention with the lure of becoming a star on their home soil. Guys like Clint Dempsey have grown up in this league from developmental no name to US National Team star. There is room for plently more players to do the same.

There could be a point sometime in the future where European soccer clubs scout and sign a majority of the young talent in this country. Right now we're far from that scenario. MLS needs to figure out their youth development policy before that day comes, however I believe they have some time. After all, there are thousands of impoverished Brazilians looking for that same big break. There are thousands of English school boys looking for that same big break. There are thousands of young Spaniards looking for that big break. You get my point. For the world's beautiful game there are hundreds of thousands of kids out there who want to be the next Ronaldinho.

The US is slowly developing their pool of players and every year it seems like that pool is bigger and bigger. MLS, along with US Soccer, needs to help ensure that pool continues to grow. In the mean time there will be kids who go after bigger pay checks. And in the future, as MLS becomes profitable, there will be bigger checks written on these shores. Don't lose sleep over Christopher Joyce leaving for greener fields. There will be others who don't have the same chance and will fight hard for his spot here in MLS.

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.

2007 FIFA World Youth Championship - US U-20

The first camp bringing the best and brightest American kids, born after Jan. 1, 1987, together to train for the 2007 FIFA World Youth Championship has been announced. Thomas Rongen, who played in the defunct North American Soccer League in the late 1970's will take the reigns as the head coach. He's done this before and he led the 2002-2004 U-20 team to a quarterfinal finish in the 2003 version of this tournament in the United Arab Emirates. Rongen has a lot of experience with both the Youth National teams as well as MLS coaching. He won the MLS title with DC United and coached three other teams in addition to United.

Rongen's 2003 squad includes some big MLS names including Freddy Adu, Justin Mapp, Chad Marshall, Eddie Johnson, Richardo Clark, Santino Quaranta, Mike Magee, Clint Dempsey, Drew Moor, Knox Cameron, Ned Gravaboy and Jordan Harvey. One interesting point to look at is the fact Eddie Johnson is now one of the highest paid players in MLS and is entering his fifth season. However, Jordan Harvey was just drafted in the 2006 MLS draft by the Colorado Rapids. So obviously, these young athletes are going to take different lengths to develop into professional players. Johnson did it in a professional environment with the Dallas Burn and Harvey did it at UCLA. Harvey is clearly going to be playing catch up if he wants to make a career in the big leagues.

The 2003 squad also featured young Americans who are now playing in Europe. Zak Whitbred is a product of the Liverpool youth system and is trying to break into the first team. Bobby Convey joined MLS at age sixteen and is now staring at English club Reading. Convey's success at Reading has him in a good spot to snag a World Cup spot and has helped Reading to the top of the second division of English soccer. Next season Convey should be with the big boys in the Premier League.

So now to the current roster joining Rongen in Florida this week. There is a mix of high school, college and one professional player in this group. The US Residency program contributed the most high school players. The players school will be in parentheses. High school players either list the residency program or the player's home town.

GOALKEEPERS (3): Kevin Guppy (Cal State Northridge), Mike Gustavson (South Carolina), Steve Sandbo (SMU)

DEFENDERS (9): Trevor Banks (Old Dominion Univ.), Chris Clements (Tulsa), Gregory Folk (UCLA), Daniel Kelly (Hendersonville, Tenn.), Eric Lichaj (Downers Grove, Ill.), Chance Myers (Thousand Oaks, Calif.), Ofori Sarkodie (Indiana), Neven Subotic (USF), Anthony Wallace (St. Petersburg, Fla.)

MIDFIELDERS (7): Eric Avila (UCSB), Carlos Diaz (Napa Valley, Calif.), Sonny Guadarrama (Campbell University), Jeremy Hall (Tampa, Fla.), Daniel Lopez (SMU), Robbie Rodgers (Maryland), Matthew Tutich (Akron)

FORWARDS (4): Andre Akpan (Grand Prairie, Texas), Josmer Altidore (MetroStars), Bill Dworsky (Huntsville, Ala.), Jordan Seabrook (USF)

Josmer is highlighted above because he is the only pro in the group. He was drafted by New York and his name is often whispered in the same breath as Freddy Adu, so he's one to watch.

The experiences these kids have learning under Rongen will be invaluable. This kind of experience is what sets future professionals apart from college kids playing soccer. MLS and other leagues will see 2006 U-20 on their resumes and it will speak volumes about how these guys play the game. It will be exciting to see who on this list makes the squad for the qualifying that should take place in a CONCACAF tournament this summer. Assuming the Americans qualify, the tournament is being hosted in Canada in 2007.

MLS teams are setting their rosters...

March 1, 2006 was the MLS roster compliance date. As per usual this day came and went with little fanfare. The league put out a press release with names of 26 players but none of those names included any of the 2006 draftees. The reason is simple, just getting drafted doesn't assure you a contract. The 2006 draftees were fighting for contracts with the 2005 draftees and other players on the team's developmental rosters. In most cases, MLS drafts players and then offers them very small contracts with some incentives to help pay for any future education and assistance with renting an apartment. In my opinion this is a whole other story to be explored in another post. So, 2006 draftees were not part of the waived players in the above press release.

Many of the players who were waived were highly regarded league prospects just 12 months ago. How did names like Nick Van Sicklen, Luke Kreamalmeyer and Amir Lowery get on this list? Afterall, these guys were draft picks last year, one as high as the second round. It is simple, in the last year they didn't progress to the coaches liking and there is a new crop of young, hungry guys willing to play for the league minimum and who are still relitivly unknown, who are still "hot prospects." Luke Kreamalmeyer was the buzz after the 2005 MLS combine and now he is looking for a job in the USL, the lower division of American soccer. Instead of the league keeping them and giving them one more year to progress into professional soccer players, they have been waived and they will have to progress somewhere else.

Other players in that waiver press release are in a similar boat. Ricky Lewis joined the league in 2003 as a Project-40 player. The Project-40 program was sponsored by Nike and helped the league attract young talent that was interested in skipping college soccer or felt they were ready for the league without finishing college. The program has it's stars like DaMarcus Beasley and it has it's also-rans like Ricky Lewis and Seth Trembly. Guys who never worked out. The program graduates players after a couple years of roster protection and when the player must move from the developmental roster, where your salary doesn't count against the team's cap, to the senior roster where it does, players are often dropped from the league because teams do not see their value as a senior roster player.

MLS needs to find a way to keep some of these players around longer. I am not advocating soccer charity. As a Rapids fan I have been waiting for Ricky Lewis and Seth Trembly to fall through the cracks. After two or three years if you are not working out you are not working out. However, players who do not develop into a star in one season should be given some more rope. They're only being paid $28,000 a year so the league that pays over the hill European stars like Lothar Matthaus hundreds of thousands of dollars for their "star quality" should consider helping these young guys along. The league is working in that direction but they are moving very slowly.

Once the league releases the official rosters of all the teams we'll take a look at who was drafted and who earned a contract. As an example only three of six Rapids draftees were signed to developmental contracts. We'll see the entire picture soon and then the interesting thing to look at will be where those who were drafted and cut loose end up. Stay tuned.