19 College Players Flying Under the MLS Combine Radar

It’s everybody’s favorite time of year – MLS Combine season, hey! This means we can count on some things as reliably as a new Freddy Adu post on BigSoccer fifteen seconds after the last one. First, people who watch zero or one college games per year will pontificate about how college so desiccates soccer talent that Ronaldinho would have been no better than Kris Kelderman if he had had the grave misfortune of spending four years at Virginia Commonwealth University. Second, respected draft watchers will go to the combine and declare the poor kids playing together for the first time to be a weak class with little talent – and then a few guys will make an impact in MLS and another handful will become reliable squad players, just like every other year. Third, some MLS coach will declare the combine to not be a significant factor in their decision-making process, and then pick a player solely based on the combine (come back Bob Gansler). Finally, someone will manage to concoct an elaborate MLS conspiracy theory around some player no one will ever hear from again (looks like this may have already happened).

This list seeks to identify some players who were not selected for the combine, but have the sort of outstanding college accomplishments to make them pro candidates. Being a highly decorated college player is certainly no guarantee of pro success, but I do believe high achievement on the college level is a minimum for someone to be an MLS caliber prospect. Perhaps the most recent example of a good MLS player who did not make the combine is Bobby Boswell, and players like Jimmy Conrad and Jay DeMerit were similarly ignored by MLS. Note that they are all defenders, and expect future deep sleeper success stories to continue to mostly come on the defensive side. The 2008 draft is thick in defensive prospects overall, so this is a good year for an overlooked player to emerge.

In fairness to MLS, this is probably the best combine selection in the history of the event. The collaborative process used to identify players seems to be getting better every year at eliminating clearly underqualified entrants. Still, a lot of good players get excluded, and that’s unfortunate, because most players do not have contacts or knowledge of how to forge a pro career, and the combine offers an easy, structured way to get one’s name out. This list is obviously not exhaustive, and there are many other players not going to the combine or listed here that may find pro success if given the opportunity.

1) Rob Valentino D 6.3 190 San Francisco (Cave Creek, Arizona) 01.01.86
Let’s hope MLS noticed Valentino’s decision to leave USF after missing his entire senior season with a left-knee injury. Valentino was an absolutely prime prospect before the injury. His progression as a player was textbook – going from all-WCC as a freshman, to Defender of the Year as a sophomore, to Player of the Year as a junior – and mixing in U-20 and U-23 national team call-ups. With Valentino out for the 2007 season, the Dons collapsed to a sixth-place conference finish. With Valentino, USF had one of the league’s best defenses, and Valentino added 5 goals and 8 assists combined over the 2005 and 2006 seasons. In my mind, he should have been a first-round lock last year, and should be a high pick again this year, as long as there is not serious long-term damage to his knee.

2) Jamil Roberts D 6.0 175 Santa Clara (Fremont, California)
Roberts’ exclusion from the MLS Combine invitation list was the most surprising thing about it to me, especially because he seems to have some natural factors in his favor. His brother Troy already plays in the league and Santa Clara has been a helpful and consistent supplier of players to MLS (unlike their conference foe and minor Euro-league farm team Portland). Roberts became a force as a senior, more than doubling his offensive output from his first three years combined (3g, 5a) and being named the WCC Defender of the Year. He may not have had the consistent acclaim to be a slam-dunk prospect, but being a four-year starter at one of the nation’s best programs should have gotten him selected to the combine over Old Dominion’s senior citizen Yomby William, who will turn 27 in the next MLS season. I would not be surprised to see Roberts called in as alternate before the combine starts.

3) Spencer Wadsworth F 5.8 160 Duke (Dallas, Texas) 05.10.86
Wadsworth is one of the many Duke players whose pro prospects cratered after the Blue Devils’ nightmare 2007 season. But Wadsworth was a spectacularly reliable player in his first three seasons, before being relegated to the bench as a senior because of off-season surgery. Prior to 2007, Wadsworth had amassed 23 goals and 33 assists in three seasons as a starter, and also produced well in the PDL. The most obvious downside to Wadsworth is his small stature – his listed height is probably overstated by two inches – but his exceptional work rate and quickness makes him a great sleeper choice. Duke certainly appeared to miss his unbalancing runs this year as he tried to regain his fitness and adapted to a positional change to the midfield.

4) Kenny Anaba F 6-2 195 Cincinnati (Westerville, Ohio) 01.20.86
The Snowman had a tough burden in 2007 - to prove that he could be more than just a sidekick for Omar Cummings, the Jamaican striker and 2006 Cincy grad who looked pretty good for the Rapids last year. Although Cincinnati took a big tumble in the Big East standings, Anaba did well. As the Bearcats’ obvious offensive target, Anaba still scored 10 goals (out of only 27 total for the team) and earned his first first-team All-Big East honor. The transition to MLS for college strikers is notoriously treacherous, but Anaba can at least claim good size, an athletic lineage (his cousins Chinedum and Ike Ndukwe both play in the NFL), and production in one of the nation’s best conferences. The overall weakness of strikers in the 2008 draft class should also help him get a chance somewhere.

5) Joe Donoho D 6.3 195 Bradley (Tampa, Florida) 05.16.85
Donoho emerged from relative obscurity in his fifth season to win the MVC Player of the Year as a sweeper, helped by some remarkable offensive output – six goals (two on penalties) and three assists. His coach at Bradley, Jim DeRose, has claimed Donoho can run a 4.5 40. You have to be suspicious of these sorts of claims, but even if it’s only close to true, his size/speed combo should allow him to transition to a center back. Also a help - the leadership he showed in helping Bradley to an amazing 2007 tournament run which included wins over Indiana and Maryland. Donoho started his college career at Rutgers and transferred after redshirting the 2005 season.

6) Ben Nason M 5.10 180 Virginia Tech (Stafford, Virginia) 11.08.84
Nason is a meat-and-potatoes defensive midfielder, whose time with the Hokies nicely coincided with the program rising from mediocrity to a College Cup contender. San Jose Earthquake Joe Vide is carving a career for himself based mostly on effort and toughness, and I see no reason why Nason can’t do the same or better, since he showed good long passing accuracy and scoring ability in the ACC. In five seasons at Tech (yet another fifth-year senior who had a knee injury), Nason had 19 goals and 28 assists – and continued to produce even as he was moved farther back in the midfield as a senior. Given Virginia Tech’s high profile this year, I was surprised that Nason was not invited to the combine, and would not be surprised to see him get called in as an alternate.

7) Corey Sipos D 6.2 175 Akron (Tucson, Arizona)
Sipos first made a name for himself as a big-minute defender for the Chicago Fire Reserves of the PDL in 2005, where he suited up next to current Fire player Dasan Robinson. Sipos may be able to make the same surprising impact as Robinson in MLS, after he was named the MAC Player of the Year as another fifth-year senior. Sipos missed 2006 with a knee injury, so his 2007 performance was absolutely necessary to redeem his prospect status, and he did well, scoring three goals, including a header against national runner-up Ohio State.

8) Diego Barrera M 5.7 155 New Mexico (Thousand Oaks, California) 03.25.87
The Colombian-born Barrera appeared to be on the fast-track to pro success when that train suddenly derailed. The former US U-18 player suffered a severe knee injury that wiped out his 2005 season at Loyola Marymount, and he was only so-so in 2006. He elected to transfer to New Mexico for the 2007 season and had only a limited impact with his new team, although he did manage a career-high eight assists. His small stature and inability to so far fully recover his pre-injury form are limiting, but he is still only 20 years old and would be a great bargain to an astute MLS team if he can recapture that past form.

9) Hugh Davey D 6.0 176 Embry-Riddle (Newry, Northern Ireland) 03.31.84
Davey has been an inspirational force in the back for the Eagles, helping them become a regular participiant in the NAIA playoffs. And since he majored in Aviation Business Administration at the aeronautical university, he is perhaps in search of a pro soccer career more than trying to become the first Irishman in space. Davey has played for Northern Ireland’s U-21s, in Blackburn’s youth setup, and for UCD in the Eircom, Ireland’s top league. Although he was not a big scorer and was unable to take Embry-Riddle past the NAIA Quarterfinals, the nation’s coaches were impressed, naming him a three-time first-team NAIA All-American. He still may get invited to the combine, as MLS has not announced their small-school invitations, but it seems almost certain that Haitian striker Ricardo Pierre-Louis from Lee will be the NAIA selection.

10) Adam Chavez D 6.1 190 Binghamton (Endicott, New York) 02.22.86
Binghamton has quietly carved out a niche as a top small school program in the Northeast, and Chavez has been a big part of their recent successes. Like many of the players on this list, Chavez is a high academic achiever, and he will likely need to use his smarts to make up for a lack of top-level athleticism. Besides anchoring the stingy Bearcats defense, Chavez also was a key player the last two summers for one of the most glamorous sides in the PDL, the Cape Cod Crusaders. Chavez, an upstate New York native, could very well make a Jeff Parke-type impact with the Red Bulls, and certainly ought to at least get a look from Rochester or Montreal in the USL.

11) Tim Jepson D 6.0 175 Duke (Yorba Linda, California) 04.30.86
Jepson missed the early part of Duke’s season with injury, but still managed to get back for the last ten games and impressively earn a second-team All-ACC award. Unfortunately for him, he was on the field for Duke’s late-season plunge, including an abysmal 4-3 home loss to Alabama A&M. Before his pre-season injury, Jepson was an ironman in the back for Duke, playing almost every minute in his first three seasons. Jepson is not flashy, but excelled as a solid, stay-at-home central defender and emotional leader on an attack-minded team that often sent its outside backs far up the field. He was more deserving of a combine slot than Hugh Cronin of North Carolina State, who performed less ably on a much worse team.

12) Chukwudi Chijindu F 5.10 175 Connecticut (Fontana, California) 02.20.86
Chijindu had an unusual career with the Huskies, as coach Ray Reid preferred to use him exclusively off of the bench for his entire career, despite his fairly dependable goal-scoring. He ended up with 26 goals and 18 assists in his UConn career but he did score 16 of those goals in his first two seasons, so his declining, or at best plateauing, production has to be a worry. Also a worry is his inability to make himself an indispensable part of the lineup, although Reid claimed he would have started for any other team in the country. With the paucity of senior forwards in the draft, Chijindu seems like he will yet have a chance for a developmental roster slot in 2008 – perhaps with one of the Southern California teams.

13) Iradj Farahmand D 6.1 175 Loyola-Chicago (Northbrook, Illinois) 02.26.86
Farahmand enjoyed the classic improvement curve of a top senior defensive prospect, going from the All-Freshman team to the All-Conference team as a sophomore and junior to the Defender of the Year in the Horizon Conference as a senior. The solidly built back did not show any inclination to attack (I believe good offensive stats by defenders are an indicator of skillfulness and confidence that translates to the pro level) but led a strong team defense that only allowed 14 goals in 19 games in 2007. The biggest roadblock for Farahmand seems to be his motivation – check this quote: “…I love business…(L)eading, making deals, making money, and ascending through the ranks are…essentials to achieving the lifestyle that I have always expected to have.”

Doesn’t sound like a future MLS developmental player, does he?

14) Jeff Stepan D 5.9 170 Saint John’s (Fremont, California) 11.20.86
Stepan is yet another academic achiever on the back line (3.99 GPA in chemistry), but offers something different to MLS teams as a speedy outside back prospect in a draft full of big center backs. Stepan played all over the field in his career with the Red Storm, settling in the back full-time for his senior year but still tying for the team lead in goals and being named second-team All-Big East in an overall disappointing 2007 for the team. Stepan can look to other converted forwards like Jonathan Bornstein and Matt Groenwald to see where he might fit in on an MLS defense. Although Stepan was only a starter for two seasons at Saint John’s, he has only just turned 21 and has time and positional versatility in his favor.

15) John Gilkerson D 6.0 175 Winthrop (Winchester, Virginia)
It’s a bit of a mystery how Winthrop can’t seem to do better in the Big South despite having all sorts of players who seem like they might be pro prospects. Perhaps that should be a warning sign about overrating players from Winthrop, but Gilkerson has more than just his college achievement to hang his hat on. He was also a star in the PDL, playing as an outside back next to Old Dominion’s outstanding David Horst (who will be at the combine) on the Hampton Roads Piranhas in 2007, a team that only allowed six goals in 16 regular season games before being upset by Brooklyn in their first playoff game. Gilkerson also fared very well with Winthrop, being named All-Big South the last two seasons.

16) Bisharra Ettienne D 6.3 180 Franklin Pierce (East Elmhurst, New York) 08.26.83
Ettienne has some fairly severe factors working against his MLS candidacy – he’s already 24, is not American, and played in Division II (albeit for the national champs from New Hampshire). But this is a guy who has unique international experience deep in the trenches of Caribbean football combat, having been the defensive leader of Dominica’s 2006 World Cup Qualification campaign, which included a two-legged tie against Mexico in 2004. Unfortunately for Ettienne and Dominica, Mexico won that series 18-0 on aggregate. But still, Etienne is a lanky 6-3 center back who no doubt has some interesting potential, and will be helped by MLS’ new international rules. Ettienne may end up being the D2 invitee to the combine, since there is no clear choice this year, like John Cunliffe was in 2007.

17) Kyle Altman D/M 6.1 170 Trinity Univ. (Albuquerque, New Mexico)
In the 2007 Division III Soccer Playoffs and Religious Imagery Jamberoo, Trinity brought an end to Messiah’s three-year championship streak (sadly it did not end 3-1, nor was it the final, which was won by Middlebury). Altman was named a first-team D3 All-American the last two years – as a defender in 2006 and as a midfielder in 2007 – and added 12 goals over that time. That sort of versatility and production on a top-level team could make Altman the first player from Trinity to stick in MLS since Lance Key was patrolling the back line for the Rapids early in the century. Altman may still be invited to the combine, but it has been rumored that midfielder Kai Kasiguran of Messiah will be the D3 invitee.

18) Ismael Ibarra F 6.0 San Jose State (Salinas, California)
Ibarra’s up-and-down career at SJSU ended strongly, as he paced the Spartans with nine goals in 2007. After a strong 2005, Ibarra missed the 2006 season because of some sort of off-field issue and appeared to no longer be a prospect. But the Salinas hometown legend, who starred at Hartnell Junior College and in the local Mexican leagues, put himself back on the radar this year. With two teams actively mining Bay Area talent, and another team supposedly interested in Mexican-Americans, Ibarra should get a look somewhere. He has already been reported to be in scouting camps with the San Jose Earthquales and the Los Angeles Galaxy.

19) Vangel Nacovski M 5.11 160 IUPUI (Crown Point, Indiana) 11.05.84
Nacovski, an American of Macedonian descent, never was able to get himself much publicity playing for the Jaguars, a team that has not made the NCAA Tournament since 2000 and had an overall losing record in his tenure, while playing in a weak D1 conference. It’s never easy to tell if a decorated player from a poor team is a hidden gem or not, but it is certainly fair to say that Nacovski accomplished everything possible on an individual level. After sitting out the 2003 season with a stress fracture, the two-footed midfielder was named first-team All-Summit Conference four straight years (including being named Player of the Year in 2007) and scored 37 goals and had 15 assists in his IUPUI career. He also scored 162 goals in high-school, including 55 in one season.

Honorable Mentions
Yannick Reyering F 6.6 205 Virginia – German tank is obviously a major prospect, but is coming off a knee injury and his MLS signing status is unclear despite his eligibility being used up; Matt Hoff M 5.10 155 Harvard – Skillful Saint Louis native returned from academic hiatus to help lead Harvard’s resurgence in 2006 and 2007; Mkhokheli Dube F/M 6.0 155 Coastal Carolina – Zimbabwean attacker is old (24) but productive, and might be helped by more lenient international player restrictions; Simon Schoendorf M/F 6.1 175 M/F South Florida – The versatile German attacker piled up stats for the Bulls, and even better is still only 22; Tony Schmitz D/M 6.0 180 Creighton – Sturdy defender was a three-year starter for the Blue Jays and had by far his best season in 2007 (4g, 5a); Cory Elenio F 6.1 165 Evansville – Good sized striker from Michigan with a powerful shot helped the Purple Aces return to relevance; Adrian Bumbut F 5.7 140 Liberty – Small, speedy Romanian had 12 goals in 2007, but projects as a wide midfielder as a pro; Adam Sloustcher D 5.10 160 Loyola Marymount – Former Bradenton Residency player didn’t make it at UNC, but fared better at LMU and is still only 20; Kraig Chiles M 5-11 185 San Diego State – a bit old (24) and lacks a sleek build, but made first-team Pac-10 in 2007 with eight goals; Michael Palacio M 6.1 170 Stony Brook – Three time All-America East midfielder led the Seawolves in scoring in 2005 and 2007; Greg Folk D 5.9 165 UCLA – Undersized former US U-18 player is fifteen months younger than teammate Brandon Owens, who made the combine without any better production; Chris Tierney D/M 6.0 180 Virginia – Versatile role player ended up second in scoring for the Cavaliers in 2007 after seeing little action in 2006; Steve Bode D 6.2 185 Wisconsin-Milwaukee – Defensive captain and Fire Premier player stayed a solid presence as the UWM program fell apart around him; Andrew Wheeler F 6.3 180 York (PA) – D3 power forward owned the PDL with 14 goals, but had a somewhat disappointing 2007 college season; Matt Tracy D 6.2 200 Cal State Northridge – 2007 All-Big West defender and three-year Matador starter is the strong, stay-at-home type.