Good Draft for Most MLS Teams
A week after Major League Soccer’s player draft, the debate continues as to which teams made the most of it.
According to U.S. national team Coach Bruce Arena, it’s a wide-open club.
“I think for the first time in the history of the draft, every team actually helped themselves a little bit, which is remarkable,” he said. “Some of the guys usually shoot themselves in the foot. You walk out of the draft and you’re in worse shape.”
Arena coached D.C. United to two MLS titles and a second-place finish before taking over the national team. He knows very well that the hoopla and enthusiasm of draft day don’t always translate to real impact.
“I laughed when I read some of the press reports in each city, how everyone had a great draft and everything was perfect,” he said. “It always is the day after or the day of [the draft]. But I think, at the very least, everyone helped themselves a little bit, some more than others.”
Arena believes that the Chicago Fire really helped itself. Chicago Coach Bob Bradley traded his first-round pick and his first-round pick in 2001 to the Galaxy for 17-year-old midfielder DaMarcus Beasley from Los Angeles.
“The kid, Beasley, going to Chicago is a real plus for the Fire because I think that kid’s got a good future,” Arena said. “I think that’s a real coup.”
Does that mean Galaxy Coach Sigi Schmid made a mistake? Not at all. The player he selected with Chicago’s first-round pick--the sixth selection overall--defender Danny Califf of the University of Maryland, probably would have been Arena’s No. 1 pick in the draft.
Arena said he was mildly surprised that UCLA defender Steve Shak was the top draft choice.
“Yeah, it surprised me,” he said. “I think he’s a good player. I rated Shak as one of the top three defenders, along with Califf and [UCLA’s Carlos] Bocanegra [taken fourth overall]. My own way of looking at it, I might have had Califf ahead of everybody. But those three guys are solid.”
HOMEWARD BOUND
No one was more pleased to be drafted by the Galaxy than Califf and the UCLA duo of Sasha Victorine and Peter Vagenas.
Califf, 19, is from Orange, and Schmid’s trade has allowed him to come home. Victorine, 22, is from Corona, and Vagenas, 22, is from Pasadena. Schmid’s selections allowed both to stay home.
“It’s an incredible feeling, getting to play in L.A., parents get season tickets and all that stuff,” Califf said. “I’m just really excited. It’s a dream come true to play in the league anyway. To get to play at home, I can’t even express how excited I am.”
Califf, a central defender, played for Schmid on the U.S. under-20 national team at the World Championships in Nigeria last year.
“I couldn’t keep Danny at home when he made his college choice, so at least we got him back home as a professional,” Schmid said.
Victorine and Vagenas, both U.S. under-23 national team players, never left Southern California.
“I’m happy it turned out this way,” said Victorine, a defensive midfielder who will be behind Danny Pena and Jorge Salcedo on the Galaxy depth chart.
“Those are two great guys to learn from,” he said. “They’ve been in the league for a while and they’ll definitely give me some tips. That’s what it’s all about. You take a year or two, you learn from these guys, and then you try to battle with them [for a starting spot].”
Victorine’s versatility could put him in the lineup much sooner.
“Sasha is a player that I’ve always felt you can’t truly appreciate until you coach him every day,” Schmid said. “He’s a very versatile player, who can play anywhere from central forward to central defender.”
NORWAY KNOWS THE WAY
The bus carrying the Norwegian women’s national team was about to leave. At the last moment, a couple of U.S. reporters prevailed on Per-Mathias Hogmo to delay departure and share a few thoughts.
Norway’s coach was happy to do so. After all, it isn’t every week that you defeat the reigning world and Olympic champions twice in four days.
“I’m very pleased with the trip,” Hogmo beamed. “We have been training in these [warm and sunny] conditions [in Fort Lauderdale] the whole time and we had two very good matches. I got many answers on a lot of new players we brought over here.”
Hogmo, who led 1995 world champion Norway to fourth place in last summer’s Women’s World Cup, politely turned away questions about the U.S. team, which his side defeated, 3-2, last Sunday and, 2-1, last Wednesday.
Those were only the first of several games this year between the only countries to have won women’s world championships. They could meet again in the Algarve Cup in Portugal next month; they will meet in the German soccer federation’s centenary tournament in July, and Hogmo revealed that the U.S. will visit Norway for two games this summer.
The real test, of course, will occur if the teams meet in Sydney, Australia, at the 2000 Olympic Games. The Americans defeated the Norwegians in the 1996 semifinals en route to the gold medal.
ON THE ROAD AGAIN
The morning after watching her team lose again to Norway, U.S. Coach April Heinrichs wasn’t hanging her head. She was out at Lockhart Stadium in Fort Lauderdale, watching Arena put the U.S. men’s team through some drills.
It’s called learning, and Heinrichs will be doing a lot of it, besides making what are certain to be some controversial and probably unpopular decisions.
How do you tell Michelle Akers that the time has come to hang up her boots? Or Carla Overbeck? Or any of several other World Cup winners? Don’t be surprised if that happens in the next few weeks.
Rebuilding the U.S. team in time to be competitive in the Olympics is no small task. Winning a medal of any color in Sydney will be a feat. But Heinrichs also has to keep 2003 in mind, and retaining the world championship that summer is just as important, maybe more important, a goal.
Heinrichs’ decision to field so many teenage players in the two games against Norway was born of necessity rather than recklessness. She had to see how they would fare against a world-class opponent.
Having had 35 players in camp in Fort Lauderdale, Heinrichs will name 26 for another camp in Sanford, Fla., March 2-12. After that, she will trim the roster to 18 for the Algarve Cup.
After the Portugal trip, the U.S. women will open camp at the Olympic training center in Chula Vista before the U.S. Women’s Cup in Portland, Ore.
SHOW HIM THE MONEY
In the league’s four years, no MLS player has scored more goals than Roy Lassiter, who has 72. But the last one he scored for D.C. United last season might have been his last in the league.
The U.S. national team striker was traded by United to the Miami Fusion just days after the MLS final in November, but he has refused to report to the team, saying he is underpaid by the league.
“I feel like I’ve given everything to the league, and I’m tired of not being respected when it comes to my contract,” Lassiter told the Miami Herald last week. “If I don’t get a new contract, I’m not reporting. Period.”
The average salary is pitifully low in MLS; Lassiter should be making far more than the $100,000 base salary he earns.
He might be troublesome, he might have an attitude, but he has delivered on the field for four consecutive seasons. There are other Americans in MLS who have contributed far less and are earning twice as much--Tab Ramos is a good example--so it’s high time MLS settled this matter and got Lassiter and Eric Wynalda back together in the Miami starting lineup.
THERE’S NO DEBATE
Carin Jennings Gabarra, or “Gumby” as she was known by her teammates on the 1991 women’s world championship-winning and 1996 Olympic gold medal-winning U.S. teams, is one of four former players nominated to the U.S. Soccer Hall of Fame in Oneonta, N.Y.
The three others are former North American Soccer League players Giorgio Chinaglia, Arnie Mauser and Ilija Mitic.
Jennings, who grew up on the Palos Verdes peninsula and played locally in AYSO before starring at UC Santa Barbara, was most valuable player of the 1991 World Championships and is unquestionably the best dribbler produced in the United States, male or female.
“Her ability to take on opponents, to dribble and hold the ball under pressure and on the attack is, to this day, the standard by which we measure our national team players,” said former women’s national team coach Tony DiCicco.
Worthy as the other three candidates might be, Jennings is the only one with true Hall of Fame credentials. It’s time she joined her former teammate, Heinrichs, in being so honored.
