MLS Draft Preceded by Rumors
Major League Soccer holds its 10th college draft today, in Baltimore, and 16-year-old midfielder Nikolas Besagno of Maple Valley, Wash., might be the first player chosen.
Or maybe not.
Besagno was a starter last season for the United States under-17 national team when it was coached by John Ellinger, who has since taken over as coach of Real Salt Lake.
Real, or RSL as owner Dave Checketts prefers to call it, is one of two expansion teams in MLS this season and has the first pick in today’s draft.
Besagno was the early favorite, but with trades and rumors of trades swirling Thursday, Ellinger also was said to be eyeing the rich pool of available defenders, as well as highly rated defensive midfielder Danny O’Rourke of NCAA champion Indiana.
Real Salt Lake and Chivas USA have the first two picks in each of the draft’s four rounds. With 111 players available, including 74 who took part in this week’s rain-soaked MLS combine at the Home Depot Center in Carson, Ellinger and Chivas USA Coach Thomas Rongen will have plenty from which to choose.
Rongen has the second overall pick but was said to be considering trading it for an established player or a transitional international spot. He does, however, need a goalkeeper and among those available are three who reached the semifinals of the NCAA championship last month -- Jay Nolly, who won the title with Indiana, Dan Kennedy of runner-up UC Santa Barbara and Noah Palmer of Maryland.
The Galaxy, meanwhile, is so surrounded by trade rumors involving Guatemalan striker Carlos Ruiz, midfielder Pete Vagenas and defender Danny Califf that it is difficult to determine Coach Steve Sampson’s priorities.
Ruiz, the team’s unquestioned star and its leading goal scorer for the last three seasons, was rumored to be going to the MetroStars for Honduran midfielder Amado Guevara, the league’s most valuable player in 2004.
The Galaxy needs a playmaker, but trading Ruiz for one will leave it needing a proven scorer, so Sampson’s first MLS draft will depend heavily on what trades he makes or believes he can make.
Sampson said Thursday that a Ruiz-Guevara trade was “not in the cards” and denied that Ruiz wanted to leave the Galaxy.
“What Carlos wants is a little bit better of an economic situation,” he said. “Everyone is making an effort to try to make that happen and I think he’s responding quite well.”
Will there be surprises today? Very likely.
“One thing I learned in my years of going through the draft is that the unexpected happens,” former Galaxy and current U.S. under-20 national team Coach Sigi Schmid wrote in his weekly column for MLSnet.com. “There is always one team that makes a pick in the early rounds that has everyone scratching their heads.”
Several of Schmid’s under-20 players were scouted by MLS coaches who were at the Home Depot Center to see Wednesday night’s 6-1 rout of Trinidad and Tobago in qualifying play for the 11th FIFA World Youth Championship in the Netherlands.
Sampson, for instance, was impressed by forward Chad Barrett of UCLA. Defender Tim Ward and forward Will John, both of St. Louis University, and defender Hunter Freeman of Virginia also caught the eye.
By the time the U.S. takes the field tonight against Panama, when a victory could secure a trip to Holland, all four could be MLS rookies.
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Under-20 Qualifying
CONCACAF qualifying for Under-20 World Championship, at Home Depot Center:
* Wednesday: Costa Rica 1, Panama 1; U.S. 6, Trinidad & Tobago 1
* Today: Trinidad & Tobago vs. Costa Rica, 5:30 p.m.; U.S. vs. Panama, 8 p.m.
* Sunday: Panama vs. Trinidad & Tobago, noon; U.S. vs. Costa Rica, 2:30 p.m.
