The introduction of football academy systems into the North American game has caused the “Home Grown Player” to be seen as the way of the future in Major League Soccer. Though their importance in the league appears to be trending in the wrong direction, the crop of college athletes taking part in MLS’ annual SuperDraft made one thing very clear: they will not go down quietly.
The first two of the four rounds of the SuperDraft took place on Thursday in Philadelphia. With more draft-day trades than humanly countable, the hometown team did not disappoint.
Entering the day with both the second and sixth overall picks, the Philadelphia Union made perhaps the most mind-boggling move of the day. Expected to trade down and focus their attention on the international player market, the Union made history by doing the opposite. After sending their second overall pick and money to D.C. United in exchange for the first overall selection, the Union drafted goalkeeper Andre Blake of out Connecticut.
The highly-rated Blake became the first goalkeeper to ever be drafted first overall in the SuperDraft. What makes the Union’s move even more surprising was that D.C., with star-in-the-making Bill Hamid already in their ranks, were not expected to choose Blake first overall. For now, Blake joins a Philadelphia goalkeeping corps that includes Zac Macmath, who was drafted fifth overall back in 2011.
More change could be on the way, however. Early reports are suggesting the Vancouver Whitecaps, who with the number three pick were expected to pick Blake, will make an offer for Macmath instead.
But this deal was only the first of many. In fact, the first player picked using a team’s natural draft pick was Jamaican midfielder Andre Lewis, going to Vancouver with the seventh overall pick in the draft. Four of the first six picks in the draft were traded on draft day, making for an incredibly hectic afternoon on the draft floor.
Philadelphia’s wheeling and dealing was not expected, but the transactions made by the New England Revolution certainly were. Entering the day with three picks in the first round, at numbers 4, 12, and 19, the Revs appeared to be in control of their own fate. After taking Georgetown midfielder Steve Neumann fourth overall, they sent their other two first round picks to the Colorado Rapids in exchange for the eleventh overall pick. With this pick, they took the consensus top forward in the draft, Patrick Mullins out of Maryland.
Despite being expected to go in the top five as little as a month ago, Mullins should be happy that he fell to New England. Along with Neumann, he will join a young Revolution attack that showed great promise in 2013. Mullins will undoubtedly be compared to fellow Maryland alumni Taylor Twellman, who scored over 100 league goals with New England after being drafted second overall by the Revolution in 2002.
As previously mentioned, New England may not have been able to get Mullins had Colorado not traded picks with them. But dropping down in the draft order did not mean that Colorado had a bad showing. With the twelfth overall pick, the Rapids acquired Louisville midfielder Marlon Hairston, while with the nineteenth selection they picked up Notre Dame defender Grant Van De Casteele.
Colorado, like New England, is a team that is built around youth and in 2013 showed great improvement. Colorado’s two first round picks from the 2013 SuperDraft, midfielders Deshorn Brown and Dillon Powers, were nothing short of instrumental. Powers was named MLS Rookie of the Year, with Brown finishing in second.
League history would suggest that 2014’s Rookie of the Year will come out of this draft class. Only once in the league’s 18-year history has the Rookie of the Year Award not been given to a player who was drafted that same year (in 2010, when Andy Najar won as a Home Grown Player for D.C. United). Also clear from the trades that were made on the floor on Thursday is that the top rookie does not have to be the first overall pick (the only first overall pick to win the Rookie of the Year Award was Toronto FC’s Maurice Edu, back in 2007).
In time, Academy products like DeAndre Yedlin of the Seattle Sounders and New England’s Diego Fagundez will fully overtake their college counterparts. But judging by Thursday’s events, as Bruce Wayne once said, “Today is not that day, and tomorrow won’t be either”.
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