|
 |   |
|
EVENTS Fantasy Central Inside Game Video Plus Statitudes Your Turn Message Boards Email Newsletters Golf Guide Cities 
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE
|  |
Coaches quiet A-League players won't be eligible in MLS draft
Updated: Thursday February 01, 2001 7:18 PM
I've made calls to coaches and general managers and other sources in the past week and one common theme has emerged: Very few people are talking, on or off the record. They're keeping their plans close to the vest on who they might take at Monday's SuperDraft and about trade talks. After giving all that money to MCI, here's what I heard from one source: The San Jose Earthquakes are interested in taking 18-year-old Bolivian midfielder Joselito Vaca or Project-40 midfielder Miguel Saavedra as their No. 1 pick. Of course, all that information could fall like a house of cards if the Earthquakes trade their selection. That's life in the fast lane of draft day. They also have the eighth and 10th choices, and four more picks in the second round (not to mention three allocations). Of course, as of Thursday the Earthquakes didn't have a coach. So, any selection that is made will be unfair to the new coaching staff. A coach must have the opportunity to forge his team.
There have been rumors that former Dallas Burn coach David Dir, who is a candidate for the coaching job, has been helping out the Earthquakes with the draft. Many teams appear ready to take some of the younger, Project-40 players as their early picks because they won't take up any official room on their roster. So, don't be surprised if the likes of Project-40 players such as Nick Downing, Edson Buddle and Chris Carrieri go early. And one last thing -- A-League players will not be eligible for the SuperDraft. Instead, they will be considered as allocation players. On Tuesday night, the MLS competition committee approved that new rule. It was the brainchild of D.C. United general manager Kevin Payne. "The main advantage is that we [no longer] encourage teams to go out on wild goose chases around the world and bring back a foreigner who is over the hill," he said. "The chances of being wrong [with an A-League player] are less." That means the likes of Pittsburgh Riverhounds defender Tenywa Bonseu, Hershey Wildcats forward Greg Simmonds and Rochester Raging Rhinos midfielder Yari Allnut won't be eligible for the draft, but rather as allocations. Of course, not all coaches are jumping for joy about this development. "I'm not particularly happy about it," Tampa Bay Mutiny coach Alfonso Mondelo said. "What's the point of having a high draft pick? Every year they change the rules here. "It definitely changes our strategy. It makes things very different. Before you could pick an A-League in the draft. Now, you have to go out and trade a player for an allocation." Possible early birdsAs for who might be taken early, here's a quick look:
Connecticut junior defender Chris Gbandi definitely would have gone high if he decided to throw his name into the ring, coaches and general managers said. I remember when I asked Gbandi about leaving school early at the NCAA Division I championship game press conference, and what a face UConn coach Ray Reid made during my question. I don't think he wanted him to go, and it appears he has gotten his wish. Speaking of UConn, I personally liked Brent Rahim and Darin Lewis. They're from Trinidad & Tobago. Rahim is a transitional international (he would count against the roster and cap but not against the foreign player limit). Lewis, however, is a senior international. They certainly could help a team or two. MLS rumors and facts
Fisher, the one who got away, has no regretsOutside of Batavia, Ill. or Charlottesville, Va., Mike Fisher might not be a household word, but several years ago he was the hottest player in all of college soccer. He won Hermann Trophies and Missouri Athletic Club awards and set all kinds of scoring standards for the University of Virginia. He also was selected as the No. 2 pick of the 1997 MLS draft by the Mutiny. And then he walked away from all of that to attend medical school at Virginia. And no, it wasn't for money. As it turned out, Fisher had decided well before that draft not to play in MLS. "When I got through my fourth year of college, I figured a lost a little interest in playing," Fisher said. "It wasn't as much fun. "I took the spring semester off to be with the Olympic team in San Diego. We were living the life of a professional soccer player. You couldn't go out and have a lot of fun. . . . When I returned to Virginia, I figured I would do something else. Luckily, I had medical school to fall back on." Yet, the Mutiny selected Fisher. "I didn't get the word out," he said. "If anybody talked to me about playing soccer after college, I'd probably would have said no." Fisher is in his third year and at the end of the school year he will narrow down his lift of where he might want to specialize. He said he is leaning toward orthopedic surgery. "I would like to stay involved in sports medicine if I can," he said. "There's a lot about it that I like. I wanted to operate and wanted to deal with a kind of people on an everyday basis -- people who are healthy and who have a particular need . . . Working with athletes is a lot of fun." So, does Fisher have any regrets? "I'm really happy with the decision I made in my life," he said. "People ask me, 'Do you miss it?' I don't, although I practice with the men's team at Virginia every once in a while." Michael Lewis covers soccer for the New York Daily News. He was recently honored by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America in the college division of its writing contest for Life is Beautiful, a column on University of San Francisco coach Steve Negoesco.
| |||||||||||||||||||||
