MLS Superdraft News

As I catch up, I'm going to pretend that only I'm seeing items posted on high-profile soccer sites. For instance, ESPN is running a series profiling prospects for the 2007 Major League Soccer Superdraft. So far, they've got three positions covered - goalkeeper, defender, and midfielder - and will presumably get to the other remaining position shortly.

Now, in all honesty, I've only read so far as the first entry in the goalkeeper section; I'm only passing on the links because they seem like a handy resource. Hopefully, it will help someone out there - or just me - make sense of what happens next Friday.

But the most compelling thing I've read about people trying to pry their way through the small door into MLS showed up in the San Diego Union Tribune from Mark Ziegler. By profiling one player's chances of making the league - a collegiate player from USD named Ryan Guy - Ziegler provides some useful perspective that makes better sense of all those prospects chances for going pro.

Here's a telling quote:

"'The kids grow up with these expectations,' USD coach Seamus McFadden says, 'but you just have to be nails to play at the next level. Let me put it to you this way: When we recruit, we look at the top 2 percent of all players wanting to play in college. For the pros, you figure one out of maybe 500 (from college) is going to make it, if that. It's ridiculous, the numbers."

I doubt that's scientific - by that I mean McFadden's numbers - but they're probably still close to the truth.

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