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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Esky, Ruy...a little help with DC News

Because I haven't visited a soccer blog - never mind Soccer Blogs - I have only seen the blandest of reports on the trade that sent Alecko "Esky" Eskandarian to Toronto FC.

Given his 2004 and the possibility that Esky can one day reproduce the same, the trade looks a decent gamble from Toronto's end. But has anyone read or heard anything about how the player took the move?

With blogging being based on the premise of me telling you stuff, it's possible this runs counter to that. Still, I'm curious.

Another curious thing - which, again, may be rendered less curious by that fact I haven't checked the news in a while - is the fact I've only seen one mention about DC signing some Brazilian cat named Ruy. Ives Galarcep's blog plays this as almost a done deal, while the Washington Post's Steve Goff's report takes a more circumspect line. In any case, I know nothing about the guy. I only hope he's fun to watch.

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