New Blood

Now we know who United’s taken in the draft.  The MLS draft, and its expectations,  is more like that of the NHL or MLB.  A team drafts players, then they kind of disappear for a bit, and then make an impact with the team down the road.  The MLS draft rarely offers the instant gratification/impact of the NFL or NBA drafts.  Because of this, it’s very important that an MLS team draft the best available player as opposed to trying to fill an on-field need.

United’s fallen into hard times a couple of years ago by trying to fill outside midfield needs in the first round of the draft.  Remember Nick Van Sicklen?  Justin Moose?  But at first glance United did much better this year by selecting the best players available at the time.  Of course, the fact that United needs depth all over the field, doesn’t mean that was their direct philosophy.

There are a handful of sites out there that really break down the nuts and bolts of this, so here’s just a list of who United picked up:

Rodney Wallace before he was a Terp.

• Rodney Wallace – Midfielder – University of Maryland
• Chris Pontius – Midfielder/Forward – UC Santa Barbara
• Milos Kocic – GK – Loyola (MD)
• Lyle Adams – Defender – Wake Forest
• Brandon Barklage – Midfielder/Forward -Saint Loius University

Accoring to Joe Wallace (a local product, and former Post All-Met player) and Pontius (Potentially DC United’s first player that sounds more like a Roman Emperor!) are rated pretty high, they could make the team and could see MLS minutes.   Kocic is an interesting choice seeing that MLS has reduced the roster size (there’ll be a post about this later), but it appears that Crayton, Wells, Thorpe and Kocic will be competing for two roster spots, as it’d be doubtful for United to carry three next season.  Adams and Barklage see to be longshots (once again according to Joe), they’ll need to prove themselves in a big way when workouts start next week.