MLS coaches and general managers are preparing for grueling hours at the league player draft.
As they sift and sort through the stacks of documents pertaining to the Major Soccer League draft, coaches and general managers will be most cognizant of the cap.
Not cap as in international appearance, but the salary cap, which the league has set at $1.135 million for the inaugural season.
“You have to pick up some cheapies, no doubt about it,” says L.A. Galaxy head coach Lothar Osiander. “In the later rounds of the draft, we’ll all be looking for the best player value.
“The value is his salary, or it might be his trade value, if you know another team wants him or if he wants to play somewhere. You have to look at the price, for the quality that you get. After the 11 starters, you look for the best value, cheap players that give you some room under the [salary] ceiling.”
In the few weeks between the MLS player combine and league draft to be held Feb. 6-7, the league office has been working feverishly to sign approximately 90 players so they could be added to the approximately 130 players already on board. Deputy commissioner Sunil Gulati adamantly decreed no player could be drafted until he’d been signed to an MLS contract.
This is, of course, exactly opposite of what occurs in the drafts of other professional sports, although agreements between top choices and teams prior to the actual selections isn’t unheard of. But in MLS, players conclude negotiations and sign contracts before they are drafted, and they sign with the league, not with a team.
In other American pro sports, an athlete does have the option of refusing to play for or negotiate with the team drafting him. By signing, MLS players agree to play wherever they go.
This wrinkle is just one of several unusual facets of MLS, whose draft will consist of 16 rounds from which coaches are to assemble teams virtually from scratch.
“In the NASL or MISL or CISL, you might draft four or five players, ” said Kansas City head coach Ron Newman, who has nearly three decades of experience in American soccer as a coach and player. “Now, we’re drafting an entire team.”
NHL, NFL, NBA and major league baseball teams draft to meet specific needs, to fill holes, based on a core of players they plan, or hope, to keep intact. But for MLS coaches and general managers, on draft day, their rosters will be full of holes.
And unlike those other pro teams, MLS clubs will not know well in advance of their spot in the drafting order.
At the time of the draft, teams are supposed to have their four allocation slots filled. Not until that process is completed — supposedly Feb. 1, but this league is renowned for breathing new life into deadlines — will the league confirm the drafting order.
The selection sequence will be decided by lot, with each team “weighted” in reverse order to its perceived strength of allocated players as well as their availability for the start of the season. The majority of a team’s selections will be those players featured at the MLS player combine last month.
“It didn’t do all that much good for me, frankly,” said Newman. “It’s very hard for players to really show what they can do under these conditions. Is so-and-so a bad player, or does he just not fit, or is he on a bad team? “It didn’t really change my opinions about any of the players, most of whom I’d already seen, or had heard about, or talked about with people I trust.”
How to pick a goalkeeper?
One group of players poorly showcased were goalkeepers, which isn’t really a fault of the combine, but rather an indication of that position’s particular requirements.
“With a goalkeeper, one of the most important things is what he doesn’t do,” said Colorado coach Bob Houghton, who picked up a fierce sunburn that turned his skin tomato-red at the MLS player combine but nonetheless expressed satisfaction about the amount of information he was able to gather. “Does he make mistakes or bad decisions?”
“I don’t think you can properly evaluate a goalkeeper in these conditions. You need to watch him over five or six games to see what he can do. What we’ll probably do is concentrate on the field players here at the combine, then go back to the office and watch edited tapes of all the goalkeepers we’re interested in.”
A few scrimmage-like drills were held during special goalkeeping sessions. They consisted of goalkeepers posing as field players to hit crosses (inconsistently), attempt diving headers (dangerously, sometimes comically), and attract rude comments (mercilessly).
“No brains, no headache,” said midfielder Peter Hattrup.
“How long is this circus going to be in town?” said another player.
Still, the combine did provide coaches with valuable information about the NPSL keepers, many of whom hadn’t played much, or any, outdoor soccer in recent years. Of the indoor brigade, most coaches awarded highest marks to veteran Victor Nogueira (now with Milwaukee of the NPSL), and he is expected to sign a contract in time for the MLS draft.
But most NPSL players will miss most preseason training, and playoff participants could miss the April openers. (The regular season ends March 24.) Teams drafting Olympic prospects may not see them until the end of July, more than halfway through the regular season.
Local options and discovery players
If a team does receive its four allocated players in time for the draft, it still must fill seven starting positions, although some places could be taken by discovery players found by the clubs themselves and signed by the league. Again, salary cap considerations guide a team’s decisions in both areas, and there’s also a local option available to teams.
“We’re pretty well set with defenders,” said Laurie Calloway, head coach of the San Jose Clash. “I think all of the coaches are looking for attacking midfielders and forwards, and there aren’t that many of those, frankly. Most of the coaches hope to get one or two of those players either allocated or through the discovery process.”
The deadline to sign discovery players is May 15. One such player must be a U.S. citizen. Two MLS head coaches — Eddie Firmani and Bob Houghton — traveled to South Africa during the African Nations’ Cup to scout players, and San Jose assistant coach Francisco Matturano Ruiz visited his Mexico homeland to check out talent.
Osiander says he’ll probably save his discovery opportunities until after the draft, and perhaps until he sees how his players perform in training and at the “spring training” sessions next month.
“By that time, I’ll know if I need to make some changes, either trade a few players or maybe pick someone up as a discovery player,” he said. “But we can’t spend a lot on discovery players.”
Teams will have three local options to be exercised during either the regular draft or the supplementary and college drafts scheduled for March 4-5. If a club claims three such players in the main draft, for example, it forfeits its right to use any such picks in the later drafts. A team using its local option goes to the head of the line for that round.
Calloway believes most teams will use one or two local options in the main draft, so as to save at least one for the college or supplementary phases. During the main draft, local options can be used at any point after the second round. Most coaches agree they’ll pick the best available players in the first few rounds, then start to fill certain positions with the top players available in subsequent rounds. After that, anything can happen.
“Like Rinus Michels said, what we saw at the combine were mostly average players,” said Newman of the former Dutch national team coach who was hand as an MLS consultant.
“But those are the players that will make you or break you, and those will be the most difficult choices, because there’s not a lot of difference between the players.
“That’s where I might put the names in a hat, and pull one out to find I’ve drafted ‘6 7/8.'”
(Ridge Mahoney is a senior editor of Soccer America.)