Draft day

The MLS draft was today and it was a pretty busy day. On top of the whole Beckham situation and InterLiga, the draft elbowed its way into our schedule.

The Galaxy entered the draft with about 20 draft choices or so but traded its first two picks, each a first-rounder. I can't argue with their strategy because they ended up picking up an allocation out of it. The draft is such a crap shoot that an allocation seems the safer bet but the Galaxy could have helped itself by taking guys like Anthony Wallace and/or Bryan Arguez, a couple of teenagers who could have paid off big down the road. Still, Frank Yallop was pleased with the draft.

I like the first player they took, forward Robbie Findley out of Oregon State. He seems to be a speedy forward who could step in and at the very least run at defenders and create some sort of danger with his speed. If nothing else, he adds to the Galaxy's Trini contingent: both he and Cornell Glen are from Trinidad & Tobago.

Chivas had a decent draft day. I can't say I'm overwhelmed by John Cunliffe. He had a great collegiate career but then again it's D2. But he did have a pretty good showing at the combine. But the best acquisition was the addition of David Arvizu. To get him for a fourth-rounder was a steal, and that's a fourth-rounder in the supplemental draft. Together, one of the two should pan out. Chivas took defender Cameron Dunn in the fourth round. Here's a short Q & A I found on Dunn.

The draft has been good for the local teams in the last two years. Sacha Kljestan, Jonathan Bornstein and Brad Guzan joined Chivas via the draft while Troy Roberts, Quavas Kirk and Nathan Sturgis were all Galaxy draft picks.

I was pretty busy all day with the draft/InterLiga/Beckham. For The Press-Enterprise, I had to track down Maurice Edu, the first overall pick. He was nice enough to take some time to talk to me. I also tracked down his high school coach; Edu was the BMOC at Etiwanda High. Dude scored 35 goals and had 33 assists in three years. Even by high school standards, that's pretty damn good.