I'd assume that the undrafted-so-they-may-leave concept is considered and accounted for at draft time. A risk that everyone takes, perhaps. Still, a bummer.

Here's my thought: [Expletive] [expletive] [expletive].

The MLS draft doesn't need any sort of tweaking at all. It is perfect as is. Leave it be.

Ouch. This might not be a huge loss in terms of on the field production this season, but it further reduces the depth and quality of DCU's young players.

MLS needs to get its act together or there will be no American talent to speak of in its domestic league. The system is broken.

That sucks. That's my biggest beef with the draft and how players can go somewhere else. I guess there's not a better way to do it outside of getting rid of the draft completely, but I don't think that's viable right now.

Goff- You mentioned that Cordeiro has already signed with the league. Is there a list out there of all the draftees that have already signed?

Get rid of the draft!

Didn't we fulfill the obligations to start using acadmy players? If so, can't we just bring them up to the Sr. team and just avoid the draft altogether?

Drafts work in other leagues because they are the top options. MLS doesn't have another way to go until teams SERIOUSLY develop youth talent. MLS - One Step Forward - Decades of steps to go.

Yeah - it's nice that the spotlight has been focused onto young(ish) American soccer players, but man, now every European club is giving them a look.

Goff- You mentioned that Cordeiro has already signed with the league. Is there a list out there of all the draftees that have already signed?

-----

Does not exist. Team by team basis.

Another wasted draft pick. Needham left over $$$. We spent an extra 1st-rounder (a pick that became Pat Whelan, so we'll see....) on Dyachenko. I'm sure Jacobson can get more cash in France.

I'm not sure how Kasper didn't know that Jacobson was looking in Europe. SBI reported it AT THE DRAFT! This team has got to start getting more value from its picks at the top of the draft (aside from banking Arguez $$$). We can't bank on finding a Gros / Boswell / Perkins / McTavish every year.

Wow. The wikipedia page for FC Lorient is already updated to have Jacobson on there.

I read multiple sources before the draft that indicated that Jacobsen was likely to pursue European options prior to MLS. There was mention of multiple connections overseas through his coach at Cal. Should be no surprise to DC front office.

MLS needs to get its act together or there will be no American talent to speak of in its domestic league. The system is broken.

Posted by: System of a Draft | January 30, 2008 12:52 PM

I think (hope) there will be a lot of changes with the new CBA - Higher wages for reserve players, reserve league working with USL-1 for real games, etc.

Now that we've moved to 8 foreign slots, plus green card holders, it seems easier for young Americans to break in over in Europe's lower leagues (at higher pay and more competitive training/games) than play a few meaningless reserve games here.

All growing pains, I think things will fix themselves eventually, but in the meantime, it won't be pretty.

Couldn't there be a threshold salary, like if an MLS team chooses to pay a first- or second-round draftee less than say $75,000 they are free to explore other options, otherwise they are committed to the league (their rights, at least, and only for a year). And only let people who sign that agreement in the draft. It may not have resolved this problem, but would give MLS clubs a way to keep talent they are really interested in while reassuring draftees they won't get royally screwed. Am I crazy?

Pay players 17k a year and you will only get players worth 17k a year. This will only get worse more as more leagues are starting to look to america for cheap young talent. Keeping developmental salaries so low will make them useless in a year or two. As soccer agents and players become more sophisticated more and more players will and should keep their options open.

this is why the draft is a joke...

danj,

Half the players in the league make less than $75 k. Until that changes, why wouldn't good players try out in Europe?

This is lame in general, but here's my question: If there is no guarantee that a drafted player will stick around, or at least leave the team that drafts him with a transfer fee or a future draft pick or SOMETHING, why are draft picks worth anything at all in trades?

If MLS wants to prioritize developing American talent (either to up the level of domestic talent in MLS or to send more US players aboard and build our international reputation) they need to invest in these kids. That means upping minimum salaries and successfully developing/exposing young talent and sending them abroad at the right time. However, the players need to commit to MLS as well, by singing with the league before being drafted.

Maybe I'm way off on this, or just don't get the draft, but it all seems like a lot of work and expense for nothing. It'd be interesting to see how many of the top 50 draft picks actually stayed in MLS for a year or two.

This definitely sucks a big one, but changes to a lot of things MLS related will occur once the collective bargaining agreement expires. MLS was created to foster an environment to develop the American player. As each year hasd passed since 1996, MLS has move further away from that prinicple by not paying American players a respectable income. The league has to know this, and I think after 2009, many changes will occur to adress this problem.

Looks like the Chicago Fire have struck again. It was their 3rd string, washed up French midfielder they cut last season who tipped off Lorient to Jacobson. Pascal Bedrosian!!!!!!!!!!!

the MLS draft is becomming more and more of a waste of time... it would be fine if teams didn't continue to draft players who wind up somewhere else. how bogus!

I was going to post that it's better to be drafting quality guys who leave than draft guys who show up and can't play....then someone mentioned that Soccer By Ives was reporting Jacobsons other options from the draft. That's worrisome and possibly points out that DCU isn't focused as much on the draft as they could be.

Overall, DCU seem to have the foreign player acquisition - which is 10000 times more important than the draft - down pat and under control. Attention now needs to be paid to other player acquisition avenues, including the draft. The team has no limit on scouting, etc. Maybe they need to hire a guy/gal dedicated to the college draft - or fire the one that they have.

Finally, guys come and go all the time. Maybe this french thing won't work out and he'll be back with some foreign experience and DCU will have his rights. The guy wasn't going to start so short term this is no issue for 2008.

unless you want to be an indentured servant

it's not a good idea to sign with mls

I have no problem with United using the draft pick on him. The guy was projected as a first round talent and we didn't have a pick til late second round. They knew the reason that he was available then was because he was pursueing European options. They took a chance that they could get him if his European options fell through because they liked him better than other guys who weren't pursueing Europe. Too bad it couldn't work out, good luck to him.

Boy, we look thin at MF, no? Is Jeff Carroll ready to step it up?

This seems just as it should be -- chickens coming home to roost. The league successfully killed its anti-trust suit on the basis of global competition.

"They [The jury] found the market the M.L.S. competed in for players was global, not just the United States," said Michael Cardozo, the league's lawyer.

Don Garber, the M.L.S. commissioner, added, "To argue that we're not competing with teams overseas is ridiculous and patently untrue."

So, when a player is drafted by an MLS club, what does that club actually get? His rights, should he decide to sign with the league? If Jacobson did come back stateside, would DC retain his rights? For how long?

link didn't work

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9504EED7153FF931A25751C1A9669C8B63&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Congrats Andrew. Can't blame him. MLS needs to step up salary thresholds. Will be interesting to learn what kind of dollars he actually signed for.

Thankfully DCU has the best foreign scouting department in MLS...

I'm not an idiot. Really I'm not. We will go undefeated this season, win 7 trophies and Andrew will be in France. Who's the dummy??

DCBird-

Yes, all that you get for a player who is not pre-signed is the ability to sign them and prevent them from signing for another MLS team for two years without compensation. So if he fails in France and wants to come try MLS in the next two years he either comes to us or some other team offers us something (probably very minimal) before they can sign him.

Do you blame him? He'll get paid 2-3x as much.

If only the rest of the world hated soccer and didn't play the game.

All the available players would have no choice but to play in MLS (or perhaps USL).

The SuperDraft is a flawed system. But for the time-being, it is still a useful resourse of available (cheap) players for MLS.

Once the youth academies and other things grow as MLS does, the draft will become less and less relevant.

Does DC United still control Jacobson's rights for a year, or they don't because he never signed with the league?

I'm guessing he might come back to the league, a la Robbie Rogers.

Don't sleep on Danny Boy Stratford aka The pride of West Virginia.

The way the pay structure is set thru MLS, you can't blame a kid for testing the foreign waters. Having said that, I still think it's too early for MLS to abruptly hike the salary cap. Looking at the glass is half full scenario, american kids are getting valuable training and experience overseas where that was unheard of ten years ago. MLS needs to stay the course even if it means some of these kids leaving. Both sides will benefit in the near future.

More and more MLS is the place of last resort and if players have other options they simply take them. Can't blame them, more money, better leagues and greater exposure. MLS will continue to get the players Euro doesn't want.

Sucks that it's true. There were rumors that there was interest overseas, but considering he was a second rounder it is hard to pass on him. I see both sides on this. The part I find troubling is that Kasper was caught so off-guard.

I think DC is at fault with this pic, they know which players have not signed with the league and which ones have. They gambled and lost, People here need to realize how important the draft is for a team. TO many people on here think that superdraft is a waste of time. How about you tell that to CHivas USA who in 05 got Guzan,Bornstein,klejstan. Its not the draft that is a waste of time, but it seems like our coach or who ever makes these decisions does not care about the draft. Our 06 and 07 draft picks were a waste and it looks like our 08 drafts might be to (granted we didnt have the best pics) If you know your futbol you know who to draft, that is where the real money is made.

Besides addressing the obvious flaw in salaries at the bottom end of the scale, there is one other tweak I would like to see.

As it stands, if an MLS team's draftee goes oversees (like Needham did, and now Jacobson), then the MLS team holds his right for two years. After that, the player is essentially a free agent. Instead, I think a team ought to retain those rights indefinitely, so that, for example, if Jacobson has a nice Euro career and wants to return to MLS in ten years to finish his career, the team that originally spent a draft pick on him still has dibs and the chance to be compensated somehow. I don't get why there's the 2-year age out.

The simple solution is this: if a player signs with MLS prior to the draft, he enters the draft pool. If not, he's a free agent and teams can pursue him just as they would a player undrafted today or a player from another league. Forget tweaks to minimum salaries or exclusivity. MLS is a single entity, if a college player signs with the entity, he is allocated among teams via the draft. Otherwise, everyone for themselves.

If I'm reading correctly (and I may not be) he was signed for the rest of the season.

which means he could very well be available in June, and may have proven himself capable of pro ball (or not). If he signed for Lorient, and Lorient are ahead of Marseille, does that mean Jacobson is better than Carroll?

Per Goff, DCU sat around for 2 hours before the Jacobson pick, in part because they were surprised he wasn't taken earlier. So perhaps everyone knew the risk, DCU took it and lost.

Lorient are currently in 8th place, 13 points behind the league leaders, but only 7 points away from the 3rd relegation spot in ligue 1. So who knows what will happen. Maybe ol' dude will go to France, get sick of sitting on the bench, and decide to come back to DC after "proving his worth" in France? (since we're all busy speculating)

Why not just say that every player has to sign with the league before entering the Superdraft?

Also, DC has lost both Perkins and Boswell, the best American players on our roster, and ones we didn't even draft. We don't have a single possibls starter on our bench. We're not in a happy place.

Shocker. DCU front office screws up and loses young American talent? Nooo... Next you are going to tell me we are signing a South American we've never heard of...

----
Also, DC has lost both Perkins and Boswell, the best American players on our roster,
----

Ben Olsen, Clyde Simms, Bryan Namoff and Marc Burch all disagree with this comment.

Boswell the best American player on our roster? Hardly, I still blame Soehn for putting him in against Chicago in the second playoff game.

iagofart,

Ben Olsen weeps at his omission.

RE: Jacobson

This sort of deal happens with players in American drafts

You can't just say that every player has to sign with the league before entering the draft. You also have to say that an American player who does not sign with the league and enter the draft isn't eligible to play in MLS his first year out of college. Otherwise the draft truly will become meaningless. Right now the draft is needed because of the lack of evenly-dispersed feeder programs and the disparity in team scouting capabilities. Until such issues are addressed, the draft is important and needs to be protected.

griffin1108: then why would anyone ever sign with MLS and go through the draft? why negotiate with a single entity where you don't control your destiny, when you could negotiate with several entities and pick, based on things besides salary? Maybe you really want to play in Columbus because you can get free housing at your Aunt Millie's, which will stretch your salary, right?

I would make the MLS draft three rounds, and guarantee a first year salary to anyone drafted of a certain amount, scaled by draft level. similar to lottery picks in the NBA, they know roughly what they are getting due to the CBA. So say "sign with MLS before the draft and if you are picked in the first two rounds, here is the salary scale." everyone else who is eligible for the draft is a free agent, but can only sign for less money than the lowest ranked guaranteed draftee for the first year. So say a first rounder is guaranteed $75,000, and a second rounder guaranteed $40,000, for the lowest spot, then any free agent who didn't enter the draft may sign with any team, but for less than $40,000 the first year. teams would know what they were getting, players would know, in advance, what they were signing for, and those that chose to skip the draft would have to take less money (which might be worth it to play in a place they choose to).

Yes, it would be harder to develop talent through the draft, guaranteed draft picks would be used on people who might be able to contribute immediately, or would have a huge upside, but you can always sign developmental players for less money if they don't get drafted.

note: what players would sign is an option contract, stating that their income is dependant on a: being drafted and b: where they were drafted. players who dropped past the second round would be free agents, free to sign for any price they could negotiate and players who signed pre-draft deals and were not drafted would be complete free agents, free to sign with anyone for any price they could negotiate.

DC UNITED: SIGN STRATFORD NOW

" DCU front office screws up and loses young American talent? "

Remember when DC United were the repository for the US national team? Granted, it was the "three-and-out" era, but there was a time when having US citizenship and being on DC's books got you at least a couple friendlies.

Now we get to hear that the has-been Olsen and the never-will-bes Simms, Namoff, and Burch are "American talent."

We need to be less dependent on the draft and more dependent on the things that we control. As time goes by, the draft is going to become less and less important until it will be even less important than it is in baseball - just one of many options, and a lesser option at that!

MJ:

yeah, that was back when a: the rest of MLS really sucked, b: when fewer young Americans got the opportunity to play in Europe and c: before MLS paid enough to bring veterans in from overseas. It is not the job of DCU, or MLS, to employ USMNT members, or even develop them. it is DCU's job to find and hire the best talent they can find on the open market. if this were a first round pick, I'd say it was abad call, but they took a flier on a low second rounder who was obviously better than that.

MLS is not set up to allow teams like DC, Houston, and others who want to compete every year to spend money and slots on developmental players who could be playing elsewhere. give the team three more roster spots, and another couple of hundred thousand to spend on the draft, and Jacobson would be in black and red next year. given the current resources, who is better to sign, a draftee who might be competitive in a year, or a South American veteran who will start this year? you can't have both.

Scrap the draft and let teams sign players like every other team in the world does.

48 days to the first home match!

oh, and one more idea. Exempt draftees from counting against the senior roster for a year. give them a chance to develop and increase the value of draft picks. obviously, they would still count against the game day roster, but not the 20 man senior roster. draft picks can then give a team depth, and would be more valuable to trade.

Northzax, I think it's a no-brainer to take DC's approach and rely on a much larger source of talented players, with fewer competitors, than UNMNT-pool players. I'm sure it would be nice if those South American players would win more trophies. Is that a danger of DC's rent-a-player approach, that their mercenary attitude detracts from their ability to deliver important results?

I'm also just taking some satisfaction seeing one of the reasons DC fans got so puffed up about themselves be thrown out the window.

I'm not sure I agree that the DC front office blew this one. Kasper even says "I spoke to his agent before the draft and he never brought it up," Kasper said. The day after the draft, Jacobson told the team about other options.

So maybe DC was dumb since many people said their were rumours about him maybe going overseas but they flat-out asked his agent who didn't say anything about it. So either Kasper is lying to CHA, or the agent and Jacobson lied to Kasper. It wasn't until after the draft that he told DC about this French thing.

The solution might be that any player who wants to enter the draft needs to disclose any trials that have already been arranged so that the teams go into the draft with full disclosure.

Why does everyone think the draft system is broken?

MLS isn't going to pay competitive wages to all young players, full stop. Taking them out of the salary cap set-up doesn't affect anything relevant except to make it easier for DC to still draft after trading away all its picks.

It would probably take average salaries of $70k for draftees to stop the very minor loss of players to other leagues. Lorient is surely paying that to its youth prospects, and it's a low figure for the bigger Euro leagues.

If half the draftees stick around as either development players or roster players, they probably make a little more than a half million dollar dent in league-wide salary dollars (28 players x $20k= $560k). But if 4 rounds worth of players take a competitive salary ($70k) from MLS, the number approaches four million.

I don't like the way salaries are handled in MLS, particularly for young players. But the reason this is an "issue" to you folks is because DC doesn't make enough effort to plan for the draft, both in terms of picks and salary dollars. Other teams don't have this trouble. Leave changing the league rules to suit your particular team to the Galaxy.

"I'm also just taking some satisfaction seeing one of the reasons DC fans got so puffed up about themselves be thrown out the window."

Here's what got us excited when we had a bunch of national team players:

http://www.barra-brava.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=18&Itemid=35

How many trophies have you won, Metros??

Sucks to lose Jacobson. I say DC gives the whole draft process a giagntic middle finger, stop pretending like we care about it (evidence shows that we go south of the border anyway, plus we give picks away like they're candy), and focus squarely on developing our own talent. This really explains why this dude went so late in the whole draft to begin with.

As for those in the "MLS should raise it's wages" camp, I see where you're coming from. But at the end of the day, MLS is no where near being able to raise salaries high enough to fend off the Lorients and Hertha Berlins of the world - the Scandanavian leagues, maybe. I'm all for the kids getting paid, but let's think twice before we go running for that arguement everytime someone hops the pond.

What's done is done. Let's sign Strtford, then search for and sign the next diamnod in the rough rook out there and get on with our season.

VAMOS UNITED!!

Do you all think he would have gotten any minutes? Let him sit on the bench in France.

MLS desperately needs to raise the salary cap and teams need to use that extra money to raise the minimum wage for players, otherwise we're going to lose many of the best players to to any league that is willing to pay more.

Teams also need to get the young players more playing times. One way would be to play them almost exclusively at the US Open Cup. If teams don't make the effort to develop their young talent and MLS doesn't make much more financial effort to retain young talent, our league is going to become strictly a retirement league.

That's not going to be very interesting for the fans. Some of the most exciting players in recent years have been Freddy Adu, Jozy Altidore, Stuart Holden, Arturo Alvarez, etc. precisely because they're home-grown talent. I can imagine that least year would have been more interesting with Charlie Davies in the league, but MLS needs to pay MUCH more to land top American talent.

Arguez and now this? Man, it's tough losing these young guys to good teams/leagues. This is tough to swallow.

Is it me, or would Benny Feilhaber be best suited to playing with Jacobson at Lorient/in Ligue 1?

MJ: Stop talking out of your ass.

Seriously.

Ben Olsen, a has-been?
He just had arguably one of his best seasons in his career.

Clyde Simms, was the biggest reason for our defensive turnaround at the beginning of the season.

Namoff, is one of the most consistent RBs in the league.

Burch, has grown by leaps and bounds, and I'd be willing to bet he'll end his career with more caps than Boz.

Everyone is also ignoring the Young American talent we brought in this year: Wells. Who seems to have leap-frogged Perkins on the NT GK chart.

So we MAY have lost a 2nd Round draft pick to a French Club for a few months. Big deal. I have confidence in our FO. Why? Because we aren't the Metros, LA, or even New England. It'd be one thing if the players the Revs drafted were then sold for large sums of money to Euro clubs, or helped them win trophies. So far, they haven't. If they become worth anything, the Revs hold onto them and piss them off till their contract expires and they leave on a free.

Mastodon Juan calls it a mercenary attitude by our FO. I call it smart planning and marketing. Winning, attractive soccer puts butts in the seats. It builds brand loyalty for now and into the future for whenever we might get a stadium. Raising the salary cap now by even $500,000 isn't going to change the situation that much. MLS is nowhere near the point where it can compete finacially with the big euro leagues. Let the kids go and get valuable training and playing time that they won't get over here. It just might benefit the USMNT.

I don't understand why the MLS does not follow the world's lead and have each team negotiate with the player's agent... The system they have now keeps the wages low for the players because they can't bid against one another. The players in this country are not getting their money's worth, because the draft locks them down to a team. It's not right. I've played with and have known AJ for a while now, and can say confidently say that he's worth more than what the MLS will (not can) offer.