Philly Sports Jabronis
By Brian W. Ferrie
PHILADELPHIA – First of all, let me just say I have no idea what the Philadelphia Union is doing. I think that sentiment was shared by most of the other fans who packed the downtown Pennsylvania Convention Center yesterday for the 2014 Major League Soccer (MLS) SuperDraft. The Union is coming off an OK season in which they went 12-12-10 and failed to make the playoffs. But yesterday’s draft marked a golden opportunity for the team to make a big splash in MLS. For one thing, they had the 2nd and 6th overall picks in the first round. For another, the draft was being held in Philly for the first time since 2010, which meant the spotlight of American soccer would shine brightly on the team, its town and fans.
The Union had earned the 6th pick by virtue of its own record from the 2013 season. The 2nd overall pick, however, the team fleeced from awful Chivas USA thanks to the midseason trade of Gabe Farfan. A decent midfielder, Farfan had been pressed into service as the starting left back for much of his Union tenure despite being neither left-footed nor a natural defender.
From this observer’s perspective, the Union’s needs entering the draft were, in order: 1) midfield, 2) defense, 3) forward, and 4) goalkeeper. You’ll notice that goalkeeper was dead last. There’s a reason for that. You’re only allowed to have one goalkeeper on the field at a time and the Union already has a good young one in Zac MacMath. Still just 22 years old, MacMath has earned significant experience as the Union’s primary keeper the past two seasons and finished third in MLS last season with 12 shutouts. Not to mention, the Union just drafted him 5th overall in the 2011 MLS SuperDraft.
Why do I bring all this up? Because on Thursday, shortly after the draft began at 12 p.m., Eastern MLS commissioner Don Garber stepped to the podium and announced the Union had completed a trade with D.C. United to acquire the 1st overall pick (for the 2nd pick and allocation money). The atmosphere in the convention center, already teeming with excitement, ratcheted up another notch. Who were they going to take? One of the two stud center backs from the University of California (Steve Birnbaum or Christian Dean)? Bucks County native Steve Neumann, a Georgetown midfielder who won Big East Player of the Year and made no secret about how happy he’d be to play for his hometown Union? Or maybe Maryland forward Patrick Mullins, the prolific scorer and two-time winner of the Hermann Trophy (college soccer’s version of the Heisman)?
As it turned out, none of the above, because the Union drafted… a goalkeeper. That’s right, the team traded up for the top pick in the draft to select a player at the one position they seemingly didn’t need to worry about. His name is Andre Blake, a 23-year-old from the University of Connecticut. And to be fair, he was widely seen as the top overall prospect in the draft. At 6-4, Blake has great size and has already been called up by the Jamaican national team for World Cup qualifiers. My problem isn’t with Blake the player. It’s with the Union’s lack of need for him. In my mind, you can win an MLS Cup with MacMath as your starting keeper. You can’t win one with the midfield the Union trotted out last season, and to a lesser extent with the defensive grouping, particularly the left-back situation.
“We got the best player in the draft, and that, I think, is really important,” said Union manager John Hackworth. “He can do stuff now that nobody in our league can do.”
After the Blake pick, the Union’s draft selections were even more peculiar. Union fans turned their attention to the No. 6 pick, hopeful that one or two of the outfield players the team might have selected first overall would still be around when they picked again. But successive disappointments followed as Birnbaum, Dean and Neumann all came off the board with the 2nd, 3rd and 4th picks, respectively. Creighton defender Eric Miller, taken at No. 5, still left Mullins on the board if the Union wanted him. They didn’t. When Garber came to the microphone to announce the 6th pick, he instead told the audience the Union had traded down to pick 10. This news clearly deflated the fan section. But when the 10th pick rolled around, Mullins still remained on the board, as was Ben Sweat, the South Florida player and consensus best left back in the draft. Surely the Union would take one of them, right? Nope, they traded down again, this time to the 15th pick.
There they finally made a selection: Pedro Ribeiro, a creative midfielder and native Brazilian who played his college ball at Coastal Carolina. Again, I don’t fault the player. At 6-4 like Blake, Ribeiro is an imposing figure and the Union desperately needs playmaking ability in the midfield. Plus, as a natural left-footer, he might even be able to fill in at left back if need be. It’s just that, how does a .500 team decide it can afford to pass up the talent available at both the 6th and 10th picks? The Union justified that decision after the draft by saying Ribeiro was a player they had targeted at No. 6 and were hopeful he’d still be around at 15. They also knew a little more about Ribeiro’s game than most because he had previously played for the Union’s Premier Development League affiliate, Reading United.
“He’s got serious tools,” Hackworth related. “The way he plays – his technical ability, his creativity, [and] he’s got great size and pace to go with it. We feel like we got a little bit of a steal.”
When the Union finally addressed their defense, it wasn’t until the 2nd round. With the 25th overall pick, they took center back Kevin Cope from Michigan State and with the 27th pick, left back Robbie Derschang from Akron. How will they turn out? Your guess is as good as mine, but picks in round two aren’t generally expected to be impact players in MLS. By way of comparison, the Union also had two picks in round two last year. One of them, Stephen Okai, was drafted 31overall and didn’t even make the team for the 2013 season. The other, Don Anding, got drafted No. 26 overall, played limited minutes his rookie year and was waived after the season.
Of this year’s second-rounders, Hackworth commented, “Cope is a center back and that was clearly a positional need. And there’s a lot of center backs in this draft. For me, he was one of the most solid and consistent center backs we saw all year long. With Robbie, there weren’t many options at left back, but he was our favorite guy and we’re pretty surprised we were able to pick him up in the second round.”
So there you have it. The Union drafted a goalie, midfielder and two defenders. Also in the past week, they traded defender Jeff Parke and the 6th slot in the MLS allocation order to D.C. United for fellow defender Ethan White and the No. 1 slot in the allocation order. Rumor has it the Union is actively leveraging that position to sign U.S. national team midfielder Maurice Edu from Stoke City in the English Premier League. They added more midfield help by signing Argentinian Cristian Maidana in the transfer market and could be close to a deal for French midfielder Vincent Nogueira as well.
Overall, I’d say the draft was … strange. I hope Blake turns out to be one of the best goalkeepers MLS has ever seen, befitting his status as the first keeper drafted with the top pick. Likewise, I hope Ribeiro becomes an MLS All Star and injects much-needed creative play into the Union lineup. Maybe Cope will provide depth and quality to the defensive backfield and Derschang can be a long-term answer at left back. Not to mention, maybe the Union can manage to get a decent return for MacMath, even though every team in the league can see Philly now has a goalie logjam and will probably try to lowball in trade talks. But that’s a lot of ifs and maybes coming out of a draft that could have generated more clear excitement had the Union handled it differently. My concern is it’s just as likely Birnbaum will become a star with rival D.C. United or local hero Neumann a great player for rival New England Revolution, making the Union look back with regret on all that draft-day maneuvering.
As for a grade, let’s give the team a “C” for now, with the caveat that rating could rise or fall significantly based on how all these players develop over the next few years.
Brian W. Ferrie is a contributing writer for Philly Sports Jabronis.
