The 2009 MLS Draft took place this afternoon in St. Louis. The 2009 MLS Draft had the 15 teams from Major League Soccer take their turns at drafting the best players away from their college teams, and showing who the top rookies will be for the 2009 season of professional soccer. The MLS Draft 2009 saw the Seattle Sounders of Seattle, Washington draft forward Steve Zakuani of Akron College with the first overall pick of the draft. Steve Zakuani is currently a sophomore at the college, and stands 6 feet tall.
The 2009 Major League Soccer draft was scheduled to be four rounds, where the 15 teams of Major League Soccer all reported to St. Louis, Missouri to make their picks. Each round is 15 picks long, so by the end of the night 60 players have been drafted out of college and into the ranks of professional soccer. Many call this the 2009 MLS Superdraft, and it gives a new outlook to teams that have struggled the past season, and gives them the chance to compete even better the following season with a new influx of young talent. Many of the players will be drafted before they are seniors, and their sheer talent level will allow them to make the jump from organized games to a professional level.
The MLS draft works by assigning the team with the worst record the first pick, and the team with the best record the last pick. Every other team is seeded according to that format, and then they go about starting to selections. What that meant was that Seattle would start each round of the draft, and it helped them to get a number of picks that should be able to help them in the coming seasons. In the first round the Sounders chose Steve Zakuani, in the second round they when with defender Evan Brown, and in the third round they again went with a defensive scheme and drafted Jared Karkas. The second pick of the draft went to Toronto, who had completed a trade with San Jose to attain the pick, and then drafted mid-fielder Sam Cronin out of Wake Forest.
The Major League Soccer draft each year is a great way to learn who the most talented players are going to be in the following season of soccer. These are the next young superstars of the league, and it is always interesting to see which schools will put the most talent into MLS. In the first round, the University of Maryland had three of their players drafted (Omar Gonzalez as the 3rd pick, Rodney Wallace as the 6th pick, and Jeremy Hall as the 11th pick) and also had a player drafted in the second round (Graham Zusi at #23) and the third round as well. The picks look to make this another exciting year of soccer, and Seattle will be expecting big things from the #1 overall pick.
Source: 2009 MLS Draft Site
