MLS Mock Draft: Seven Akron Players Picked, Just Two Goalkeepers
On Wednesday night, 19 editors congregated online to perform SB Nation's one-of-a-kind MLS Mock Draft. Every team was represented by a different blogger (save for the New England Revolution, whose assigned blogger had to drop out with a illness) and the vast majority of them cover their teams on a daily basis. It took us almost exactly three hours to complete two full rounds.
There were some definite surprises - newly minted Generation Adidas signee Michael Tetteh going fifth overall and John Rooney being picked at the top of the second round were the biggest - but the draft played out in a largely believable manner. This draft is considered among the deepest in MLS history and, maybe because of that, has elicited a wide variety of opinion about who will go where.
Ours was no different. After Darlington Nagbe going first as expected, our draft does not look like many others. Omar Salgado, the 17-year-old striker who most recently played for Chivas de Guadalajara, went third. Zac MacMath, generally considered to be the best goalkeeping prospect to come through the draft in some time, fell all the way to 14th. The Union passed on Corey Hertzog, a player they recently tried to sign to a Homegrown Player contract.
Some other notes about the draft: our crew selected all seven University of Akron players that were eligible; Josh Ford and MacMath were the only two goalkeepers selected; two fullbacks were among the first five picks but the third wasn’t picked until the seventh pick of the second round; three players from each the University of Maryland and the University of North Carolina were chosen and two players from UC Berkeley, UC Santa Barbara, and Indiana University were taken. No other school had more than one player chosen.
What follows in a quick reference guide to the Mock Draft. If you click on the player names, you’ll be taken to the pick and get a full explanation, as well as some commentary from WV Hooligan’s Drew Epperley. To get more, please check out the bloggers’ individual sites which are linked with each pick.
First Round
6. New England Revolution: Corey Hertzog, forward, Penn State
8. Vancouver Whitecaps: Michael Farfan, midfielder, University of North Carolina
10. Sporting Kansas City: A.J. Soares, defender, UC Berkeley
Second Round
1. Whitecaps: John Rooney, forward, Macclesfield Town
2. Timbers: Cole Grossman, midfielder, Duke University
3. Sounders: Josh Ford, goalkeeper, University of Connecticut
4. Timbers: Ryan Kinne, forward, Monmouth University
5. Union: LLevi Houapeu, forward/midfielder, UMBC
6. Revolution: Rich Balchan, midfielder, University of Maryland
7. Red Bulls: Chris Korb, fullback, University of Akron
9. Sounders: Amani Walker, forward, UC Irvine
11. Sounders: Bobby Warsaw, midfielder/defender, Stanford University
12. Red Bulls: Josue Soto, midfielder, Southern Methodist University
13. United: Daniel Keat, midfielder, Dartmouth University
14. Sporting KC: J.C. Banks, midfielder, UW Green Bay
15. Earthquakes: Jason Herrick, forward, University of Maryland
16. Galaxy: C.J. Sapong, forward, James Madison University
17. FC Dallas: Tyler Lassiter, defender, NC State
18. Rapids: Davis Paul, forward, UC Berkeley
