Some Sounders MLS Superdraft Wrap-Up

Sizing up the day there are a couple of ways to look at it. Either you can look at the quality of the players and think that Adrian Hanauer and company did an awesome or you could feel that the club was rather underwhelming in it’s opportunities.I don’t think there is a huge split and I think general that most fans are pretty happy with the selection. Heck, MLSsoccer thought that the Sounders selections moved them into the top tier of teams today.

Honestly, I don’t really think you can come away from today feeling anything other than optimism. I’m not the biggest fan of Eriq Zavaleta though I’m extremely surprised he lasted to the 10th pick and generally thought they got great value for the pick. I’m not in love with giving up the rumoured 150k in allocation money either. But the important thing, and really this is the whole point, the Sounders got a guy they think can impact the club this year.

He’s certainly got the physical and technical tools to be good at either in the end of the field–and from the sounds of it he could very well be featured as the third centerback on the club. The one thing that worries me–and maybe it’s foolish or silly, but his double duty nature and the his natural ability up top could lead to some hesitation in commitment to a position. It’s imperative that we figure out how the coaching staff wants to use him and they implement that style and coach him a long.

Geoff Cameron is someone that he’s going to see some comparisons to–not sure it’s apt, just yet–but he’s got a lot of athleticism and technical ability as a centerback let’s just hope that there isn’t nearly as much back and forth on a position as Cameron was unique in his ability to adapt and play so fluid. The problem is for everyone one Geoff Cameron there are 8 or 9 “can’t miss” guys that were really talented that a coach just couldn’t figure out where they needed to be on the pitch.

Both Zavaleta and Dylan Remick could very well see minutes for this club. There are a lot of factors to consider but with additional rumours starting to surface that–as suspected–this is just the start of some possible domino’s tipping, it’s possible that both have some key roles in the 18 this summer.

Of course the draft isn’t entirely over, the rest of it will conclude with the Supplemental Draft, where the Sounders have 5 picks over 4 rounds on Tuesday. I would expect that they largely find tackle dummies and general fodder for camp, but there is certainly a possibility for a productive player to sneak in there oblivious to all of us.