MLS Superdraft: The sound of one hand clapping

If a league holds a draft and no one is around to report on it, is it still Super?

MLS held its annual craptacular Superdraft. Click here for the results. If you've read my blog, you know that I don't put much stock in MLS's annual Superdraft.

But his year's draft was notable because it featured MLS newest franchise, Seattle Sounders FC. With the first overall pick of their first Superdraft as an MLS club, Seattle chose English striker Steve Zakuani of the University of Akron. He was Soccer America's Player of the Year and the pick by many MLS mock drafts (yes, they exist...some people have too much time on their hands I guess). Will he live up to the hype? Well, history's certainly against him (see Chris Carrieri et. al.). But recently the performances of the No.1 picks have been a bit more mixed (exhibit a: Nikolas Besagno-2006, exhibit b: Maurice Edu-2007 and exhibit c: Chance Myers-2008).

Other Seattle selections were Wake Forest defender Evan Brown, left back Jared Karkas from Azusa Pacific (a Christian college) and midfielder Michael Fucito from Harvard. Seattle did well to draft defensively in the later rounds, as most clubs have had more success in the Superdraft finding defense rather than offense.