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Aaron Nielsen ,

January 18, 2017 Email

Aaron Nielsen



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Believe me when I say it does get tiresome writing the story of Canadians being treated unfairly when it comes to the game of soccer and especially within MLS. However, both the NWSL and MLS draft that took place at the end of last week (with the MLS draft wrapping up on Tuesday), and from my perspective, I feel gave further examples of Canadians getting the short end of the stick. The first two rounds of the MLS draft saw four Canadians get picked, and despite the two prospects who are under the new Canadian Generation Adidas Contract would cost an MLS team nothing, they had to wait late into the second round. All the while, Canadian clubs passed on them, including Toronto who could have drafted both in the second round who chose to instead trade away those picks. Meanwhile, in the NWSL, 12 Canadian players had to wait until the 19th pick in the second round to get drafted. Canadians such as Kailen Sheridan, who was acknowledged as the top goalie in NCAA Division 1, went 23rd behind another drafted keeper. While Nichelle Prince, who scored 27 goals in college and who has played against USNWT went 28th, while 25 women with no senior national team experience went ahead of her. Prince's teammate Lindsay Agnew was the first of the three Canadians drafted and went 19th. On Friday I published my top 25 prospects prior to the MLS Draft. I have confidence both in my analysis of college/youth players in Canada and the United States, as well as presenting an objective list of who I felt was the top 25 best picks in the draft. Proof of this is I was the only analyst who felt Abu Danladi should go number one over Jeremy Ebobisse, and 23 of the 25 players I mentioned were drafted in the first two rounds. The only ones not picked were Canadian Chris Nanco and Scottish Defender Jordan Wilson, who is Rangers FC trained, his father played professionally and I've seen a few times at Kentucky playing in front of Canadian Goalkeeper Callum Irving. Looking back at the list I think it gives a true account of the draft, which included pre-draft outsiders Joseph Holland, Sam Hamilton, Dominic Oduro and Kwame Awuah. Granted, what seems my biggest misstep was having Canadian GA's Adonijah Reid ranked number six and Shamit Shome number nine. In truth, I did have slight concerns regarding the players when picked as a Canadian GA and certainly wasn't as high on them as other Canadian press before the draft. Although outside or maybe even part of MLS scouting, something I'm also well aware of, is how contracts in MLS work and how it effects the salary cap. FC Dallas, who eventually signed Reid at the 40th spot and Montreal Shome at the 41st spot, get the players until they establish themselves as MLS starters at zero cost to the salary cap and that alone made them a better draft option then many of the 39 players taken ahead of them. Funny enough, based on my current opinion of the teams in MLS, I do feel FC Dallas and Montreal Impact, for different reasons, are ahead of many clubs in the league. I also feel Reid will fit in the FC Dallas system from a USSDA perspective, to their USL affiliation OKC Energy and the fact Tesho Akindele is on the team could help Reid settle in. For Shome, I expect him to spend time with the Impact's new affiliate Ottawa Fury but also feel Shome’s best asset is his technical passing, which fits in well with how the Impact play the game and he can follow in the footstep of how Jonathan Osorio is used with Toronto FC. Looking at the NWSL, we could certainly see there was a lack of interest in signing Canadians and to be honest the same could be said about the American teams in MLS. The MLS Draft is always a "hodgepodge" of athletic talent, agent and college favors and local products, as much as it is good scouting and picking the best player available. In comparison to other sports, the first 5-6 picks in MLS can be equivalent impact-wise to other sports, but after that it is like drafting in the 6th round of the NHL. Just look at Toronto FC outside of their top pick in recent history, who have a connection to Xavier University, Seattle Sounders, the US East coast, and anyone with a past history related to Chivas USA, with recently cut Skylar Thomas the only Canadian drafted by current Toronto FC management. It could be argued because of the extra pressure of the Canadian GA positions, players like Chris Nanco might have been overlooked or taken by FC Dallas or at least Montreal where Reid and Shome were picked. The added issue is these five Canadian players proved themselves in different ways that they should be drafted and if they were Americans with the same stories they would certainly have been picked, and same goes with the NWSL. Although, this also means other Canadians available for the draft are completely ignored. Players such as Quinton Duncan, Alex Halis, Darrin McLeod, and the PDL top prospect of 2016 Dominic Russo, who admittedly are not the top prospects in North America, but are comparable to the lower level players at the combine and who will be drafted on Tuesday. Removing my Canadian bias, let’s ask ourselves did Toronto FC and the Vancouver Whitecaps make the right decisions on Friday in not only skipping Reid, Shome and the other Canadains but looking at the picks they made? I'm perfectly fine with Toronto taking Brandon Aubrey, and I've watched Notre Dame quite a bit since Aubrey joined them and also through AJ Barnold who has first-hand accounts of someone on a team who played him as well analytical and statistical data from his performances. There is a lot to like from his heading ability to his passing, although ignore the free kick videos as he is not replacing Giovinco and the greatest concern is he can be beaten 1v1 by athletic forwards, but the same could be said about Nick Hagglund and Eriq Zavaleta. Toronto then traded their two early second round picks to Chicago for $75,000 in TAM. After the draft was over Toronto FC management said they were happy with the current state of the club, both at TFC and the Academy, and the $75,000 means something. First off, the $75,000 means nothing, especially since Toronto has about $500,000 now from players who left and added money given by the league. Armando Cooper and Tosaint Ricketts were probably given dramatic raises, but still the $75,000 will make little impact on the transactions and I ask people who interview management if you disagree with me for them to prove it later in the season. TFC currently have 21 players signed with the recent, and I feel good signing, of Sergio Camargo and Brandon Aubrey. The only other TFC II players who are a homegrown options this season are Ayo Akinola and Raheem Edwards, so the club most likely will have room for four or five new signings. If Toronto FC are a contender as expected, they are going to want to fill these spots with proven players, so my point is even if they didn't play them they had the roster space for Reid and Shome. For 2017 Shome and Reid would have likely played at TFC II, a club that has won 12 games and lost 33 in the first two seasons. They are a club that has some exciting talent in Akinola, Edwards, Liam Fraser, Malik Johnson and Luca Uccello, but certainly not talent deep and expected to probably finish last in the league this year. What they are also missing is a good possession midfielder who can transition play, like a Shome, and meanwhile a Reid and Akinola partnership could have been the most exciting forward duo in the 2017 USL. Long-term Tsubasa Endoh, Molham Babouli and even Jay Chapman and Marco Delgado are players who still need to prove they are MLS quality. While the more veteran players may choose to leave as well, so in a couple of years Shome and Reid might have worked their way into the first team or at least be trade bait for other options. I think it is fair to say by not picking Shome and Reid, Toronto FC’s system has less depth, something you will not be able to buy with $75,000 of TAM. Vancouver is a different story. Given the current state of their roster, unfortunately I feel the team will most likely to be one of the worst teams in MLS this season, but in the near future can be in a strong position to compete for a championship. Second, although Reid and Shome could have helped an especially depleted Vancouver Whitecaps II side, Shome and Reid are not the club’s greatest need. However, the idea of Shome pulling the strings via passes to Kekutah Manneh, Alphonso Davies, Marco Bustos and Reid would have been enticing. Thirdly, I thought Vancouver made poor decisions in the draft overall by not drafting Chris Odoi-Atsim or Reagan Dunk over Jakob Nerwinski with their first pick. I would also have taken Walker Hume, Justin Schmidt or Michael Amick over Francis De Vries. Nerwinski impressed at the combine, especially the athletic testing like speed/jumping, however I did happen to watch about ten of Nerwinski’s games at UCONN, since both Cyle Larin and Kwame Awuah were his teammates, and although I saw some of the attributes he showed at combine he never really impressed, especially compared to Odoi-Atsim and Dunk. Meanwhile, De Vries has an incredibly strong left foot and actually remind me of L1O player Niba MacDonald, although the other player he reminded me of was former Whitecaps player Craig Nitti and like Nitti, De Vries is best known for his free kick, something you probably will not get a chance to see in Vancouver. At worst, if the Whitecaps did draft Shome and Reid they have the extra cap space and international spot to bring in an impact player who could help the team more in 2017 and there would have been more talent in the pipeline who could have replaced current Whitecaps who might leave. The question is, is the whole process and setup unfair for Canadians? The answer is hard to say. This year at least the five top Canadians were told they wouldn't count as international signings, so that was not a concern, but a greater and probably more significant one when I talk Canadians in MLS is most US teams care about their community or geographical area, and that plays a role in many of their decisions. This has yet to be shown to the same degree by any of the Canadian MLS sides, not because of rules but because of arrogance regarding management that they know better. A country who is so starved for the game, we often accept it and in some cases defend their decisions. This is the reason why I want a Canadian Premier League, not only to have a more grassroots relationship with the game and the community, but maybe even have a chance to be a part of one of these clubs and give a Canadian MLS club a lesson in humility. Aaron Neilsen is a co-founder of Prospect XI (Prospect Eleven), a scouting network and online magazine dedicated to tracking/highlighting young players that refer to as "prospects" as well as their development pathways both within North America and worldwide. Follow PXI via www.prospectxi.com or on twitter @ProspectXI.