MLSSoccer Mock Expansion Sees Two Different Sounders Leaving
Two of their three picked O'Brian White. The other picked Patrick Ianni. Over twitter Matt Doyle (who does their tactics stories) said he'd go Servando Carrasco.
It would seem Greg Lalas and Jason Saghini are gamblers
6 months ago
Dave Clark
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I don't think it is out of the question
The Sounders took the gamble with Parke in 2008, and in the end it worked out even if we only got him in 2010.
The only problem with Parke was that he was suspended for failing a drug test
That many people overexagerrated. Parke was perfectly healthy, and was a good defender for NY before he was suspended.
White has an injury/condition (bloodclotting) that may not allow him to play again. There is a big difference between the two.
His intention to try to get a contract in Europe was known as well
Of course there is still a difference. Still, the expansion draft is only one of the ways for an expansion team to obtain players. I think it is totally reasonable to take a risk with one or two picks if they think that the potential payout is big enough.
We essentially took the same risk
White was coming off of knee surgery and no one knew if he’d pan out
The SAH Links Guy
I think knee surgery is easier for a team to deal with than the blood clot issue
With knee surgery there is a pretty well established time line for everything, but with blood clots I think it is a lot less well established, certainly in terms of returning to play at a professional level.
I am
wondering if they took into account the seriousness of white’s injury when they were doing the mock draft. I mean 2 blood clot surgeries.
Interesting trends outside of the S@H world
OBW has been a popular pick in many non-Sounder specific sites that I’ve looked at in the past two days. Certainly Riley and Fucito have come up, but so have Carrasco, Ianni, Wahl and our GKs. The last one caught me so offguard that I didn’t even realize that Boss was from the Sounders unprotected list when his name popped up on one person’s list of who they would choose.
I’ve even seen some lists where the Sounders managed to get through the expansion without losing anyone.
As with anything, this should all be taken with a grain of salt. Analysts and fans don’t have the same vested interest that the Impact FO has or insight into the Impact roster strategy.
OBW is a calculated gamble on the part of the Sounders. They are betting that his recent health issues make him too much of a risk for one of the Impact’s 10 expansion picks. Particularly with some of the other attacking possibilities available.
I don't know if OBW is that much of a calculated gamble
It’s possible they just think that Ochoa is better, and if we get to keep both of them, so much the better.
I was suprised to see White go as the #1 pick in two cases.
Then I realized that because there’s only one team picking, it doesn’t matter the order in which players are selected.
Still, I have to think Montreal would go the safe route and pick players who are known to be healthy. White is certainly talented but does anyone really know what his prognosis is? I know the Sounders are optimistic but I haven’t even heard definitively what was causing the clots in the first place. If I were Montreal, I wouldn’t select him when there are safer options out there at forward.
Still some timing involved
I was surprised on the OBW going first picks as well (and Ianni going 4 for that matter). I think there is still some timing issues as Montreal can work trades throughout the process and building anticipation or dispair to drive a deal could lead to one pick ahead of the other.
You list OBW first for the article headlines
It draws us Sounders fans like a magnet
The SAH Links Guy
Not only the health issues, but it isn't like he's had a consistently stellar season in MLS
He was looking very good for us when he went down, but Montreal can’t have more than a guess that he’d be able to keep up that kind of form for an entire season. It’s not like he was an MLS starter for a couple years and then went down. His potential contributions over the course of a season are a big question mark at the moment. I get how much potential he has – a lot – but I’d be surprised to see Montreal take that big of a chance when there are a lot more fairly sure bets out there as far as attackers.
I agree
I think he is overrated because of the good form hes was in when he got injured.
I'm not saying that I think he's bad or won't be good if/when he comes back
I just think that we can’t know if he’ll be good or not based on his past performance.
Seattle
can’t wait for White to return to full health/fitness. Seattle needs to sign someone up top as if White isn’t able to return.
Also, in his brief success with Seattle, he seemed to have a lot of talent around him
When he was healthy at the beginning of the season, Zak was healthy, he got to partner with Montero, and at least for a few games, he had the benefit of some Mauro Rosales crossing. if you consider the outside mids and the forwards to be the most attacking players in Seattle’s system, then basically OBW was the last player you’d think teams would choose to worry about. To oversimplify, I think that as the fourth-best attacker in a four-man attack, OBW could be really valuable. But if he has to shoulder more of the burden, like in Toronto, then I think it’s harder to project success.
Carrasco
I’ll just say this: I’d hate to lose him if only because it would mean losing Alex Morgan, too.
by ryanhealy on Nov 23, 2011 8:23 AM PST reply actions 10 recs
Can't rec this enough
Even if it’s only kind of association by proxy…that’s good enough for me
by chrisperry1983 on Nov 23, 2011 8:40 AM PST up reply actions
At least we'll always have Hope Solo.
Still, two is better then one :D
I'm increasingly convinced it's going to be Carrasco.
There’s less upside amongst potential draftees at that position than any other and Carrasco has all of the tools to be a good holding mid in this league for quite some time.
If it ends up being carrasco
we would need to find a replacement for back up for alonso which shouldn’t be that hard unless we have someone already on the roster.
Last year's expansion draft would be a reasonable justification for that thought
Carrasco is arguably better than Sturgis, or the rough equivalent, and we lost Sturgis last year.
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