Major Link Soccer: Draft Day Looms, Ethan Finlay Bags A Treble

There are only four days left until the 2012 MLS SuperDraft gets underway. It will be televised on ESPN 2 and 3 at 9a or Noon if you happen to be on the East Coast. The next few days will be crucial for draft hopefuls as it's a time when their stock can rise or take a trip to the garbage pit.

In a interesting turn the Guardian over in the UK, decided to let the supporter groups for all 19 MLS sides do the heavy lifting when it comes to this years SuperDraft. The ECS and Gorilla FC were involved with this, which is nice to get some overseas press time. Greg Mockos representing the ECS and Sam Chesneau from Gorilla FC.

What does the team need?
Personally I would love to see a Central Attacking Midfielder and solid backups for the attacking fullbacks we tend to use for our style of play. We need depth and rotation for all the competitions we are in this year.

-Greg Mockos Emerald City Supporters

Over at Rant Sports they have the break down of Day 2 of the Combine, both giving game recaps and their take on who is moving up the draft board and who is on their way down. Key names on the way up include UCLA Keeper Brian Rowe and his teammate forward Chandler Hoffman. Only real notable on their way down, is Rowe's competition at Keeper: Fordham's Ryan Meara.

Creighton Forward Ethan Finlay didn't waste anytime making up for his absence for the first match of the combine. Flight delays and not much sleep didn't hold him back from impressing right away. So what does he do? He goes out and bags a treble with in the first half hour. Not bad for no rest and enduring flight delays.

"It was a great result for the team and it was a good day for myself," Finlay said. "It was nice to come out and get the legs moving after not really playing some good soccer in at least a month now."

-Ethan Finlay

The opposing team really didn't have chance as it was a Finlay, Generation Adidas and UC Santa Barbara forward Sam Garza and Akron's Luke Holmes.

"We clicked right away," Finlay said. "I talked to Sam before the game and I love how he plays. And Luke, I hadn't seen him play too much, but his movement off the ball (is good). We found (each other). Sometimes, I'd start out on the right, then I'd be on the left and then I'm playing up top. The movement is what made us so difficult to cover today."

Our Cascadia rivals to the south have their eye's on a pair of central defenders - Louisville's Austen Berry (who trained with the Portland Timbers last summer) and everyone's (it seems) favorite Generation Adidas center back Andrew Jean-Baptist.

"I thought (Berry) had another very solid day," Magee said. "He and Baptist were the center back pairing and they looked pretty comfortable, just as they did (Friday) night. I could be wrong, but that combination has yet to give up a goal."

- Timbers Assistant Coach Amos Magee

Over at Soccer By Ives, they have a great spotlight on three of the gems of this years draft class. Chandler Hoffman, Dom Dwyer and Casey Townsend are on display. Take a minute, head over there and check out the videos.

Over at SBN's D.C. United blog, Black and Red United - they've done a bang up job of profiling Andrew Wenger and Matt Hedges. In case you were wondering DCU has the 7th pick.

While we're on the topic of SBN blogs, Waking The Read - SBN's Toronto FC blog, they talk about a couple of Canadian players in the combine: Evan James and Babayele Sodade , while they don't think they'll go in the SuperDraft - they will most likely be part of the Supplemental Draft.