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Major League Soccer It's a Revolution in New England where five All-Stars are obtained from dispersal drafts.Gary DavidsonSoccerTimes (Friday, January 11, 2001) -- On Monday, the New England Revolution rewarded coach Fernando Clavijo with a long-term contract after producing modest results for two years with one of Major League Soccer’s least talented rosters. Today, the Revolution bestowed Clavijo, the club's fifth coach in six seasons, with five perennial MLS All-Stars as the league’s 10 teams picked over the remains of the Miami Fusion and the Tampa Bay Mutiny, teams eliminated by the MLS board of governors Tuesday to cut operating costs. The Revolution’s bounty included a pair of strikers who led MLS in scoring the last two seasons -- Alex Pineda Chacon, who topped MLS with 19 goals and 47 points en route to be named "Most Valuable Player" for Miami in 2001 and Mamadou (Big Mama) Diallo who found net 26 times in 28 Mutiny outings in 2000. New England, which finished 7-14-6 and well out of the playoffs in 2001, also picked up veteran United States national team defender Carlos Llamosa, midfielder Steve Ralston who has played more minutes than any player in MLS history and striker Jim Rooney from the pool of former All-Stars. "We filled up our needs," Clavijo said. "If you look at my roster, we needed someone to score goals, we needed a central defender, a defensive midfielder and an outside player. We looked at the needs and we tried to fill them with players in the draft. Other teams were restricted by the amount of money they had." Said Los Angeles coach Sigi Schmid, "They've rebuilt themselves with established MLS talent which is different from going outside MLS and hoping the talent understands our league. These players have proven themselves in this league already and the Revolution went about rebuilding themselves in the quickest way to do it. They positioned themselves well with a series of moves to take advantage of an unfortunate situation." Two separate drafts were held to allow teams to acquire former Miami and Tampa Bay players. Until today, player allocations were a process negotiated between a team and the MLS office. Suddenly, the seven teams that were due a total of nine allocations were to use them in a first draft of the Fusion\Mutiny pool. After that, teams drafted in reverse order of their 2001 finish for the players remaining for the Miami and Tampa Bay rosters. The Colorado Rapids opened the day’s proceedings by taking up-and-coming attack-minded defender Pablo Mastroeni, a move that possibly presaged a post-draft trade of Marcelo Balboa, an original member of the Rapids, to the MetroStars for a third-round draft pick. "Twenty-four hours ago we had no cap room and we were an 11th-placed team with two great picks," Rapids coach Tim Hankinson said. "So we really had to make drastic moves with the moving of Balboa to free up money. I think the weaknesses on the flank that have been evident for a few years with the club, to come up with Chung and Henderson, two of the best wingers in the game and that opens up the field. "We have not been strong in the tackle behind (playmaker Carlos) Valderrama. We need a ball-winner there who is also a skillful player who can interplay with a player like Valderrama and his touches. Pablo's the best guy in the entire league for that and from that standpoint I think it's been a great draft for us." After the Revs took Diallo, D.C. United selected 22-year-old keeper Nick Rimando who had blossomed under new United coach Ray Hudson in Miami in 2001. United also gained young midfielder Lazo Alavanja from the dispersal. "It was an extraordinarily tough day at the office. Today was full of emotional and professional challenges," said Ray Hudson, who became United's coach within an hour after the Fusion folding on Tuesday. "It's an enormous challenge to draft a number of players especially when you have a team like D.C. United that is stretched for salary cap as it is. It's extremely frustrating. But the rules are the same for everybody. We tried to make enough room to get what we got. We got two very, very good reasonably priced players." The MetroStars then traded veteran midfielder Mark Chung and a couple regular draft picks for the fourth allocation selection to take former Miami midfielder Diego Serna. "When we always played against (Serna), he's been a menace to our defense. It's going to be great having him play for us as opposed to against us," MetroStars coach Octavio Zambrano said. "He brings firepower to combine with what we have in Rodrigo Faria and Clint Mathis. We did come with the idea to get him. We were presented with many scenarios and in the end, the one that we chose (one that) proved to be the very best one for us. There is no secret Chung is contemplating the end and he's moving his family to Florida. And so if there was ever a time to cash that chip it was now and we feel very good about it." The San Jose Earthquakes won MLS Cup 2001, counting greatly on the offensive output of teenaged sensation Landon Donovan. Today they added. 18-year-old Devin Barclay from Tampa. "Nothing really caught our eye (from the dispersal pool, except) Devin Barclay," Quakes coach Frank Yallop said. "I feel he is a diamond. I think he is a very good player and will be a star in the league. I'm looking forward to working with him. I think Devin is a good young player and he's proven himself in the league already. So I'm really happy to have him on board. We'll probably shake something up in that area (and) see how it goes." The Galaxy expended the final allocation to gain former attacking midfielder turn defender Tyrone Marshall whose blazing speed is an asset that many league coach have craved. "We picked up an international player who can play a variety of positions for us," Schmid said. "The move gives us an impact player who can help during international call-ups for the World Cup when we're going to be losing players and he can fill in a number of spots." Today was just the start of a complex series of players transactions. That 22 players were added today only means at least that many need to be waived by Tuesday. Fans might finds some of their favorite players become victim of new acquisitions, as was the case in Colorado with Balboa. All those waived, plus the 15 from the dispersal pool who were not selected today will be made available in a waiver draft Thursday, but few if any will be selected. With two teams eliminated, 40-50 jobs have disappeared depending on how many injured players the Fusion and Mutiny might have carried had they played in 2002. Allocation Draft 1. Colorado - Pablo Mastroeni, 25, defender, formerly of Miami.
Dispersal Draft
First round
Second round
1. Colorado - Kyle Beckerman, 19, midfielder, Miami.
Third round
1. Colorado - pass
Fourth round
1. New England - pass
Gary Davidson is managing editor of SoccerTimes and can be
e-mailed at editor@soccertimes.com.. |
