A Couple of Quakes Questions

By: Melissa | February 29th, 2008

I’ve been unable to shake this head cold for over a week now so I’m lying in bed, catching up on the internets, and pondering two somewhat interesting Quakes-related articles.

Firstoff, Luis Bueno notes that our Management is eager to offload draft picks in favor of MLS regulars (Garcia, O’Brien) and comes to a pretty obvious conclusion: we don’t consider the SuperDraft the best place to find talent. I tend to agree with Management on this one. I remember right before this SuperDraft, some blogger (I really wish I had the source handy on this one) posted the list of every #1 MLS draft pick and, well, a lot of those guys just aren’t around anymore. Sure, there’s the possibility we could pick up the next Edu or Guzan, but its kind of a crap shoot and while Edu impressed during his first MLS year, it really took Guzan almost two years before he was able to get into gear with Chivas. Anyways, Bueno covers this and points out that despite choosing not to gamble in the draft, we are instead taking chances on established players with possible flaws (most notably O’Brien’s recent injuries) so at the end of the day, we may be in the same position whether we use the SuperDraft or not. I think Bueno has a point, but he doesn’t highlight the fact that most of the guys we grabbed so far are still young. So despite our interest in picking experienced players, we still managed to get guys not close to retirement (knock on wood, crosses fingers, etc etc). And Bueno says Garcia may not be playing in a five years (valid point = yes) while Chance Myers may be an anchor with our Nats BUT in five years, Myers might be playing in Europe so both of these scenarios could easily not benefit our team in the long run.

Over at Soccer Spin, the person who posts there (reveal yourself!) ponders whether the Quakes should be looking to add Mexican players to their roster. The argument is based on our success selling out Sunday’s game as well as the last game against Guatemala. So there are plenty of fans in the Bay Area who support the Mexican Nats and the Quakes are banking on their turnout when the Fire roll into town in April. Soccer Spin reviews the current list of Mexican players in MLS and they are, except for Mendoza, technically at the waning portion of their careers. Soccer Spin’s hope is that the Quakes can grab a young player like Mendoza who isn’t a FMF star but still has the skills to be a great contributor to the team. I think thats a great idea except for the fact that I’m of the opinion Mendoza’s situation is very unique and I’m just not sure the Quakes have the infrastructure in place to emulate it. Mainly, Chivas USA started out as a feeder team to Guadalajara so Mendoza came to the US because he wasn’t considered good enough for the mothership team. Basically, he was overlooked. So he got to spend time in MLS, get better, and now he maybe has the opportunity to return to Guadalajara. I have no clue if the Quakes have ace scouts traveling around in Mexico, watching youth games, and taking copious notes, but I think it will be hard for us to discover an overlooked Mexican player without the kind of connections Chivas USA have already. Rather, (and I wrote this in the comments of the Soccer Spin post) I’m more interested in seeing how our youth leagues grow – especially now that MLS is granting permission for teams with established leagues to pull players from those rosters. I just think its more likely we’ll find that overlooked player in our own backyard versus taking our chances in Mexico where there’s a more popular, more respected, and higher paying league. Also, playing the local kid will, I think, also be a powerful way to put butts in seats. We’ve got one roster spot to entice a star, be it Mexican or otherwise, but we’ve got the rest of the roster and the appropriate infrastructure to find and develop local talent and turn those guys into great players. Blah, I dunno – thoughts? - I’m rambling and I think the dog wants to go outside now.