INDIANAPOLIS -- On the global soccer scale, very little can compete with David Beckham, who signed a $250 million contract to join the Los Angeles Galaxy during the 2007 season on Thursday. At Friday's MLS SuperDraft, the club didn't even try.
The Green and Gold held more picks than any other team heading into the event, with seven selections on their plate. However, they traded both of their first-round selections in exchange for allocation money, pulling off deals with the New England Revolution and Toronto FC.
Perhaps Alexi Lalas and company simply didn't want to be disturbed, as they conducted a live satellite interview with their newest super-hero at 1 p.m. ET, just as the first round of the four-round draft was wrapping up.
BECKHAM, PART TWO: While the Galaxy have been getting all the headlines in Los Angeles, their biggest rivals and Home Depot Center co-habitants Chivas USA picked up an Englishman of their own on Friday, though he is slightly less well-known than Beckham.
Though the club doesn't currently have a head coach following Bob Bradley's departure to the U.S. national team, assistant Preki stepped up to the plate and selected John Cunliffe with the seventh overall pick. The forward was named the adidas MLS Player Combine's MVP after starring at NCAA Division II Fort Lewis College.
Cunliffe is the earliest selected Division II player in MLS draft history, with Mike Petke the previous, when he was taken eighth overall in 1998 out of Southern Connecticut State University by the MetroStars. Yura Movsisyan, the fourth pick overall last year out of Pasadena City College, is the earliest non-Division I player taken in the draft.
A Manchester United fan, Cunliffe is excited about potentially facing off against his childhood hero.
"That would be a wonderful opportunity if it happened," he said. "I just think the whole Beckham deal is a good thing for U.S. soccer. I'm a Manchester United fan, so while he was with Manchester United I was a big Beckham fan."
MOVING TOWARD YOUTH: FC Dallas made a clear move towards putting together a younger side in 2007 by completing some of the day's most intriguing transactions.
The Hoops took U.S. U-20 national team midfielder Anthony Wallace with the ninth overall pick in the SuperDraft before selecting 15-year-old Abdus Ibrahim with the first pick of the second round. In addition, Dallas sent 32-year-old defender Greg Vanney to the Colorado Rapids for a second-round pick, which was used to select Brown University product Andrew Daniels.
"I think youth is always great and I think it's okay to have youth if you feel that these players are ready to come in and play," said FCD head coach Steve Morrow. "I think Anthony Wallace is certainly ready to play. For me, it doesn't matter how young they are. If they're good enough and they're ready, that's all I look for."
Ibrahim, a native of Ethiopia, is a member of the U.S. U-17 national team. The 6-1 striker is looked at more as a project for the future, but a project Morrow is ready to take on.
"'Ibi' is a great talent for the future. We wanted to try and get him and we were delighted to get him with our second pick," Morrow said. "I think a lot of teams drafted positionally before us which helped our cause a little bit."
As the second-youngest player ever to be selected in an MLS SuperDraft, a lot will be expected of Ibrahim.
"I never expected that I would come out in the second round, but I was very happy when I got called," he said. "It is very great. I don't know anything about FC Dallas but hopefully if I work hard and mentally stay focused I'll be good."
RSL MAKES MOST OF LITTLE: Real Salt Lake were one of three teams that only made two selections Friday at the Indiana Convention Center, but they addressed some specific needs with their picks.
John Ellinger first picked up highly-touted U.S. U-20 goalkeeper Chris Seitz out of the Univeristy of Maryland. While RSL already have an experienced veteran in the starting role in the form of Scott Garlick, the future of Nick Rimando, who arrived in a swap for Jay Nolly as part of the Freddy Adu deal, is more uncertain.
"I did everything possible to try to keep the goalkeepers out of that deal, but that's part of the deal. So then you get Nick Rimando, who's a quality 'keeper, but he's out of contract so you don't know how that's going to end up," Ellinger said. "We had to take care of our needs. We're extremely excited to get someone of his caliber who we think will push for the starting national team job in the future."
RSL also picked up Wake Forest midfielder Steven Curfman with a third-round pick before securing the rights to New England forward Kyle Brown in a three-team deal that emerged from the fourth round.
"I liked (Brown) last year a lot," Ellinger said. "When he pops up and is thrown at you in the 60-second whirlwind in the end there when we didn't have a draft pick ... that's pretty good too. He can play up front and wide, too. He's got pace, he's athletic and he's someone who's going to help us."
Jonathan Nierman is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
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