MLS Rules Confuse Me... Again

I spend more time than I should trying to understand MLS' rules when it comes to player acquisitions.  I do this because the rules as a whole aren't exactly that straight forward, with the draft, "college protection", discovery claims, allocations, and the like, it can be hard for the casual fan to understand exactly what is going on.  Today though I am almost at a loss because of what would appear to be a contradiction of MLS' rules.

Today the teams participating in the lottery for Marcus Tracy were released.  The lottery is designed as a way to allocate a player out to a team so that they are not able to hold out for a specific club.  Tracy was the 2008 Hermann Award winner as the best college player.  He was drafted with the 56th pick of the 2009 MLS draft by Houston.  He fell so far because Tracy was already planning to bypass MLS and sign with Aalborg of the Danish league.  The Dynamo though made an offer to Tracy which allowed them to retain his MLS rights for 2 years.  The reason for this is because of the "College Protection List" which if a player is drafted but doesn't sign with the league the team retains the player's rights for 2 years.  That expired on December 31, 2010 for the Dynamo.  So tomorrow Tracy is going through a lottery.

What makes it confusing is a situation involving Sporting Kansas City.  Earlier this year, Sporting KC signed local KC player, Michael Thomas after making a trade with the San Jose Earthquakes.  Thomas had been drafted by the Earthquakes in 2010, but after being offered a contract, instead signing with Halmstads in Sweden.  Based on the "College Protection List" and the information on Tracy being offered a contract, Thomas' period should have expired on December 31, 2011.  On January 17th, 2012 though, Sporting announced that they had traded a supplemental draft pick to the Quakes for Thomas.  At the time I was told that because San Jose made an offer, Thomas stayed on their "College Protection List" forever.  That doesn't make sense in light of the Tracy situation.

So if Thomas had been offered a contract by San Jose the same way that Houston had offered one to Tracy, why is the way that the two were/are allocated to the league different?  Honestly it's not a matter of the draft pick, the Earthquakes drafted Tyler Krumpe from Loyola Marymount, who didn't even make the Quakes roster.  The point of this is MLS seeming to have used two different ways of bringing a player into the league when both players' situations when they "left" the league were the same.

It just doesn't make sense.  The only thing I can really think as a potential reason for it is because of the last reserve game of the year last year against Dallas.  In that game, Thomas was the infamous Trialist 1.  At that time, Thomas was still on San Jose's "College Protection List" so maybe as a sign of good faith with the Quakes, or because the Quakes realized it was Thomas and complained to the league, they made the trade.  If so, why not just state that instead of stating something that is contradictory to your own rules that you publish on the web?

 As I said earlier, in the end this isn't about the draft pick we've given up, I'd have rather given up a throw away draft pick than our lottery spot for Thomas, because in the lottery there's no guarantee that he'd end up in KC.  My problem is the fact that with two seemingly similar situations the league is going two totally opposite ways with the way a player is allocated to a team.  I love Sporting KC, and I love the league, I love that my son will get to grow up watching professional soccer in the US, but I wish the league would follow the own rules that they have set up.

Lee Nguyen Lottery Tomorrow

The lottery to allocation Lee Nguyen to an MLS team is set to talk place tomorrow. Rumor is that all the teams in the league have applied to be in the lottery. For those that don't know, the lottery is based off of a team's record over the last season. That being said, with Sporting KC finishing 5th in the regular season last year, their chances are not great. The best chance goes to the Vancouver Whitecaps who finished with the worst record last season, followed by New England.

For those that don't know, Nguyen is a former US national team pool player, earning 3 caps for the USA in 2007, including 2 in the Copa America. Nguyen left Indiana after his freshman year joining PSV Eindhoven. Nguyen played only one game for the Dutch club before moving to Randers in Demark. Once again he didn't appear much for the club. For the past few years though Nguyen has been playing in the Vietnamese league, not exactly the most high profile league in the world. Last year FC Dallas was apparently interested in bringing him in but the league did not approve of the deal. So it'll be interesting to see where he lands and if KC lands the midfielder.

Sporting Win Saad Lottery

Today MLS held a weighted lottery after the league signed Michigan University standout, Soony Saad to a contract. Sporting KC was one of only 4 teams available for the draft that chose to participate. Along with KC, Chicago, Chivas, and Portland participated in the draft. Real Salt Lake, San Jose, Philadelphia, and Columbus were unable to participate due to winning previous lotteries. The other 10 teams chose not to participate in the draft. KC had the third best chance in the draft after Chivas and Chicago.

KC with it's 21.2% chance though ended up winning the lottery for the forward, Saad. And unlike the previous lottery that KC won, for Luis Gil, Saad will actually come to KC and play here. Based off comments from both Peter Vermes and Saad today, both sound extremely encouraged about the results of the lottery. Last season at Michigan, Saad as a freshman started 24 of Michigan's 25 games as the Wolverines made the NCAA College Cup, losing to eventual champion Akron. He set a team record scoring 19 goals in the season. After the season, Saad tried to find a spot abroad, having trials in a few countries before coming back to the United States and signing with MLS.

This is actually a good fit for the Wizards and for Saad. KC is currently deep at the forward position before they even signed Saad. Currently with Omar Bravo, Teal Bunbury, Kei Kamara, CJ Sapong, Milos Stojcev, Graham Zusi, Birahim Diop, and others that can play forward, KC has depth at the position. This means that Saad will not be asked to play immediately. He'll likely get some minutes during the upcoming busy schedule, but he won't be put under immense pressure to produce immediately. Vermes and KC will be able to let Saad develop without that pressure, which in the long run could be better for Saad's development.

Quick News

Some news from the past few days to touch on.

Sal Zizzo to Chivas USA. KC had the second best chance of landing the former U-20 stand out in today's lottery, but he's headed to the West Coast to play at the Home Depot Center.

Nikos Kounenakis official. Yesterday the team officially announced the signing of Greek defender, Nikos Kounenakis. The team is still waiting on the P1 Visa and ITC, once those are in the Wizards will have to make roster space.

Wizards make $20 tickets available for United game. The Wizards have made more tickets available for Sunday's game against Manchester United at Arrowhead. These tickets are on the second deck, probably in what you'd consider nose bleed seats.

Speaking of the United game, last weekend against Colorado, Robb Heineman said on the broadcast that the Wizards Indian forward, Sunil Chhetri, will get some playing time. That news has been fully confirmed by the team, so our friends in Indian can celebrate that. They can also celebrate because the game will be broadcasted on MUFC Online for a subscription fee.

MLS Signs Sal Zizzo, Weighted Lottery Coming

MLS has signed another US youth international, this time it's Sal Zizzo. Zizzo is a 23 year old midfielder who had signed with Hannover 96 in Germany after a very successful U-20 World Cup in 2007. Zizzo made 8 appearances for Hannover and during his time at the club he was also loaned out to Fortuna Dusseldorf. In October of last year though, Zizzo tore his ACL and missed the entire 2009-2010 season. Zizzo will be allocated to a team via a weighted lottery. While the Wizards have already won a weighted lottery when they won the lottery for Luis Gil, according to Jeff Carlisle says that the Wizards will still be eligible for this lottery because Gil was only going to play in Salt Lake or Seattle. Also according to Carlisle the Wizards and DC United have the best chance to win the lottery for Zizzo's services. While it might be a little hard to see where Zizzo would fit in immediately, I think Zizzo would be a solid addition to the Wizards should they win the lottery.

Wizards Win Gil Lottery

Earlier today the Wizards won the allocation lottery for US U-17 player, Luis Gil. The rumor heading into the lottery was that whoever won the lottery was likely going to be sending the player to either Seattle or Salt Lake. Well the Wizards aren't quite ready to give up on the possibility of getting Gil, as Robb Heineman posted today he wants to speak with Gil and his family and try and convince Gil to stay in KC. The team is hoping to convince him with the organization, the team's training facility at Swope and the new stadium that is coming. Even though Gil hadn't mentioned the Wizards as one of the teams he wanted to go to, I like the fact that the team is trying to convince Gil to stay. Whether he succeeds or not will decide what happens with Gil.

If the Wizards can't convince him to come to KC, it becomes an issue of what KC can get out of RSL, Seattle, or any other team looking to get Gil. The question is what KC can get from another team? Gil was expected to be a first round pick in this year's MLS draft, so hoping to get something similar isn't beyond the realm of possibility. With Seattle and Salt Lake being mentioned as the two locations, it seems likely that they want him to be there, so the thought that they can extort the Wizards (or vice versa) is misplaced. If the Wizards ask too much or other teams offer too little, we could have a situation similar to the Brian McBride situation where the Wizards hold onto the player until the league steps in to help make a deal happen. Some thoughts are that the Wizards could trade with Salt Lake and get former US U-20 international, Sheanon Williams who has been without a club since leaving UNC last fall.

Me, I'm still thinking the Wizards would be happy with an international roster spot and some allocation money. With the number of internationals inn camp, on the team, or potentially joining, KC is likely going to need another international spot. Can KC get that out of Seattle or Salt Lake? That I'm not sure of.

Lottery for U-17 Player

Israel Sesay has signed with MLS, and will be put into a weighted lottery to decide what team he will be going to. Sesay, a forward, is a U-17 resident at the Bradenton Academy in Florida. He was not selected for the US U-17 team for the ongoing U-17 World Cup due to questions about his citizenship.

As always with these lotteries, it's a question of how the weighted lottery is gonna be weighted. According to a post by scaryice, the publisher of the Climbing the Ladder blog, on bigsoccer it will be weighted by record over the last 32 games. Due to Columbus winning the Robbie Rogers lottery, and the player benefits TFC has already gotten this season, both of them are not in the lottery. KC has the 4th most likely chance of getting Sesay after RSL, CO, and LA. Below are the full results, that I've had verified by the latest entry at Climbing the Ladder. You can find links to where the rules came here.

1. RSL - 35 points
2. CO - 34 points plus 4 bonus points - 38 points
3. LA - 41 points
4. KC - 46 points
5. DC - 44 points plus 4 bonus points - 48 points
6. Chi - 48 points plus 2 bonus points - 50 points
7. NY - 48 points plus 2 bonus points - 50 points
8. FCD - 49 points plus 2 bonus points - 51 points
9. Chv - 49 points plus 2 bonus points - 51 points
10. Hou - 48 points plus 8 bonus points - 56 points
11. NE - 59 points plus 6 bonus points - 65 points

So RSL has the best chance of getting Sesay, while NE has the least likely chance to land him.

We'll see how the lottery goes, Sesay looks like a fairly decent player, with quite a bit of upside. He likely wouldn't see much playing time this season but would be a good addition for the future.