WVHooligan - Soccer Blog

Nate Jaqua was the easiest of picks for Seattle (Seattle Sounders FC)

I know this post comes a few days late but due to me travels over the holiday season I really didn’t get to dive deep into Seattle’s expansion draft last week since I was somewhere in the air over Memphis when the whole thing went down. So forgive me for the lateness on this, I had several people asking me to post this when I could.

The new club had the chance to really make a dent into the league with their 10 draft picks but after seeing the 10 come down when I sat foot in my layover stop in Philly last Wednesday I thought nothing more than just utter shock at a few of the picks.

A few were simple:

• Nate Jaqua – We saw that coming from the second he returned to Houston.
• Nathan Sturgis – Its a risk but one that I thought they’d take because its one worth taking.
• Brad Evans – Whoever was picking really could go no wrong with Evans from Columbus (same would have been said for Eddie Gavin).
• Khano Smith – Some really questioned this pick but I thought it was a smart one from the start (not because I predicted it). Smith has plenty of talent is if he isn’t going to be used he will be valuable trade bait.

A few were a bit of a shock but not a real stretch:

• Peter Vagenas – Most felt it was a Sigi Schmid pick but I see it more as getting a strong veteran in the club house that knows the lay of the MLS land.
• Tyson Wahl – Cheap, young, and not a bad talent for a defense that will have to protect Kasey Keller. Really not a bad pick at all.
• Stephen King – I thought Brandon Prideaux was the easy pick from the Fire but King was my next bet from them. He’s young, talented and showed plenty of potential.
• James Riley – A surprise pick really for me but a smart one when you really think about it. San Jose will miss this kid.

And the one’s that left us wondering why:

• Jeff Parke – One he still has a few games left on a suspension and secondly he is expected to leave MLS and try his game in Europe. Its the Clarence Goodson pick of 2008.
• Jarrod Smith – The wrong Smith from Toronto was selected. They should have taken Johann Smith and not Jarrod. Word has it they were going to cut Jarrod after the draft anyways.

In all it wasn’t a terrible draft but not a great one by most people. I still believe some trades are coming down very soon once they get their coaching staff lined up. Seattle got some players that are still expendable here but for the most part they filled out their majority of their roster in a decent way to compliment the players they will add from their USL team and the couple moves that they had already made before the draft.

WVH Draft Grade: B-

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