The Kansas City Wizards set the stage for the first pick in the MLS SuperDraft by shipping Nick Garcia to the San Jose Earthquakes in exchange for the right to open the draft.
With the bar set at a proven MLS defender, the Wizards tabbed UCLA defender Chance Myers with the first pick in Friday's SuperDraft, held at the Baltimore Convention Center and screened live on ESPN2 (first round) and MLSnet.com.
Myers' stock rose through the adidas MLS Player Combine and peaked with his selection, but the Generation adidas member said he just wanted to contribute in Kansas City.
"I'm just looking to come in and play soccer," Myers said. "My expectations are high of myself and the team. I always want to succeed. They have a good foundation, they made a good run last year and hopefully we can build on that and get better."
Myers started a run of three consecutive Generation adidas players at the start of the draft. Those players, who do not count against the salary budget, were popular, comprising eight of the 14 first-round selections. All 10 Generation adidas players were selected within the first 19 selections.
FC Dallas tabbed U.S. U-17 national team midfielder Brek Shea with the second overall pick before Real Salt Lake made it two UCLA defenders in the top three by adding Anthony Beltran.
Los Angeles sprung the first surprise of the draft by sending U.S. international Chris Albright to New England in exchange for allocation funds after selecting Cal State-Northridge defender Sean Franklin with the fourth pick.
"I had talked to some people," Franklin said. "I knew they were interested, but this draft has been unpredictable."
The lack of predictability saw possible No. 1 pick Patrick Nyarko slip to Chicago with the seventh pick after Colorado nabbed Ciaran O'Brien and Columbus selected Andy Iro.
"What made me nervous was the fact that I didn't know where I was going to end up," Nyarko said. "I'm ready to go. I think the Fire is one of the most exciting teams to watch. They can make things happen."
FC Dallas picked U.S. U-17 national team goalkeeper Josh Lambo with its second first-round pick (eighth overall) before Toronto FC took Connecticut defender Julius James and Wake Forest defender Pat Phelan with its back-to-back selections.
Ohio State midfielder Roger Espinoza went to Kansas City with the 11th pick and Chicago selected University of Tulsa goalkeeper Dominic Cervi afterwards.
University of San Francisco defender Rob Valentino (13th overall to New England) and Old Dominion defender David Horst (14th overall to Real Salt Lake) concluded the first round.
With nine different teams selecting in the first round, some clubs didn't enter the draft until the latter stages. San Jose picked Furman midfielder Shea Salinas with its first selection (15th overall) and New York grabbed Ohio State defender Eric Brunner with the 16th pick.
D.C. United picked University of California midfielder Andrew Jacobson with the 24th selection. MLS Cup champion Houston made its first selection at the tail end of the third-round (42nd overall) with University of Rhode Island midfielder Geoff Cameron.
The Chicago Fire, Kansas City Wizards and Los Angeles Galaxy ended the day with the most selections, each making six picks. FC Dallas, which came into the draft with seven picks, traded two away to the Columbus Crew for a pair of selections in the 2010 SuperDraft, just one of two draft-day deals that involved '08 picks. Toronto FC also obtained the No. 28 overall selection for allocation money from the Los Angeles Galaxy.
In all, 31 colleges were represented in the 56 selections; two players, Shea and Lambo, entered the MLS draft before attending college. The University of California-Santa Barbara and Santa Clara University led all schools, each with four players selected.
Teams will further delve into the college pool in the supplemental draft, to be held Jan. 24 in a private conference call among the 14 clubs.
Kyle McCarthy is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
