Chivas USA may hold just a single pick in Thursday’s MLS SuperDraft, but there will be a bevy of choices available when they make their selection at No. 5 overall.
The Rojiblancos continued an active offseason on Wednesday, when they added Ecuadorian midfielder Miller Bolaños to the fold – the fifth addition the club has made this offseason.
But despite still having a number of needs going into the draft, Chivas are simply searching for the best player on the board with their only pick of day.
“We’re looking for the best players with the best mentality that we can find,” Robin Fraser recently told MLSsoccer.com by phone. “We’re leaning towards the best player in mind, we do have some positional things in mind if they happen to pop up, but at this point we’re looking to add good quality players.”
No matter how the draft unfolds, there will be no shortage of options for Chivas with the fifth overall pick.
Generation adidas playmakers Kelyn Rowe (UCLA) and Enzo Martinez (North Carolina) are tantalizing options, while former Chivas USA Under-19 midfielder Luis Silva of UCSB presents another choice. Meanwhile, should the club decide to go after a forward or defender, UCLA goal scorer Chandler Hoffman or UConn’s burly defender Andrew-Jean Baptiste may fit Fraser's plans.
In order to evaluate which player may be the best fit, Fraser, general manger Jose Domene and the rest of the Chivas coaching staff underwent exhaustive interviews with potential draft choices during the MLS Combine.
Hoping to unearth a key contributor for the future, Fraser believes that these meetings will ultimately pay dividends come draft day.
“We try to be as through as possible in examining who we bring in," he said. "We want to make sure that they’re a good player, the personality is the right fit and mentality is in the right place. There’s no way to be certain about all of those, but you definitely try to do all your research so you can eliminate as much of the doubt as possible.”
Adam Serrano covers Chivas USA for MLSsoccer.com. He can be reached at adam.m.serrano@gmail.com.
