FC Dallas went a long way towards remaking their franchise in the mold of a playoff contender during Friday's 2005 MLS SuperDraft in Baltimore. In addition to the four players Los Tejanos picked up through typical means in the SuperDraft, the Dallas braintrust was also relentless on the phones and made a plethora of trades to better the Dallas squad heading into '05.
Making deals from the start of the day right through the end, Los Tejanos sent their first pick in the draft, the fourth overall, midfielder Brad Davis and an allocation pick to San Jose for former All-Star Richard Mulrooney and budding prospect Arturo Alvarez. Dallas still landed their man with Indiana defender Drew Moor.
"Drew is a great, young player who is very composed," said FC Dallas head coach Colin Clarke. "We've had him in over the last few summers and he has done very well. He had a great year this year at Indiana and we look forward to having him. He is a very good prospect for us."
Dallas then traded the 12th overall pick, last in the first round, to the MetroStars for a player to be named later. They also dealt the 29th pick, which they acquired from San Jose, to the Chicago Fire in exchange for the rights to goalkeeper Henry Ring. That's all in addition to Alex Yi, formerly of the Belgium premier league, who joined Dallas this week via lottery.
Dallas continued to focus on the defensive side of the ball with the selection of Winston Marshall, a 6-foot defender from Wright State with the 27th pick. He earned All-Horizon League Second Team honors twice and is a member of the Canadian national team.
Directly after that pick, Dallas selected goalkeeper Chris Gomez from Brown University. Six-foot-two and 190 pounds, Gomez registered a 1.13 goals-against-average with six shutouts in 2004 and was named All-Ivy Second Team. In 2003, he was honored with All-Ivy First Team.
Possibly looking to team current superstar Eddie Johnson with an attacking clone in place of the departed Jason Kreis, Dallas used its last selection on Julian Nash, a 6-foot forward from Oakland, Calif. Nash played the past four seasons at Creighton University and is an athletic forward who likes to go at players and is comfortable playing with his back to goal. He was a Hermann Trophy semifinalist in 2004 and was honored with an All-MVC First Team selection. In his senior season, he led the team with a career-high nine assists and 21 points.
Danny Polinsky is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
