Seventeen-year-old U.S. youth national team star Danny Szetela will learn the name of his new Major League Soccer team this Thursday, July 22 at 3 p.m. ET via a random lottery draft to be held at the ESPN Zone in New York City's Times Square.
The lottery draft will be broadcast LIVE on ESPNews and streamed in real time on the league's official web site www.mlsnet.com. The Clifton, N.J., resident, pursued by some of the top clubs in the world including English Premier League clubs Everton and Manchester City, signed a contract with Major League Soccer last week.
Szetela will be present at ESPN Zone and will be joined by MLS senior vice president of player personnel Todd Durbin. Each of the 10 MLS teams will be assigned a weighted number of balls which factors in their record over their last 30 regular season matches (dating back to last year) and their recent playoff performances.
A single ball from the 1,000 numbered balls will then be selected in a random draw overseen by MLS officials, identifying Szetela's new team. The Dallas Burn have the greatest chance of success at 26.2% - meaning they have 262 marked balls in the lottery. The defending MLS Cup champion San Jose Earthquakes have the least chance - 0.6% (six marked balls of the 1,000).
The balls will be numbered from 1 to 1000. Here are the ball numbers as assigned to each of the 10 MLS teams:
1-6: San Jose Earthquakes
7-18: Chicago Fire
19-41: Kansas City Wizards
42-81: Los Angeles Galaxy
82-144: Colorado Rapids
145-235: New England Revolution
236-361: D.C. United
362-527: MetroStars
528-738: Columbus Crew
739-1000: Dallas Burn
