FRISCO, Texas – For some players heading to January’s MLS Combine, the entire process can be a bit of an eye-opener. But that won’t be the case for ex-North Carolina midfielder Michael Farfan, who has a couple of close friends in the league whose brains he can pick about the process.
A native of the San Diego area, Farfan is a lifelong friend of FC Dallas midfielder Eric Avila, who went through the combine himself back in 2007 before being taken in the second round. Also, the ex-Tar Heel was a teammate of FCD defender Zach Loyd, who just went through the process one year ago.
“I’ve talked to a lot of my friends who have already been in the league,” Farfan said. They told me to just play my game and do what I’ve been doing and I should be fine. I’m not too worried about it. There are three games. They always say the first game is the craziest and to not go 100 miles per hour. The second two games are going to show more for what each player has.”
According to Avila, the key to Farfan’s success in the combine will be to stay relaxed.
“I told him to relax and to be himself,” the FCD midfielder said. “Mike is a calm guy. He loves to be calm in situations like that. He’s coming in with a good, positive attitude saying he’s going to play his game and not rush things.”
Loyd also gave Farfan some advice during a recent visit to Chapel Hill.
“[Lloyd said] to enjoy it. He’s enjoyed his first season [in MLS] and done well,” Farfan said. “Look where he’s at now – he got called into the national team.”
The 21-year-old has adopted his friends’ advice in his pre-combine preparation.
“I took a week off and after that week, which was about when I got home after finals, I started going at it. I definitely increased all the work I was doing,” Farfan said. “Now I’m doing double days to get more game fit and everything. There are a lot of us who come out … so we always get a good number of guys to just train and be able to play some small games.”
When draft day rolls around, there’s a chance that FCD could pick Farfan – whom Avila described as a player with great vision and who loves going at defenders. Avila admits that it “would be great” if that were to happen.
“It would be a lot easier for him to play here,” the FCD midfielder said. “I think it would be really comfortable, him being on my team and us being so close.”
And while it would be great to get drafted by FCD and reunite with Avila and Loyd, Farfan isn’t exactly concerned about where he might end up on draft day.
“It’d be nice [but] I’m not too worried about where I’m going to end up right now,” Farfan said.
