The Sounders have some heady decisions to make in the MLS SuperDraft this week.
Taking a broad view, Seattle is used to drafting late. The Sounders have never drafted higher than No. 8, and even that was because they traded into that position. Otherwise, it’s mostly been the bottom third of the first round thanks to their strong positioning in the table every year. That’s helped the Sounders get creative, like when they traded up in 2015 to snag eventual starter Cristian Roldan.
So the fact that the Sounders have two picks in the first round of Friday’s highly anticipated draft? Might as well be Christmas in January.
The Sounders, of course, have both the No. 16 and No. 22 picks in the first round this year. The No. 22 pick is their natural spot at the bottom of the first round thanks to their MLS Cup championship win last month. And they acquired the No. 16 pick from NYCFC thanks to forking over the MLS rights to Kwadwo Poku in 2015.
The Sounders still don’t have a pick in the first round’s upper half, but they do have room to maneuver. Here are five players the Sounders could chase at No. 16 and No. 22 (assuming they don’t trade out of one) based on need, skill and talent projection.
F Chris Nanco, Syracuse
It’s no secret the Sounders covet width this offseason. As good as Seattle is down the central channel at the moment, the team finished 2016 perhaps more one-dimensional than it would’ve liked in the attack. Whether Nicolas Lodeiro started wide or in the middle, he was a pinching force pulling the orbit of the attack inward. Otherwise, the Sounders more or less relied on its fullbacks on the overlap. If they were hemmed in? There essentially was no width.
Nanco was primarily a second forward in college, but even a cursory glimpse at his performance in the MLS Combine should give the Sounders brass a lift. Nanco was electric out wide, cobbling together one-twos and making himself a general nuisance with his dribbling and phone booth agility. He does like to come inside to combine, but he’s also a natural out wide. He could well be available at No. 16.
F Adonijah Reid, Generation adidas Canada
Of all the Generation adidas prospects in this draft (there are six), Canadian teen Adonijah Reid is the outlier.
This is the first year of the Generation adidas Canada movement, which basically takes the regular GA rule and exports it north of the border for young Canadians who aren’t college seniors. There are two Canadians this year, and the other, Shamit Shome, has already been a professional in the NASL for a year. The other four GA players are traditional U.S.-based college players who’ve been scouted robustly.
Then there’s Reid. At 17, Reid only got his first major exposure to league teams in the Combine this year, and while he held his own he’s still a major risk come SuperDraft. He’s simply an unknown. As we know, Sounders General Manager and President of Soccer Garth Lagerwey is not exactly risk averse, and Reid has major upside as a potential wide player in an attacking 4-2-3-1. Because the Sounders now have Will Bruin to compete with Jordan Morris at forward, the Sounders can afford to draft striker depth as well, making Reid’s versatility here a major plus. If enough teams pass on Reid, he’d be an intriguing pick-up at No. 16.
M Christian Thierjung, Cal
The Sounders have had a handful of contributors from the 2016 team leave for other shores in the offseason. One of those is midfielder Erik Friberg, who served as a jack-of-all-trades midfielder capable of filling a variety of roles in the middle. And while the Sounders did poach former Montreal Impact midfielder Harry Shipp in the offseason, Lagerwey already dropped a few hints that Shipp might project more as an outside player in their setup.
That leaves a gap in the middle for depth players. And in this spot you can’t do much better than Thierjung.
Thierjung spent the majority of his Cal career as a raiding central midfielder pushing defenses and cutting truck-sized holes between center backs. He’s not exactly a creative hub, but at the next level he projects as a sort of rumbling box-to-box guy with a motor for days. His relatively low profile means he might skim the bottom edge of the radar and emerge into the back half of the first round still on the board. If that happens and the Sounders are looking for more depth behind Roldan and Osvaldo Alonso, Thierjung is a top option.
D Colton Storm, North Carolina
The Sounders don’t have a ton of immediate need along the back. Joevin Jones is one of the best young left backs in the league. The Chad Marshall-Roman Torres center back duo might be the best in MLS at the moment. And at right back, Oniel Fisher will do his best to step into the spot vacated by Tyrone Mears.
But depth is a constant growing concern in MLS. With the league’s roster restrictions, teams are constantly juggling bench depth behind their starters, and half of the Sounders' defense is currently north of 30. That means defense could well be the play with one of their two first rounders (again, assuming Lagerwey isn’t wheeling and dealing these picks, which is not a safe assumption).
Assuming more heavily scouted defenders Chris Odoi-Atsem and Reagan Dunk are both off the board already by No. 16, North Carolina defender Colton Storm is the next best thing. Storm played in a 3-5-2 at North Carolina as one of the outside central defenders and occasionally flexed outside in a 4-4-2. So while he wasn’t always a right back in a four-across defense, he’s transitioning to right back at the next level. That’s partially because he’s undersized for an MLS center back, but also because he has the quicks and one-on-one defensive ability to hack it at the next level. A quality Combine only ups his value.
M Kwame Awuah, Connecticut
Versatility is typically a key attribute at this time of year. The transition from the college game to the pros typically brings about at least some subtle shift in position, either from flank to flank or role to role or something in between. That’s more or less why Awuah is such an intriguing (and simultaneously questionable) SuperDraft pick.
This draft is notably light on central defensive midfielders, and at least on paper Awuah is probably the No. 1 prospect. He’s good on his feet, is a capable distributor and reads the game well. But he’s clearly not an on-an-island kind of defender and he’ll need backside help at the next level if he’s to defend ably. Which is why a number of teams have wondered if a switch to a different position is in the cards.
Namely, to left back.
There are no out-and-out first round caliber left backs in this draft, which should come as no surprise to anyone versed in the American player pool. But Awuah is a beguiling talent who could make the switch and live to tell the tale. Failing that, he could just stick at defensive mid and provide cover for the Sounders’ existing options. Either would be positive, and he could well slip to the Sounders’ draft position.
