Update: It's draft day and the press are in high gear churning out stories about how Sounders FC might approach the event.
Soccer America: Coach Sigi Schmid, flush with allocation money, can probably swing a trade or two to get the current MLS players he wants without having to sacrifice the No. 1 pick. Or he can flip places with a team (Toronto, Los Angeles, FC Dallas, D.C. United) behind him and still get a top prospect.
Seattle is reportedly willing to trade Khano Smith and can certainly use a forward (Peri Marosevic?) and midfielder (Sam Cronin?) out of the draft. Look for George John (Washington) to wind up with Seattle one way or another.
Seattle Times: Today marks yet another momentous occasion in the history of Seattle's Major League Soccer franchise, Sounders FC.
The team will make its first draft pick at the 2009 MLS SuperDraft, set for today at 11 a.m. in St. Louis.
That Seattle will make selections is a given. The question is when.
Sounders FC has the first overall pick as the league's lone expansion team. But team representatives were entertaining offers to trade down from that choice or shop later picks throughout the recently completed player combine in Florida, and as recently as last night in St. Louis.
"If the right opportunity comes, we'll do it [trade]," general manager Adrian Hanauer said Wednesday night from St. Louis, where he and other front-office staff and coaches are gathered for the draft. "If it doesn't, we'll keep it.
Tacoma News-Tribune: Seattle Sounders FC has said "no deal" so far to trade offers, but it won't have to give its final answer until 11 a.m. today, when the expansion team is scheduled to make the first pick in Major League Soccer's SuperDraft.
"We're still open to any possibility," general manager Adrian Hanauer said. "I think the one thing we're clear on are the players that we might like or might pass on. But we're still open to all sorts of creative opportunities."
The past two MLS expansion teams have handled the draft in different ways. Last season, the San Jose Earthquakes traded the pick for veteran help. The season before, Toronto FC kept the pick.
What both of those teams have in common is last-place finishes in their first season. That's something the Sounders hope to avoid, and something that will factor into their decision today.
"We do want to be strong from the start, but we want a sustainable future," Hanauer said. "It plays into it on both sides. We'll obviously make what we think are the best decisions for both the short and long term."
In case you have yet to nail down the bare specifics, here they are:
Major League Soccer will hold its 2009 SuperDraft of college seniors and Generation Adidas early-birds in St. Louis Thursday January 15th beginning at 11:00 AM Seattle time on ESPN2. Only the first round will be televised. Here is the channel's draft table. Subsequent rounds will be updated on the league's SuperDraft page. Seattle Sounders FC still hold the top pick, but they are getting plenty of calls about trading it.
"My philosophy is to make sure through the draft that we can help our club in the best and strongest possible manner," Seattle head coach Sigi Schmid told MLSnet.com. "That might be keeping that pick and taking that player if we think that is the solution. Or that we've been made an offer that makes sense, just like San Jose last year.
"Getting a veteran player is going to help our club more than taking a college guy. It might be a situation where two players make more sense than one. The one thing I can tell you is that we're going to keep all our options open going into the draft."
Multiple rumor reports have been posted and are being discussed by fans in the GOALSeattle.com forums.
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