UPDATE: Zakuani officially announces he's going pro.
We are less than two weeks away from the 2009 Major League Soccer SuperDraft and buzz is growing that Sounders FC may keep their number one drafting spot and choose Akron Zip forward Steve Zakuani. Blogs SoccerByIves and 3rdDegree.net both have the junior scoring ace listed as now having signed for Generation Adidas and thus becoming eligible for the draft a year early. SBI further predicts that Sigi Schmid, who must have seen Zakuani multiple times when he was coaching Columbus Crew in the same state, loves the player and will select him. As early as December 12th Zakuani's 'defection' to MLS was suggested.
MLS-Draft.net interviewed Zakuani in December. They asked the London resident which current star player most-represents his own style of play. "I've been asked this question a lot and I still don't have an answer because I don't feel that my game is identical to anyone's. There are attacking players who I have learned from and I try to incorporate the things I see them do, into my own game, but at the same time, I don't feel that there is a player out there who I play like. I've tried to develop my own style even though I've watched videos of Thierry Henry, Ronaldinho, Ronaldo, and Robinho hundreds of times and have taken a lot of things from all the top players."
Soccer America recently chose Zakuani as their 2008 National Player of the Year. Zakuani is also one of three finalists for the Hermann Trophy which will be awarded on January 9th.
Zakuani's older brother Gabe currently plays for Peterborough United.
"When I was 17, I wrote down a long list of everything I wanted to do before I die on a piece of paper," Zakuani told Mac-Sports.com in an Q & A session. "So far, I've only done two or three of the things I wrote down, and so I have to say that my biggest fear is the thought of not accomplishing everything I had on that list. The list ranges from playing pro soccer, to flying a plane."
We fly planes in Seattle, Steve.
WATCH: A Day in the Life of Steve Zakuani.
Photo credit: Jeff Harwell-Zips Sports Photography
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He looks good, but I don't think he will be able to dribble through an MLS defense as he did in College. It would also be nice to see his shooting ability from 25 to 30 yds.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that struck me was the number of times where using his left foot would have been best. A number of times he chose to go right or shoot right which good defenders would pick up on. So he definitely needs to work on his left foot. He also won't be getting as many opportunities to take advantage of mistakes in the MLS like he did in college. I'd also like to see his heading ability. It looks like he's pretty fast which would be a plus with our playing surface but he shouldn't depend solely on it. And he does have the ability to run at defenders which would be nice since we currently don't have a ton of those players. I also like his touch and he uses his body well to shield the ball.
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