Seattle Sounders new President of Soccer Garth Lagerwey made some big moves in Thursday’s MLS SuperDraft. In his first major action since joining the Sounders, Lagerwey traded up in the draft with his former team, Real Salt Lake, to grab Cristian Roldan.
O-Town's 11
Roldan played his collegiate soccer at the University of Washington the past two years and was widely viewed as a top-10 project in this year’s MLS SuperDraft. He was considered by many experts as a lock for the No. 2 overall pick held by New York City FC. That didn’t quite work out for Roldan, but it worked out great for Lagerwey and the Sounders.
Makes me wonder what happened for a player to fall so far in the draft after everyone considered him a top 10 player. Did he have a bad combine? Did all of those other teams see something that they did not like? Are the concerned about how young he is? Remember he only played two years in college.
As a freshman, he was named the Soccer America National Freshman of the Year and rated the No. 2 freshman in the nation by topdrawersoccer.com. His sophomore year he earned NSCAA Third Team All-America honors and was named to the topdrawersoccer.com Best XI. He was also named to the NSCAA All-Far West Region Team as well as the All-PAC-12 First Team.
He has won a lot of awards but that doesn’t always translate to a successful career in MLS. The nice thing now is with all team having a USL-Pro affiliate; players like Roldan can get experience and playing time against player of the same skill set. I see Roldan spending his first year with the Sounders as a member of S2.
Sounders Head Coach Sigi Schmid had this to say:
"“Obviously we were a little bit surprised at that. But he plays in Seattle and we can see the body of his work. We’re very happy, because he’s a skillful player, he’s a good passer of the ball, he’s a very humble kid. But he has also that little bit of flair, he’s a little bit unpredictable. So we were really happy we were able to work that out.”"
photo courtesy of Seattle Sounders FC Twitter/@SoundersFC
Roldan had to say this in regards to being drafted by the Sounders:
"“Knowing that I dropped, and went to a team that could possibly end up in the MLS Cup is a good feeling. You just don’t know what’s going to happen during the draft, and I feel like it was honestly worth it, dropping as much as I did, because Seattle is probably one of the better cities in the country. And it’s a soccer city. They’ve been my home and I’ve practiced with them, and it’s a great feeling to know that I could compete for a championship with Seattle Sounders.”"
In regards to the Combine, this is what Roldan had to say:
"“The Combine, it has its ups and downs where you play three games in five days, you also do a leaping test, and your sprint. I mean, at the end of the day, it’s what you can do with the ball, or without the ball, making runs. [Maybe] teams didn’t know too much about me because I’m up in the Pacific Northwest,” he added. “Seattle, who has been there for me in the past, is there for me now. I couldn’t be any more excited.”"
As a Sounders fan I am extremely excited to see what Roldan and the rest of the draft picks can do for the team. I am also perfectly fine with them playing at S2 for a year or two in order to better their skills.
Why do you think Cristian Roldan fell so far down the draft?