Philadelphia Union announced today that the Major League Soccer expansion club have acquired allocation money, D.C. United’s 2010 MLS SuperDraft first round pick (#7 overall) and Brazilian midfielder Fred. In exchange, Philadelphia Union sent their #1 allocation ranking to D.C., which United used to obtain 2006 MLS Goalkeeper of the Year, Troy Perkins. Philadelphia now hold the #6 spot in the allocation rankings.

At this point everyone knows who the big shots are in this year’s draft, but every year there seems to be a Darrius Barnes or Jonathan Bornstein who comes out of nowhere to have an excellent rookie season. Here are a few of the players I think may be the diamonds in the rough at this year’s MLS draft.

1.    Andrew Hoxie
Hoxie had an excellent combine and had to turn a few heads. Aside from his obvious size, he has a good head for the game, a decent first touch and is faster than you’d expect. He is probably a project, but could be a useful player somewhere down the line. He’s definitely a later pick, but in a few years you may look back at the 2010 draft and wonder how he dropped so far.

With the MLS Combine complete, MLSDraft has completed its final mock draft for this year. The combine shook things up, with a few previous unknowns vaulting into the top two rounds and saw players with big reputations slip.

To see our two round mock draft, click here.

The three days at the combine were really enlightening, as to the quality of the draft class.  In these days I have seen the players who were in my top ten like Nakazawa, Akpan and Wiedeman fall dramatically, as well as the rise of players like Gavin, Stephens and Justin Morrow.  In the six matches we saw a mere eleven goals, five in the first match and a real lack of creativity in attack.  Players being heralded for there creative ability seemed rather pedestrian.

The one major plus this week was seeing a lot of smart possession soccer, a sign of the increasing quality of soccer in North America.  Very rarely did you see someone in a panic, and just kick the ball blindly into the air. The NCAA may not be the best system for grooming players to become professionals but the kids are getting better and the draft is deeper and deeper each year.

As the combine drew to a close today, the play was pretty tight, with a lot of adequate performances and not a tonne of standouts. This was definitely reflected in the lack of goal scoring chances in both games. Nonetheless, here are my 5 Up, 5 Down for today.

5 Up

1.    Brian Perk – The combine has been pretty low key for the keepers, save for Sean Johnson having difficulties. That changed today, though, as Perk was challenged a few times and he came up big. Perk made a few acrobatic saves and was strong in challenging loose balls.  His ability to communicate and organize his defenders has been another plus.  Perk should be the first keeper taken on draft day. He may lack size, but makes up for it with every other aspect of his game.