2010 Draft Approaching

The 2010 MLS draft inn Philadelphia is little more than a month away and the list of potential players is starting to come out. Today MLS released the list of seniors that were invited to the MLS combine in Fort Lauderdale this coming January. Also today, thanks to Buzz Carrick over at the great 3rd Degree blog, we have the preliminary potential Generation Adidas list. The list is full of a lot of US youth internationals as well as plenty of other talented players that could be contributing fairly early on. Here is a look at only a few of those players that are interesting in one form or another to me.

Ike Opara - Wake - D - He was seen as a top 3 pick last year and probably a top 3 pick again this year.
Michael Thomas - ND - M - Another Notre Dame player from Kansas City like Wizards defender Matt Besler.
Michael Stephens - UCLA - M - Before the GA list was announced last year he seemed to be a favorite to be on the list and the Wizards were one of the favorites to take him.
Julien Edwards - Drake - D - None of the KC players playing for Drake are on the list (Garrett Webb being the most surprising), but Edwards' had a good season and his Canadian citizenship likely puts him on Toronto's radar.
Brian Perk - UCLA - GK - Starter for the US U20 team in the recent World Cup.
Andre Akpan - Harvard - F - Another player that has been wanted by MLS for a few years.
Jack McInerney - US U17 - F - Won't be ready to contribute right away, but I was impressed during the U17 World Cup and the team's friendly here in KC.
Luis Gil - US U17 - M - Another player from the US U17 World Cup team, Gil has brought interest from some of the top clubs in Europe including Arsenal and Real Madrid.
Corben Bone - Wake - M - Has a lot of talent and can be a good playmaker.
Teal Bunbury - Akron - F - Son of former Wizard Alex Bunbury, he's had a breakout season for currently undefeated Akron.

With the 4th pick in the draft, the Wizards will be able to get one of these players if they so choose, or a different player as well. KC has 5 picks in the draft, along with the 4th they have the 20th, 36th, 41st, and 52nd.