Live from the MLS Draft

The 2006 Major League Soccer SuperDraft has come and gone, and The Buzz was live at the Pennsylvania Convention Center to bring you all the events that matter. Here's a look back at the afternoon:

12:00 p.m.: Greetings from the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Center City, where the 2006 Major League Soccer SuperDraft is about to get under way. I'm still trying to find Penn men's head coach Rudy Fuller, and I'll let you know when I do, but it's not that easy because most of the people in the main exhibit hall where the draft is taking place are affiliated with the 12 teams in MLS.

I hope to be able to take a Philly angle on this event -- also not the easiest thing to do because this is the largest city in the country without a MLS team. But I did find Temple coach David MacWilliams, who definitely has a stake in today's events as his star player, forward Tony Donatelli, is in the draft pool.

"I think he's a kid that has passion for the game and he's been invovled with the game," MacWilliams said of Donatelli. "I think Tony would be a great asset to any team he would be drafted by."

MacWilliams added that he has talked to "a few teams," and that he does think Donatelli will be drafted.

12:10 p.m.: This being a draft, it shouldn't be a surprise that the trades are already coming fast and furious. Chivas USA, coached by former Princeton coach Bob Bradley, traded the first overall pick in the draft to Bradley's old team, the New York/New Jersey MetroStars, for the fifth overall pick and the always-intriguing "player to be named later."

The Metros took UCLA and U.S. Under-20 national team defender Marvell Wynne, the son of the ex-Major League Baseball player of the same name. There are a lot of Metros fans in the crowd here, and they cheered Wynne's selection loudly. That surprised me -- I thought New Yorkers always booed their teams' first picks in drafts. Still, Wynne's definitely one of the top two or three players in the pool, and he'll be a player worth following for fans all over the country.

More to come over the course of the day -- there are four rounds total, with five minutes between each pick in the first round.

1:12 p.m.: The first round has ended with no Philadelphia or Ivy League players drafted. That's not too surprising, but hopefully things will change in the rounds to come.

1:42 p.m.: We finally have some Penn involvement at this year's draft, and it has nothing to do with Rudy Fuller. MLS Commissioner Don Garber just addressed the media, and one of the hot topics he discussed was the league potentially expanding to Philadelphia.

"This is a great city for soccer, and we're interested in the city, and we'll continue to discuss oportunities here as well as with others in some of the outlying areas," Garber said. "This is a market we've got to be in."

Lincoln Financial Field, which has hosted a number of soccer exhibitions as well as being the Philadelphia Eagles' home stadium, would seem to be the obvious choice for a MLS team to play in, because of its grass field and modern amenities. But Garber did not rule out Franklin Field as a possible venue for a team, either.

"There are lots of facilities -- Penn's a good facility and the Linc's a good facility," he said.

Garber added that Franklin Field's Sprinturf surface would not be an obstacle to having pro soccer on Penn's campus.

"FIFA has now accepted artificial surfaces, even for World Cup competitions," he said. But he also admitted that "we love a grass field."

Garber also praised Philadelphia's organizing of this year's draft and coaches' convention.

"This is by far the best production we've ever had, it's the largest crowd we've ever had," he said. "This gives you the feeling that you're at the NFL draft -- it's a big-time event."

2:37 p.m.: Rats. I missed the first Philly-area guy picked. Georgetown defender Jeff Curtin, a native of Oreland, Pa., was drafted by the Chicago Fire with the second pick of the second round (14th overall). Unfortunately, Jeff isn't here, or I'd go try to talk to him.

Interestingly, Chicago -- coached by former Cornell head coach Dave Sarachan -- also drafted Jeff's older brother, Jim (a Villanova grad), in 2001. We could very well see both players lining up in the Fire's backline next season.

3:19 p.m.: I finally found Rudy Fuller, chatting with fellow convention-goers in the the back of the ballroom where the draft is taking place. Unlike many of the other coaches I've seen today, Fuller was dressed in a jacket and tie. He said that he was "just looking official," because the Ivy League had its coaches meeting today.

One of the people Fuller spent time with was one of his former assistants, Rob Vartughian. As he did with the Quakers, Vartughian works with the Terrapins' goalkeepers. Considering that Maryland posted 13 shutouts in this past regular season and two in the College Cup -- including the national championship game against New Mexico -- Vartughian's doing a pretty good job, to say the least.

He said that he has lots of good memories from his time at Penn, and praised Fuller's work in making the Quakers into a nationally-recognized program.

"I think they're in the right direction," Vartughian said.

I also found Princeton coach Bob Barlow, who put in a good word for the only Tiger in the draft pool, midfielder Darren Spicer.

"He's got an incredible engine, he can get up and down the field for 90 minutes," Barlow said. And while he admitted that Spicer isn't "polished" as a player, "at the end of the day, he finds ways to create goals and score goals."

We're now midway through the fourth, and final, round, however, so the chances of Spicer being drafted are decreasing quickly.

3:46 p.m.: The draft has ended. Unfortunately, neither Donatelli nor any of the Ivy Leaguers were drafted. Thanks for reading along.