I hate being surprised.
I expect players in division II, division III and NAIA schools to fly under my radar, because there’s no way that I can sufficiently cover the players in these schools. While I will periodically take a look at a player (such as Kai Kasiguran and Andrew Wheeler) if it fits in my schedule, for now, I must concentrate on division I players.
There were a few division I players that were chosen in the 2008 MLS Superdraft that I did not rank remotely as high as they were selected. For example, Matt Marquess from Santa Clara and Tony Schmitz from Creighton University were both surprises to be selected on the first day. Should they have been? I watched a tape of Santa Clara with Marquess last month in preparation of the combine. I was concentrating on Roberts (who wasn’t invited to the combine), Hatzke and Lowry. But Marquess didn’t do anything that significantly impressed me during this game. I hadn’t reviewed Creighton game tapes recently, so I decided to concentrate my efforts on Tony Schmitz to answer the following question:
Did DC United make a good decision taking Tony Schmitz with the 53rd pick of the 2008 MLS draft?
As a side note, Brennan Tennelle isn’t a surprise for me since I watched him live several times. I expected that he would be picked by the 5th round.
Tony Schmitz is a 2007 MVC 1st team member. He scored 4 goals with 5 assists in 20 games in 2007. He was a starter in 2006 but scored only 1 goal with 3 assists. In his sophomore year, he was a consistent starter scoring 1 goal with 5 assists.
With 14 teams in the 2008 superdraft, comparing the 4th round from earlier years don’t align directly, for example in 2004 with only 10 teams, the 5th round is closer to the pick selection then the 4th. In the last several years, there has been one player in that area of the draft that has had some success. For example, Adam Cristman would be this candidate in 2007 as would Jonathan Bernstein in 2006. So this leads to the next questions:
Is Schmitz this candidate for success in 2008?
If Schmitz wasn’t the best pick, who would have been the alternative?
I reviewed 4 tapes of Creighton games from the 2006 and 2007 seasons. Below are my impressions of Schmitz’s performance. I will be concentrating on Schmitz, but others who may stand out – I’ll comment on, too.
Game 1
Yale at Creighton on 9/17/2006
Schmitz played a wide midfield/right sided defensive midfield. Creighton switched after 20 minutes in the first half from a 4-4-2 to a 4-3-3.
He didn’t do much in the first half, subbed after 30 minutes.
In the second half, he came in after 15 minutes and the only thing that he did was a left footed shot from 30 yards that was wide left.
The odd thing that I noticed is that Schmitz jumps into a defensive position rather than just assuming a defensive position.
A defensive position is the position for any sport (tennis, basketball, baseball, football linebackers) to best be prepared to move in multiple directions based upon reactions. It can be characterized by bent knees, chest forward, head up with arms out for balance.
Schmitz would take a little jump when he did this. It’d be something that professionals would be able to capitalize on. FYI-in later games, this deficiency was corrected.
2nd Game
Creighton at Bradley 2006 MVC final on 11/5/2006
In this game, Schmitz played right back in a 4-4-2 initially. When Creighton was behind with 20 minutes remaining, he pushed forward in central midfielder role to aid in the attack.
He was able to stay even with speedy Bradley forward Chris Cutshaw. This was impressive. If he has this speed, this could be an important fact.
He was good on the ball and much more involved than in the first game.
He was able to defend a Bradley corner kick by elevating in the box.
With seconds remaining and Creighton down, a long cross was sent to the far post. Schmitz’s shot was blocked but the rebound went to nearby Dacy who scored with 4 seconds remaining. Schmitz got an assist on the play.
As an aside, Bradley’s Brust looked pretty good in the back.
3rd Game
Bradley at Creighton on 10/10/2007
He played a much bigger role in his senior season. He started as a withdrawn forward in a 4-3-3 alignment. He was involved early providing searching through passes.
He was partially responsible for the 1st Bradley goal. He let his man (Bigelow – who had the assist) in the box too much space and then didn’t close on him. Compounded the error by not closing on the rebound, either. I noticed that he looks around rather than re-acting to action in the box.
He was active up front, displaying a good touch, a dribble to beat a defender and a then a terrific cross that his teammate was unable to convert.
Because of substitutions, he moved to defensive midfield late in the first half. Still, he was able to serve a great pass deep in the box with a few minutes left in the first half.
In the second half, he continued to man the defensive midfield. He supported the attack by taking a shot in the 53rd minute with his right foot. In a previous game, he took a 30 yard shot with his left foot. Willing to shoot with power with both feet – nice.
In the 64th minute, he took off from midfield making a deep supporting run getting away from Bradley’s Garcia. When he got the ball, he took one dribble before delivering his shot from inside the box. His goal was sent into the lower far post side netting. Directly before this goal, a miscommunication between Creighton’s Shuler and GK Allen almost ended for a goal for Bradley’s Bigelow but wound up starting the Creighton transition.
Schmitz dribbled around Donoho and probably earned a PK. He beat Donoho again on the dribble getting a free kick outside the box.
He made another 50 yard run beating Bradley’s Degurian eventually being fouled outside the box. He was down for a long time, holding his hip. He returned 5 minutes later.
Bottom line: Very impressive game for Schmitz.
Game 4
Bradley at Creighton 2007 MVC tournament on 11/18/2007
This was a hard game to assess for several reasons. First, the first 7 minutes of the game were eliminated from the tape to fit into the 2 hour window. Second, it was a very bright day and it was difficult to see the blue numbers on the white Creighton uniforms. Finally, Creighton has several players of the same body type and height.
Today, Schmitz started as a withdrawn forward and then moved back to defensive midfield later in the first half.
He had a header on a free kick that was on-goal but was cleared off the line by Garcia.
After he moved to DM, he made a critical tackle in the box.
Again, he burned Degurian with a deep midfield run at the end of the half.
In the second half, when Shuler made exploratory runs forward, Schmitz covered his position. He built on this by making a tremendous precision pass and when his teammate didn’t control his well-weighted pass, he made the Bradley player suffer with a vicious tackle outside the Bradley box.
He was getting forward in this 0-0 game. He showed his balance in the box and using strength refused to be pushed off the ball. Schmitz crossed the ball between 3 Bradley players for Walters to make a one-touch shot that only with Bradley’s GK Haynes good reflexes kept the game scoreless.
Schmitz continued trying to score with a 35 yard shot.
He was not responsible for the late goal that gave Bradley the MVC championship. Brust continued to look promising.
Over-all assessment:
- Fast, strong with good balance
- Able to shoot with either foot
- Above-average passing
- Very versatile – has played right midfield, forward, defensive midfield, right back
- Probably doesn’t have the ability to play wide midfield as a long-term option
- Ability to score
- Played full games in his senior year
- Hard tackler
- Loses mark too easily, doesn’t close quick enough
- Needs to react quicker on defensive problems in his box
His best position is defensive midfield. He’ll need to learn to be a wide defender to have a better chance to see the field.
As a reminder, I had three questions to address.
- Did DC United make a good decision taking Tony Schmitz with the 53rd pick of the 2008 MLS draft?
- Is Schmitz this candidate for success in 2008?
- If Schmitz wasn’t the best pick, who would have been the alternative?
I’ll start with the third question, “If Schmitz wasn’t the best pick, who would have been the alternative? “. I would have chosen central defender Rauwshan McKenzie from Michigan State University. Here was my draft assessment of him:
B10 1st team; 2g, 2a in 21/21 games; In Big 10 tournament (PSU), “central defender Rauwshan McKenzie is a MLS quality defender. His best attribute is his athletic ability. He’s a target in the air on set pieces. He’s a good 1v1 defender. He did have a poor clearance with his head in OT. My only question is his individual ball skills. Can he pass under pressure?”. In B10 (IU), “McKenzie was solid in the back. In the waning minutes of the game with MSU down, McKenzie went forward.”; after combine, wonderful in the middle – challenged wide; doesn’t cleanly settle ball quick enough;
McKenzie would be limited to playing in the central defense. His technical skills would need to improve. McKenzie’s a better defender than Schmitz, but Schmitz has better versatility.
For the second question, “Is Schmitz this candidate for success in 2008?“. I don’t think so, Roth is the most polished of the 4th round draftees.
I doubt that Schmitz will see much first time action unless DC United has numerous injuries. It’s possible that Schmitz may not come out of camp. However, I think that he will.
For the final question, “Did DC United make a good decision taking Tony Schmitz with the 53rd pick of the 2008 MLS draft?“
I think DCU made a good decision. I like McKenzie and his potential that he could be a central defender in the very near future. However, I see that with the limited roster size and a full schedule of games/tournaments for DCU, the versatility that Schmitz brings to the team is an asset.
After the draft, head coach Tom Soehn asked me my opinion. I responded, “horrible”. Well, that may not be accurate in retrospect. I’ll need to call Soehn and upgrade it to “disappointing”, because I still think that Ryan Cordeiro was a dopey pick.
n his 2005 MVC Freshman of the year. In 2006, Dacy led Creighton (Missouri Valley Conference champion) in points with 5 goals and 6 assists. He will be a junior in the fall. While Dacy played in all 21 Creighton games, he only started 13. I wonder why?
American, a Soccer America pre-season All-American and on the Hermann Watch list. It should be no surprise that he received no national awards following a disappointing 2006 season. He did get 1st team All-conference and 2nd team All-region. 
Lapira scored 22 goals and added 6 assists to lead Division I with 50 points. This was a break-out year for him after tallying 3 and 7 goals with 2 and 9 assists in his first two years, respectively.