PHILADELPHIA – Naturally, there aren’t a whole lot of American college players that play near Toronto.
But over the past few months, Toronto FC general manager Tim Bezbatchenko managed to make comparatively short trip to Syracuse University to do some scouting.
It's fair to say he liked what he saw.
At Thursday's MLS SuperDraft, Toronto FC picked Syracuse goalkeeper Alex Bono with the sixth overall pick before snagging his Orange teammate Skylar Thomas in the 11th overall spot – which sandwiched Toronto’s selection of North Carolina State’s Clement Simonin at No. 9.
Bono, who’s currently with the US national team camp in California, was the biggest prize.
“He's in camp right now with Michael Bradley, and that obviously says something about his potential,” Bezbatchenko told MLSsoccer.com. “We’ve scouted him at Syracuse, which is not far from Toronto. And to have that sort of local connection is nice, given the fact that we don’t have other colleges nearby. We were able to see him a lot and we think he was head and shoulders the best goalkeeper in the draft.”
The Toronto general manager had similar praise for Thomas, a Canadian that started every game on the backline through four seasons at 'Cuse.
“What we liked about Skylar is over the six games we watched him throughout the year, he’s a player that’s consistent in the sense that he never got beat,” Bezbatchenko said. “People can say what they want about him but he’s really good one-on-one. He was in the right position a lot. And he showed a temperament we like when he when he was talking to the midfielders.”
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Bezbatchenko said that Thomas and Simonin – who he described as a “left-footed center back that’s really good with the ball” – as two players that can really bolster the club’s defensive depth.
Toronto also snagged another defender in South Florida’s Wesley Charpie in the second round (29 overall), before taking Cal State-Northridge’s forward Edwin Rivas at No. 37.
With his team possessing so many picks, including a first-round cluster, Bezbatchenko admitted that he certainly entertained trade offers from other teams throughout the day. But, in the end, there was nothing more appealing than the players on the board.
“We were very open coming into the draft,” he said. “What we did know is that we had a list of players – and we got all of the players we wanted. I think that’s good. We’re happy to leave the draft with the players we scouted, the players we did our homework on and the players that will help us win this year.”
