The whole home-town hero thing isn't as pervasive in American sports as it is world-wide. After all, baseball farm teams rarely feature people that were home-grown and NFL draft scouts rarely look to local schools for their prospects unless they happen to be from Alabama. In MLS the homegrown player phenomenon has started to take root, but still isn't exactly a well established thing. We didn't often hear that Conor Casey was from Denver South High School (go Rebels!) when he was scoring the goals in the playoffs despite how nice a story it might have made.Â
The question that I'm raising is… can the hometown connection get Joe Willis on the Rapids?
Denver's own Joe Willis played in the combine game today between AdiPower and AdiPure as the AdiPower's goalkeeper. His game was spectacular, making several big saves as the AdiPower midfield continually turned the ball over and forced close range free kicks. Projected currently most likely as a late 3rd round flyer pick, a combine continuing what he showed today could push him up into the ranks of an early third or late second, right into the hands of the Rapids.
They don't need a goalkeeper, but I'm not sure that Ian Joyce is the future of the position if Matt Pickens is shuffled away to Europe in the next few years or just retires outright. If the 18th pick in the second round is rarely a player you think will make a big league impact anyway… why not?
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Matt Pollard 