Press Releases

Sunday, February 6, 2000

Fire Selects Project-40 Defender Carlos Bocanegra from UCLA in 1st Round of MLS Superdraft

The Chicago Fire selected one of its two first round picks and traded the other in the first-ever MLS SuperDraft held earlier today in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. With its 1st selection in the 1st round, the 4th overall pick, the Fire took Project-40 Defender Carlos Bocanegra. Chicago then traded its second pick in the 1st round, the 6th overall, to the Los Angeles Galaxy for Project-40 player DeMarcus Beasley. Chicago also sent L.A. its No. 1 pick in the 2001 MLS draft for Beasley.

Bocanegra was part of the 1997 UCLA National Champions and was a finalist for the Hermann (soccer equivalent of Heisman) and Missouri Athletic Club (MAC) Player of the Year Awards. Beasley became the first of two American (Landon Donovan won the Gold) men to ever earn MVP and second MVP honors in a FIFA World Championship event, as he was awarded the Silver Ball while earning two Man of the Match honors during the FIFA Youth World Cup in New Zealand in 1999.

"Similar to last season, today's drafts were more picks for the future. We have a solid roster and we're very comfortable with it. Our acquisitions today were good and I can only say that we made our picks with an eye for the future," said Fire Head Coach Bob Bradley. "Carlos Bocanegra is clearly among today's top college players. He is one of the top young defenders in the country and had a tremendous career at UCLA. He made a name for himself when he played well at the U-20 Championships in Nigeria last year. Beasley had a major breakthrough onto the world stage during the U-17 World Cup in Australia where he showed he is one of top young exciting players in America."

Yuri Lavrinenko was chosen in the 3rd round, 32nd overall, by Chicago. Lavrinenko, one of three Ukrainian born players to attend Indiana University (Chicago's Dema Kovalenko and Dallas' Aleksey Korol are the others) scored the winning goal in the 1999 NCAA Championship game. Similar to Kovalenko, Lavrinenko played for the Dynamo Kiev youth team and was named to the All-Big Ten soccer team for four straight years. He was also All-Final Four the past two collegiate championships and was named the Most Outstanding Offensive player during the '99 Championship run.

In the 4th round, 44th overall, the Fire chose John Wolyniec, most recently of the Long Island RoughRiders and previously with the NY/NJ MetroStars. Wolyniec was chosen 7th overall by NY/NJ in last year's college draft but failed to hang on in MLS. In four appearances with NY/NJ he did score a goal, but did most of his damage at the A-League level, as he played in 27 games with Long Island, scoring 15 goals and seven assists. He was second on the team in points with 37 points. Fordham's all-time leading scorer with 75 goals and 32 assists for 182 points, Wolyniec was a three-time First Team All-Atlantic Ten honoree. He also led all of Division I in scoring in 1998 and 1997.

In the 5th round, 56th overall, Alejandro Rincon joined the Fire. A right back who played for Division II power Southern Connecticut State, he was an NSCAA First Team All-America selection as a senior in 1999. He helped lead the Owls to the 1999 NCAA Division II National Championship, as they finished the season 20-0. He was also a key member of the 1998 National Title winning side.

Chicago traded its 4th and 5th picks in the 6th round, 64th and 65th overall, to the Tampa Bay Mutiny, for the Mutiny's 6th round pick in the 2001 draft. Then with its lone pick in the 6th round, 68th overall, the Fire chose Kevin Jackson from Lehigh.

"We were very surprised that Yuri slipped down in the draft. He's a very smart and talented player that we felt would be a good pick. We were also happy to pick up Alejandro and Kevin. We will see if these guys have the ability to help us this year, they will have every chance to show us what they can do. There are always surprises on days like today. You have to be able to adjust. The real key here is that we felt strongly they were very good players. We're excited to see what they can do. What we're seeing now with our Under-17 program is that the players are getting stronger. We have more and more players ready to start their professional careers. That's how it happens all over the world," added Bradley.