Gbandi Tops MLS Draft Selections

University of Connecticut defender Chris Gbandi was the first of 66 players selected Sunday when Major League Soccer held its draft of high school, college and minor league players in Orlando, Fla.

Gbandi, who won the Hermann Trophy as college soccer’s top player in 2000, was chosen by the Dallas Burn, which also selected Southern Methodist University midfielder Carl Bussey and Stanford defender Lee Morrison in the first round.

Liberian-born but raised in Houston, Gbandi, 22, was a three-time All-American at Connecticut.

Luchi Gonzalez, the 2001 Hermann Trophy winner from SMU, was the only forward taken in the first round.

Drafted by the San Jose Earthquakes, he was the sixth player chosen overall. The Galaxy, which had the first pick in the second round as its highest choice, used it to take 22-year-old New York midfielder Hemir Niebles, who had been playing for the Brooklyn Knights of the Professional Developmental League.

In addition to Niebles, the Galaxy drafted Connecticut goalkeeper Bryheem Hancock (22nd overall); Bradley forward Gavin Glinton (25th); Venezuelan forward Alejandro Moreno of North Carolina Greensboro (25th); defender Cory Gibbs of St. Pauli in the German Bundesliga (38th); midfielder Noah Delgado of Fresno State (48th); midfielder Lawrence Smalls of UC Irvine (59th) and forward Ishmael Mintah of Creighton (69th).

Grahame L. Jones