If your team’s coach picks a guy in – say – the first two rounds of the MLS SuperDraft solely on the basis of his combine performance, then your team’s coach should be fired. It’s one thing to take a guy in the late rounds because of something you saw at the combine; there’s really no risk in doing that. But to take a guy in the first couple rounds on the basis of a combine performance? That’s just plain stupid.

The MLS Combine serves a purpose, to be sure. It’s great way for the lower ranked guys to distinguish themselves and maybe, just maybe, catch the eye of an MLS coach. For everyone else it’s a complete waste of time, the Major League Soccer equivalent of Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on Supreme Court nominees.

Soccer is a team sport. And while every combine game features the usual 22 players on the field, the games never feature a single team. Teams take time to build. The players arrived in Los Angeles yesterday.

The result is a bizarre pickup game. Some players are dogging it because they know the combine doesn’t matter. Other players are going all out because they know it’s their last chance. Nobody knows anyone else so combination play is limited. Runs go unmade or unrewarded. Individual bravado stands out. Athleticism stands out. Simple and smart team play, the kind of play that might actually garner you a spot on an MLS team? Don’t look for too much of that at the combine.

It’s not uncommon for a guy to do well at the combine simply because his style of play, his skill set, his abilities, and his attitude all fit the very unnatural circumstances of play there. And it’s not uncommon for those players to go undrafted or, if they do get picked, for those players to be cut during the pre-season.

Yet, despite all these faults I’ll be attending the combine this weekend for the third year in a row. Warts and all, it remains a truly great event, one of the highlights of the MLS year. Just don’t expect any good soccer.

I have posted detailed combine reports for the last two years at another venue. This year I plan to post similarly detailed reports here. (And with that admission I’ve surely broken my cover. So much for anonymity.) Hopefully the people accustomed to reading my daily impressions elsewhere will find their way over here without too much trouble.

The first report should go up sometime on Friday evening.