PHILADELPHIA—As the size of the Major League Soccer SuperDraft grows, the second round becomes more and more a place where the league’s teams are willing to take chances—and that was certainly the case this year as several teams gambled they could get a low-cost player who blossoms into a solid contributor.

Among the teams that rolled the dice in the second round were:

The Colorado Rapids, which used the 26th overall pick on Navy center back Joe Greenspan, a two-time All American who has a pending military commitment of at least two years.

Orlando City SC, which took the youngest player in the draft, center back Conor Donovan, a member of the U.S. U-20 national team who turned pro after one season at North Carolina State.

Columbus, which used the 35th overall pick on Sagi Lev-Ari, a prolific goal-scorer from Cal State Northridge who scared some teams away because he’s 25-years-old (he spent three years in the military in his native Israel before coming to the United States for college).

Philadelphia, the team from the draft’s host city took NAIA scoring machine Dzenan Catic 31st overall, gambling that his small-college scoring prowess will translate to MLS.

In the first round, Colorado selected Marquette center back Axel Sjoberg, a six-foot-seven central defender originally from Sweden who will be the tallest field player in MLS history the first time he takes the field. In the second round the club continued to go for size in its backline, taking the six-foot-six Greenspan, who may nor may not be able to play this season before beginning a two-year deployment in the Navy.

“He’s worth waiting for," said Rapids coach Pablo Mastroeni. “He’s big, yeah, but what you notice is he’s so consistent. It’s a long play. He’s not going to be available to us for a couple of years but we think he’d be as good as one of the top players in the 2017 draft."

Greenspan, who a few weeks ago wondered if pro soccer was even in the cards at all because of his military commitment, was thrilled to be picked. “It’s awesome, I’m so excited,” he told American Soccer Now.

Lev-Ari scored 42 goals in three seasons at Northridge and tested among the best athletes in the combine. But because of his age, some teams were scared he wouldn’t get much better.

“That’s a concern, for sure,” said Crew coach Gregg Berhalter. “But we thought it was worth taking a chance on. He does a lot of things really well and he’s a great athlete who seems really coachable and at the end of the day he’s a goal-scorer and that’s worth taking a chance on.”

Catic was one of the top players in high school soccer in the class of 2011 but signed with German club Kaiserslautern only to return home because of injuries and a lack of playing time after a year and a half. He enrolled a Davenport University, an NAIA school near his hometown in Michigan, and put up crazy numbers, scoring 63 goals and registering 14 assists in two seasons.

That got him invited to the league’s scouting combine and a solid showing there last week prompted Philadelphia coach Jim Curtin to take a chance. “I like what I see in him,” Curtin said at the combine. “He moves well off the ball and has a nose for goal, obviously. Smart player.”

Catic nearly broke down after the Union picked him.

“I’m so happy, so relieved. It’s been a long journey for me to this point so to get this chance is very special,” he said.

Other noteworthy players who went in the second round were UMBC All-American defender Oumar Ballo, who led his team to the College Cup last fall. He went 30th to Houston; Boyd Okwuonu, the undersized All-American center back from North Carolina who was the ACC defensive player of the year in 2013, went 27th to Salt Lake; and Northwestern goalkeeper Tyler Miller, who landed in Seattle after missing the combine while trying out with lower division teams in Germany.

Orlando, which already took forward Cyle Larin first overall, selected Jamaican forward Akeil Barrett from Tulsa 25th. Barrett is maddeningly talented with the ball, able to dribble at two or three defenders at a time, but not always aware of when to pass it off. And for all his skill he is often dispossessed. If that can be coached out of him, Orlando may have gotten a steal.

Virginia’s Eric Bird is a two-time All American who won a national championship last fall. But injuries cost him most of the postseason and he didn’t play in the combine and that caused him to slip to Philadelphia at 41. If Bird can return to his pre-injury form, the Union may have gotten a bargain in midfield.

One player who dropped precipitously was U.C. Davis center back Ramon Martin Del Campo. The affable Martin Del Campo was the feel-good story of the summer in college soccer when he used a strong showing in the Premier Development League to earn call-ups to the U.S. U-23 national team. He turned down contract offers from teams in Mexico and Costa Rica last month to sign with MLS but a series of poor games at the combine caused his stock to drop and he went unpicked through two rounds.

He’ll have to wait until Tuesday when the draft’s third and fourth rounds are conducted via conference call.

Brooke Tunstall is an American Soccer Now contributing editor and ASN 100 panelist. You can follow him on Twitter.