Three former Bulls drafted by MLS

Three former USF men’s soccer players are headed to Major League Soccer after being drafted into the league.

Midfielder Bernardo Anor, defender Javed Mohammed and goalkeeper Jeff Attinella were selected by franchises through either the 2011 MLS SuperDraft or the 2011 MLS Supplemental Draft.

Anor is headed to Columbus, Ohio, after being selected by the Columbus Crew with the 48th overall pick. Columbus finished second in the Eastern Conference last year with a record of 14-8-8 and was eliminated in the conference semifinals on a penalty shootout to eventual champion Colorado Rapids.

Anor was awarded with a second-team All-Big East selection after each of his last two seasons as a Bull. Anor led the Bulls in scoring his senior season with 15 points off of six goals and three assists. He scored 21 goals during his career.

“I’m very pleased that Bernardo was selected in the SuperDraft,” USF coach George Kiefer said, according to gousfbulls.com. “We’re starting to see, year-in-and-year-out, that we are getting players drafted on a consistent basis, and I think that says a tremendous amount about the program we are running here at USF. More importantly, it says a lot about the hard work that Bernardo has put in during his career.”

Attinella and Mohammed were selected Tuesday in the Supplemental Draft.

Attinella was drafted by Real Salt Lake with the 14th pick.

Real Salt Lake finished as runner-up to the Los Angeles Galaxy in the Western Conference with a record of 15-4-11. It was eliminated 3-2 on aggregateby FC Dallas in the conference semifinals. FC Dallas eventually lost to the Rapids in the MLS Cup Final.

Attinella, a product of Clearwater Chargers Soccer Club, played every minute of his final two seasons and posted a USF record 10 shutouts, includinga school-record six consecutiveshutouts. He posted a goals-against average of 0.78 in his senior season.

Attinella spent part of December in Portugal playing with Unio Desportiva de Leiriaof Portugal’s Primeira Liga.

Mohammed, a left back, earned a spot alongside Anor as a second-team All-Big East selection. He posted three points on three assists during his senior season and was drafted with the final pick in the Supplemental Draft by the Rapids.