As expected the Seattle Sounders FC selected 10 players from a large pool of unprotected players today.

(EDIT: Sorry for the delay in this, traveling yestery kept me from being able to post this as these results came down while I was in the air. Plus I wasn’t done with my flying until late, but never late than never)

Here is the list of players chosen by Seattle:

• Nate Jaqua (Houston)

• Brad Evans (Columbus)

• Stephen King (Chicago)
• Jeff Parke (New York
• James Riley (San Jose)
• Khano Smith (New England)
• Jarrod Smith (Toronto FC)
• Nathan Sturgis (Real Salt Lake)
• Peter Vagenas (Los Angeles)
• Tyson Wahl (Kansas City)\

The first couple shockers are Vagenas and Jarrod Smith. Neither really seemed like likely picks before this draft by anyone. Not knocking Smith as I am a fan of him (he was a WVU guy). The rest of the picks were pretty expected though. Wahl from KC wasn’t a shocker, same with King from Chicago. The rest I pretty much had in my predictions.

Word is that New York will replace Jeff Parke with Mike Pekte. I’m still pretty sure they will make a deal or two here as Seattle picked a hand full of central midfielders.

So what did you all make of this draft? Any shockers from it?

Post for the next couple days will be very few and far between (if any at all). I will be traveling from Dallas to West Virginia this evening for the Thanksgiving holiday. On Black Friday I will be heading to Washington DC for the weekend and into the first of next week.

Again, there won’t be many post at all, if something big goes down I may do a quick post about it from my phone (gotta love the Wordpress app on my iPhone). But I do plan on just taking it very easy the next few days while I am out.

I hope you all have a good and safe Thanksgiving (if you are celebrating it).

The unprotected lists are out from every MLS club and now it is time to play that wonder speculation game about who Seattle Sounders FC will pick in tomorrow’s draft.

Of course there will be a couple trades tomorrow in the draft. A lot of early speculation surrounding a couple picks are already filling the rumor mill. A lot of talk that Seattle has already squared a trade or two with LA for a couple defenders. But until we see those trades come down we can predict who Seattle will take in their 10 selections.

1. Brandon Prideaux (Chicago)
2. Lawson Vaughn (Chivas)
3. Brad Evans (Columbus)
4. Tim Ward (Colorado)
5. Francis Doe (DC)
6. Aaron Pitchkolen (Dallas)
7. Nate Jaqua (Houston)
8. Khano Smith (New England)
9. Nathan Sturgis (Real Salt Lake)
10. Kelly Gray (Toronto)

No picks from LA, New York, Toronto, and Kansas City.

We’ve said all along Seattle would go fairly defensive in this draft but looking out there I kind of think they will still pick a couple offensive players. Jaqua is an obvious choice even with his higher salary ($156,000). Should they not pick Smith from New England, they may go with a younger guy like Pat Phelan or even a Wells Thompson from the Revs.

For the most part though I see them taking a lot of fairly cheap guys here. Most on this list make less than $50,000 with only Jaqua, Sturgis ($75,000) and Prideaux ($72,000) making more than that mark. Getting solid talent at a decent price is always the way to go in any event.

They have a shot at getting some real deals in this draft but some of the bigger names out there won’t be selected due to their current price-tag (ie a Ante Razov or a Carlos Ruiz).

Who do you see Seattle taking tomorrow? Place your predictions below.

The 2008 Expansion Draft is a day and change away. Teams had to submit protected/unprotected lists to the league office earlier this afternoon. Results of those lists are as below in terms of who Seattle can select if they decide to.

A few good names out there, some they will select and others they won’t like Ante Razov or Ronnie O’Brien. But as far as guys they could select there is Nate Jaqua, Khano Smith, Pat Phelan, Wells Thompson, Ryan Pore, Aaron Pitchkolen, Eddie Gaven, Pat Noonan, and Terry Cooke to name a few. I know some are from the same team but the Sounders FC will only get one from each club.

Continue Reading…

Another trade to discuss. San Jose Earthquakes have sent forward Jovan Kirvoski to the LA Galaxy.

Details are still coming down about the trade, once I hear what they are I will pass it along to you. My bet he is in exchange for a late round draft pick or just plain ol’ allocation.

UPDATE: Kirvoski was traded for a conditional pick in the 2010 Supplemental Draft. Nothing like a conditional pick in a draft that will be no more in a few years.

Montreal owner Joey Saputo told the press today that he and his ownership group still want in Major League Soccer but just not at any price.

So in a way it did come down to the money after all.

“I’m disappointed — the bid was taken out without explanation,” said Saputo. “Does MLS really want Montreal? I don’t know.”

“We were OK with that (amount), without hurting where we are today and without hurting our plans for the future,” said Saputo, whose team has been an attendance leader in the USL and its predecessor, the A-League, for 15 years. “We thought we had a sound bid.”

“Maybe the mistake I made was to put in a price,” he added.

He said the team will get on fine without MLS, as it did this season.

It sounds to me like we may never see Montreal in MLS with this kind of talk. Its about the money in some ways but it’s also the league not carefully looking at the bid for what it was worth. Maybe in 2012 or 2013 things will be different and the stadium his club plays in will be bigger and “league standard” by then.

For me it sounds like they are just buying a little more time to be “MLS ready” as a club and as an organization. Not like that is a bad thing overall but its sad to see this bid not be in the running as I thought it was one of the best.

But as a hole the league did what they thought was best I think. Sure there was probably a misunderstanding or some communication issues somewhere in all of this but I think in the end it will be the best for both parties involved.

What do you make of this mess with Montreal? Will the league bring their bid back or will we have to wait a few more years to possibly see them in the league?

Let the trades begin.

The Kansas City Wizards have traded for New England Revolution forward Adam Cristman in exchange for a 2009 SuperDraft 3rd round draft pick and an allocation.

The Revs needed to dump a little salary from what I’ve heard on their end and it never hurts to get a little allocation money in the process. I think this shows that the Revs are set to make a few moves this off season as they probably will lose a couple key parts (Michael Parkhurst and maybe even Taylor Twellman).

KC on the other hand continues to deal for young and cheap strikers to go along with DP Claudio Lopez, who is reportedly going to return (maybe even on a non-DP contract). Look for the Wizards to continue their dealing too up until the draft. I like where they are going with this, I really do.

More to come folks…more to come..