2010 Expansion Draft List: Philadelphia Union

By: Featured, MLS, Philadelphia Union, Portland Timbers, Vancouver Whitecaps

Philly fans will be curious to see who their team protects in next month's expansion draft. (Getty Images)

The expansion torch will be passed on next month at the 2010 Expansion Draft. The Philadelphia Union were the expansion sons of 2010 but now they will be having to protect 11 of their own just like everyone else in Major League Soccer. (For more on the expansion draft rules go here)

Yesterday I took a look at Chivas USA and last week we discussed D.C. United.

The Union surprised a few last year with their expansion draft picks but did come away with the biggest steal of them all in Sebastien Le Toux who had an MVP-type season in 2010. There’s no doubt that Philly has a young and exciting roster that may have finished second to last in the eastern conference but Peter Nowak has the foundation of a future winner in Chester.

The biggest decisions will come down for Philly when we hear if Danny Mwanga graduates out of the Generation adidas program. Based on his playing time this season its possible he will graduate but for today’s sake we’ll assume he’s getting one more year in the program. The other GAs on their roster didn’t play nearly enough this season to make any case for graduating from the program.

Below are the 11 I believe to be protected:

  1. Sebastien Le Toux – I shouldn’t have to explain it but maybe his stats will: 14 goals, 11 assists.
  2. Jordan Harvey – Most minutes of anyone on the team this year believe it or not.
  3. Michael Orozco Fiscal – Got better as the season went on.
  4. Fred – One of the veteran leaders of the team, no need to leave him unprotected.
  5. Roger Torres – One of the three internationals that have to be protected. Plus the kid showed a lot this past season.
  6. Eduardo Coudet – Same as Torres, one of the internationals they’ll have to protect.
  7. Juan Diego Gonzalez- Same as Torres and Coudet.
  8. Justin Mapp – The move to Philly got his career back on track in my opinion.
  9. Danny Califf – A leader in the back, even if he is a bit reckless at times.
  10. Alejandro Moreno – Leader up top, did well with Le Toux all season long I believe.
  11. Chris Seitz – Didn’t play great in his first real year as a starter but Nowak will likely stick with him.

Player to be unprotected:

  • Brad Knighton
  • Cristian Arrieta
  • Stefani Miglioranzi
  • Andrew Jacobson
  • Kyle Nakazawa
  • J.T. Noone
  • Shea Salinas
  • Toni Stahl
  • Nick Zimmerman
  • Sheanon Williams

Generation adidas/Homegrown Talent exempt players:

  • Danny Mwanga
  • Jack McInerney
  • Amobi Okugo

Again a lot comes down to if Mwanga graduates for them. Still this was a rough team to gage here. You could make a case for Jacobson, Williams and even Zimmerman or Salinas to be protected over someone like Harvey or even a more expensive player like Califf or Fred. Then there was Seitz vs Knighton again. I like both but Seitz still has more potential in goal for them.

At the end of the day I looked and felt Harvey made more sense for them going forward over Zimmerman and Salinas. You could swap Jacobson for Fred and Williams for Califf if you’d like. There’s really no wrong reason to do so. I have Fred and Califf in the protected zone because they’d be harder to replace than a Williams or a Jacobson at this point. Some Philly fans could see that differently though.

This could be a club I come back to down the road and revisit.

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