Alejandro Moreno was one of the better picks in Wednesday's draft. (Getty Images)

Another year has come and another Expansion draft has gone in Major League Soccer. No high profile names were taken, and not many players selected were expected to go. Only a couple that were taken most people figured would be selected by Philadelphia and Peter Nowak. While it wasn’t a roster that most expected it was one that fits the mold of what Nowak looks for in a roster.

Below are my grades for each pick. Just like in years past some picks were better than others. Continue Reading…

The new kids of the block finally have some spots filled on their roster today as the 2009 Expansion Draft is complete with Philadelphia Union selecting their first 10 players. Some names won’t shock you while others may leave you guessing what Peter Nowak and company have up their sleeve.

-Jordan Harvey – Colorado Rapids
-Andrew Jacobson – DC United
-Brad Knighton – New England Revolution
-Sebastian LeToux – Seattle Sounders
-Stefani Miglioranzi – Los Angeles Galaxy
-Alejandro Moreno – Columbus Crew
-David Myrie – Chicago Fire
-Shea Salinas – San Jose Earthquakes
-Shavar Thomas – Chivas USA
-Nick Zimmerman – New York Red Bulls

Five clubs escaped without losing anyone: Real Salt Lake, Dallas, Toronto, Houston and Kansas City.

It’s also been reported that Philly has traded for RSL keeper Chris Seitz. Steve Goff is saying Seitz went from RSL to Philly for allocation money and the promise not to select any of its players in the expansion draft. Not a bad promise if you think about it. If that deal is indeed true then the Union has two solid young keepers.

What do I think of this roster? Certainly surprising compared to what I predicted. They could have come away with a better roster for sure but one has to think Peter Nowak is getting guys to fit his system, which is more important sometimes than getting the best players out there. I’ll have more thoughts on this roster later.

Could Bobby Convey be headed home to Philly? (Getty Images)

The speculation has begun for the Philadelphia Union and their expansion draft that takes place tomorrow afternoon. The 15 clubs released their protected list last night and now the Union have a full list of guys that they can get 10 players from. And the talent is there for Union to get off on a good foot here.

I do have a feeling a deal or two will be worked out tomorrow but that is just a hunch.

Below are the ten I believe the Union could go for tomorrow. I went fairly defensive minded as I think that may be the way Philly goes since they haven’t made any moves yet like Seattle had already done by this time last year. Defense is always a good place to start with a roster and they can fill in the holes offensively this winter. Some of these I may be off on but we’ll see. Continue Reading…

Major League Soccer has released the lists of players protected from Wednesday’s MLS Expansion Draft, which the expansion Philadelphia Union will use to select ten players from the remaining unprotected players on the league’s 15 team rosters.

A few names out there that were left off may shock some of you like Stefan Frei in Toronto who just graduated from his GA contract.

Tomorrow I will get into who I think Philly will select here but below is who each club protected followed by the list of Generation adidas players who graduated from their contracts.

Edit: The Generation adidas list has been updated, the league sent out a huge list of GA graduates that was totally off. They messed up but thankfully corrected it.

Continue Reading…

Toronto will certainly protect their stars but who won't be protected? (Getty Images)

The 15h and final club in our expansion draft speculation lists is Toronto FC. Yesterday they announced Preki as their new head coach and his first big task will be helping General Manager Mo Johnston with figuring out who to protect and who to leave exposed in the expansion draft.

Toronto will also come down to the GA contracts getting graduated or not before this draft. Should they graduate players Frei will certainly be protected over probably someone like Gerba.

Other than that I really had little problems coming up with who to protect and who not to out of this bunch. They have plenty of young talent and some high priced veterans. Seems wise to protect the younger guys and expose veterans like Guevara and Garcia.

See any issues with this? Let’s hear it!

We can't imagine Fredy Montero will be left exposed, who will join him in the protected list? (Getty Images)

Only a couple more clubs left to preview here for the expansion draft. Now we turn our attention to a previous expansion club, one that has set the standard for all expansion clubs to come, the Seattle Sounders FC.

Sigi Schmid was able to do well with last year’s expansion draft picks but will he be lucky enough to not have someone selected from his roster this year? Let’s find out.

A couple names may jump out but I figure high contracts will be the reason why they may get exposed. Lots of folks from Seattle are saying Jaqua is a candidate to be exposed over say Nyassi or Le Toux because of Jaqua’s higher salary (he makes like $200k). I also went back and forth on Riley, Nyassi and Ianni.

A lot comes down again to whether or not they graduate GA contracts before the draft, if they don’t then both Riley and Ianni are going to be protected. Should Zakuani graduate from his GA contract then it gets tough. At that point I’d probably take Ianni over Riley but that could go either way. The only other that could sneak in is Marshall but I couldn’t figure out to to replace him with.

See anyone I totally missed on here? Let’s hear it.

Will San Jose lose one of their players in the expansion draft? (Getty Images)

Today is the final day in our expansion draft coverage/speculation/etc. as we look at three clubs. First up this morning is the San Jose Earthquakes. Later on today I will have Seattle Sounders FC and Toronto FC to round out the lists.

The discussion on these lists have been great and I really appreciate the feedback, both positive and negative.

Now for the Quakes:

For me it came down to Wondolowski and Salinas. I think Wondo has a little more upside at this point than Salinas. Wondo’s experience out weights Salinas for me at this point in their careers. Plus I’ve never been a big Salinas guy.

I still have a feeling we will see a deal worked out for Convey to go to Philly here. I think it is very possible to see a trade worked out, maybe not next week during this draft but down the road for sure as I bet Frank Yallop would love to shed that salary off the books since Convey never really played well in San Jose this past year. Plus we have to figure Convey wants to play in Philly too since he is from near that area.

Then there is Joe Cannon and what they will do with him. I think they’ll still protect him here but don’t be shocked at all if Cannon is not a Quake in 2010.

See anything I missed? Let’s hear it.