Abundis has pretty much made it clear that he's going to a Mexican club. Maybe MLS just gave NE a free out. That and Lockhead would count as an SI next season (presumably), and NE liked him more than the other choices.
That makes no sense, you're right. Not only two SI's, but their only 2 SI's. I'm not sure how the SYI's like Lockhead fit into the equation. Since the Galaxy have both Miglioranzi and Nagamura unprotected, I was assuming that the SYI's count just like any other non-GA, non-SI player. In other words that the teams were free to either protect their SYI's or not.
I'm sure you're right, but that means that MLS has the team roster wrong: http://web.mlsnet.com/players/index.jsp?club=t109 On the Galaxy roster, Tyrone Marshall is not listed as SI, as he has a green card, too.
I just did an article for the http://www.redpatchboys.ca website entitled The expansion draft and imminent signing announcements that lists the players available along with salaries and nationalities. I don't doubt I made a few slips but I think it helps illustrate what the teams have done with their protected lists and makes it easier to try to work out what TFC should do.
Good point in that Toronto FC doesn't need to pick players simply for themselves. They could be working right now to swing some trades that involve picking up a player in the expansion draft and then trading that player to a 3rd MLS team.
I'm sure my point has been addressed In earlier posts regarding FC Toronto... but my thought is this? Why can't MLS just declare - now that it is a two country league - that any players from the USA or Canada are to be considered "domestic" players for all teams and players from outside the USA or Canada "international" players for all teams. It just seems to me that having different rules in regard to where the teams in the league can get their players from is a little bit less than fair.
I like the fact that Toronto has to have so many Canadian players, it will improve our National Program having the majority (hopefully) on the same team. Not only Torontonians will get behind the team, when they are all fellow countrymen, the entire country will be behind the team, except for maybe a couple betrayed Montreal Impact fans, after we pick them clean. Whether they will compete against Americans is yet to be seen. For example, im British-Canadian, and due to my British heritage, absolutely could not cheer for Arsenal, its not an English club when u have 1 or 2 english players in the side.
Well, it turns out that the rumor I heard was mostly true. To wit--Mojo really only wanted 2-4 players in the pool. All other picks were to try and get something in trade and he's not interested in the players he picked. I had trouble buying it when I first heard it but it more or less worked out that way (although Mojo picked more players just to trade them then I thought would happen). I think the assumption that he'd want the two Canadians on the list (Williams and Serioux) turned out to be wrong. As for RSL--do you need any more proof that Ellinger needs to go? They expose Kreis (I assume b/c they assumed he wouldn't be picked), lose him and then have to trade something to get him back (and he's fading as a player anyway). What stupidity! I wouldn't rule out the Jaqua to DC possibility. I think the most likely option is Jaqua to overseas. But....Jaqua no longer belongs to Chicago. He's never indicated an interest in Toronto (and I find it unlikely he'd sign with a club before knowing what the competition is--Mojo could go out and use 3 allocations on strikers and Jaqua will have just signed up as 2nd reserve forward). In short, Jaqua will likely have to decide about signing with TFC before he knows what other forwards they'll have. So....if Jaqua stays in MLS (a possibility), than it will likely be for a team other than TFC. Who could that team be? Not Chicago--that's for sure. DCU at least has two advantages: --Nowak has clearly indicated his admiriation for Jaqua by bringing him on to the all-star team. --Even with a Brazilian coming on board, we're a team with an aging Moreno who should play less and an injury-prone Eskandarian (who I think would be dealt if we acquired Jaqua). On the whole though, things could have been much worse for us. I hate to lose Dyachenko but does anyone here think he'd have been one of our top 14 players next season? Or a critical striker for us? We kept Simms which is important. And frankly, I'm not that impressed by TFC's draft. Cancela is your most highly regarded player on your selection list?
Mo made out like a bandit. The draft was more about what he could get in return for his selections rather than keeping them. He picked up an MLS Best XI calibre player in ROB, two allocations, an underrated a-mid in Cancela, and a decent d-mid in Nagamura. Throw in the rumored Buddle for Regan trade, and he's got 4, possibly 5, starters, plus more money to throw around. Ellinger and Rongen can only wish that they had managed to do as well as when they had the same opportunity.
Of course, in a sense Ellinger and Rongen couldn't do what Mo has because there were two teams drafting. No worries on Mo's part that his plans would be derailed.
Yeah, but they could have tries something similar, i.e. drafting a player that they knew would be wanted back by the original team. I think both of them lacked the creativity to pull off such a move, whereas Mo really made some slick moves and capitalized on teams making stupid maneuvers. I mean, really, why the hell didn't RSL protect Kreis? They knew they needed him and really put themselves in a position to be taken advantage of. Mo's draft may look weak when it was first released, but the logic behind it is deceptively easy to understand now.
It's not exactly the same. For one thing, teams got to protect more players when RSL and Chivas were drafting. That means that there weren't as many quality players available. Then, you had two teams picking from the same depleted pool. When you have less talent and then cut that in half for each team, you can quickly see just how hard it would have been for RSL and Chivas to do anything with their draft. And I think the results on the field proved that. I guess MLS didn't want another expansion team to suck so they loosened the rules for TFC. But Mo did do a great job with what he had available to him. I'm not trying to take away from him. I just don't think it is fair to compare what he did with what RSL and Chivas did when the situations were extremely different. Even if there had been another team drafting from this pool with him, he would not have done nearly as well and would probably have had to change his strategy a lot.
