Re: Expansion Draft -- Fri. 11/17 Moreno played great throughout the playoffs. Earlier I said he did well when he actually moved the ball forward instead of falling down or passing back, and he's done that a lot more the past few games. He almost set up a 3rd goal against Chivas, and got an assist against Colorado. I also wonder what changed to get him to play differently.
Re: Expansion Draft -- Fri. 11/17 He also had a nice diving header against the Revoltings, almost top corner. And he juiced 2 or 3 defenders down by the corner.
Re: Expansion Draft -- Fri. 11/17 There is some discussion under the unprotected players list in the News and Analysis section that Mo Johnston absolutely hates our boy Serioux. Its under post #63-#64 of Jason 1551 and another
Re: Expansion Draft -- Fri. 11/17 Well, maybe that is why Dom left him unprotected. He knew there was no way he would pick him up if he already traded him once. Pretty interesting how all of this will pan out.
Re: Expansion Draft -- Fri. 11/17 Talked to some of the players today and Adrian told them he wants to stay in Houston which is what he told me. But there are also rumors that Adrian told the coach he wants to go. This was Adrian first year playing in the back and I know he longs to play defensive midfield which is what he played at Millwall and won't have the chance with Clark around. I'm crossing my fingers he stays. Those of you thinking Ching is leaving for Europe can forget it. Ching is comfortable here in the states and just recently got married. His wife is still in school in Cali. Plus Ching has one last hoorah for the Nats team and he'd be better suited tearing up the MLS then playing for a lower Euro squad.
Re: Expansion Draft -- Fri. 11/17 that makes sense - except by protecting Adrian and then trading him we would have lost either Goldthwaite, Holden, or Wondolowski (to Toronto). So the whole of any deal for Adrian would have to include the fact that we lost a future starter who is under 24 years old.
Re: Expansion Draft -- Fri. 11/17 Not necessarily, part of the deal could have been that they don't take any of our guys, or give back whoever they did take. Of course, we may have offered that to Toronto and they wouldn't do it.
Re: Expansion Draft -- Fri. 11/17 List of unprotected players: Aloisi, Chris Chabala, Mike Goldthwaite, Kevin Gray, Kelly Holden, Stuart Hutton, Martin Lanes, Aaron Moloi, Mpho Nash, Julian Serioux, Adrian Storey, Marcus Waibel, Craig Wells, Zach (GK) Wondolowski, Chris
Re: Expansion Draft -- Fri. 11/17 Nice new avatar Nobius. And next year, you just change the numbers.
Re: Expansion Draft -- Fri. 11/17 Thanks Nobius...but I was the first to post the list here! I want credit, dammit!
Re: Expansion Draft -- Fri. 11/17 Well call me too much of an optimist. I thought that it was 100% that we'd protect Serioux due to his play and that he was a huge fan favorite (if he's picked, my wife is gonna be pissed.) That said, and as many of you have alluded to, there's gotta be something going on behind the scenes so I too will wait until we know what's up.
Re: Expansion Draft -- Fri. 11/17 I was trying to figure out the analogy to the Texans' expansion draft a few yrs ago. The reason we took Boselli and his contract and injuries was that Jacksonville agreed to leave Gary Walker and another player, forget who, unprotected. Since in this draft, you can't lose multiple players, there's no carrot out there of "well, we want to get rid of this guy anyway, if you take his contract, you can take these guys too." There may be something revealed after the draft as to considerations given to Houston for leaving Serioux unprotected, but shouldn't that already have been announced? I'd read somewhere the league had a one-day trade window, I believe yesterday before the lists were finalized. I agree with the poster above that this keeps things simpler, if you lose Stewie because you protected Serioux, who's to say TFC would be willing to trade him back? Besides, we can't lose a guy w/the dancing talent he showed yesterday at City Hall.
Re: Expansion Draft -- Fri. 11/17 Maybe the deal was we keep Holden & Wondo, as they are both exposed, and in return we give them Serioux. Just hiding Serioux and then trading him for something we already had makes no sense.
Re: Expansion Draft -- Fri. 11/17 No he was talking about Ronnie OBrien from FCD. Other players I think FCD may want to trade that Houston would want: Roberto Mina - silky smooth ball skills and great at possession and running at Players, can shoot from anywhere. Very creative. Only knock is maybe not faster than Daglish (but faster than Moreno at least). Arturo Alvarez - creative left side mid who is from Houston Chris Gbandi - great left footed defender that can get in the attack Abe Thompson - better version of Nash - a Ching proto type. I would be satisfied with Houston just getting Ronnie O'Brien, but I hear he wants to play for Nicol
Re: Expansion Draft -- Fri. 11/17 From what I saw Alex Yi also looked decent and would be a good replacement for Serioux.
Re: Expansion Draft -- Fri. 11/17 I did hear that Alvarez would like to play in Houston. He knows there's no place like home. Even though Frisco is a 2nd home to the Dynamo.
Fri. 11/17 @ Noon CT -- see MLSnet.com The draft is on at Noon CT tomorrow, Fri. Nov. 17. The official league site -- www.mlsnet.com -- should have the picks and the press conference audio on Friday. They also have a mock expansion draft up now.
There are some really good keepers that have been left unprotected-Walker, thornton, Meola, Busch-granted these guys aren't what they used to be due to age, injury or doughnuts (in Tony's or Zach's case)-but decent nontheless. So I wouldn't figure that Zach or PAt would be taken if left unprotected. Hmmm...Fat Tony starts off in NY, backed up by Thornton in '96 and both have been hitting the doughnuts of late-and no.... this New Yorker doesn't like donghnuts (knishes were my downfall)-as Homer would say...knishes w/mustard, hmmmm good.
What does this mean, from the MLS website on the draft? Do we have any players that are protected like that? Such as Holden? How young is young?
Ianni, Nash, Hutton, and Cochrane were. I know Ianni still is. Cochrane graduated from Gen. Addidas status, I'm not sure about the others.