Round 2 of the MLS Re-Entry Draft will conclude shortly around 1:00 PM CST today. All four of
the top targets in Gregg Mixdorf's original article are off the board. Bobby Convey was traded to
Sporting Kansas City. Chivas USA selected Arturo Alvarez and his ridiculous salary in Round 1 of
the Re-Entry Draft.
Bobby Boswell was one of the surprise names on the list today. (Getty Images)
The 2011 Re-Entry Draft has a few interesting names. The Vancouver Whitecaps will have the first
pick and could snag a quality player in the first stage of the draft next week, or they could wait
until the second stage when things are expected to get really crazy.
Major League Soccer has revealed the names of the players who will be made available in the
upcoming MLS Re-Entry Draft.
Bobby Boswell, Bobby Convey, Joe Cannon and Andy Williams are just some of the veterans left
exposed by their MLS teams in the Re-Entry Draft, which will be held on Dec.
Major League Soccer released the official list of players left unprotected for the 2011 Expansion
Draft. D.C. United left 11 players unprotected including veterans Steve Cronin and
Santino Quaranta.
According to the press release from MLS - each current MLS club has had the opportunity to protect
11 players from their 2011 roster.
Major League Soccer has unveiled the lists of players who will be available for the Montreal
Impact to select in the upcoming Expansion Draft.
Brian Ching, Freddy Adu, Justin Mapp, and Andy Williams are just some of the players available
for selection by Montreal on Wednesday.
In the first three parts of this series, I worked my way through the thick weeds of the roster,
pruning and purging. On the far side, I arrived with the roster sorted into the following
categories...
- PROTECT: De Rosario, Jakovic, Kitchen, Pontius
- EXPOSE: Barklage, Burch, Cronin, Davies, Korb, McTavish, Morsink, Ngwenya, Woolard, Zayner
- BUBBLE: Boskovic, Brettschneider, da Luz, King, McDonald, Quaranta, Simms, Willis, Wolff
- N/A: Hamid, Najar, Shanosky, White
Four of the twenty-seven players on the roster don't need to be sheltered from the rapacious
grasp of L'Impact de Montreal by virtue of their being home grown talents.
Guess what? United are a middle of the road club. They slot in somewhere between the also-rans
like Chivas and the league elites like Seattle. Hard to find these last couple of results shocking
when you put things in that perspective, is it? Nor was it surprising to see United struggle
offensively in their first game without their second most influential attacking player1.
D.C. United v Toronto FC
8/6/2011, Saturday, 7:30 PM
RFK Stadium
Last Four Head-to-Head:
4/16/11 3-0 D.C. United (a) (Pontius x2, Davies)
3/12/11 2-2 Draw (n) (Davies, Ngwenya; De Rosario, Santos) (Carolina Challenge Cup)
10/23/10 2-3 Toronto (h) (Quaranta, Moreno; De Rosario x2, Santos)
9/11/10 1-0 D.
DC United at FC Dallas: Dallas Heat Shows No Home Field AdvantageThe extreme heat and humidity in Saturday night's contest was extremely evident on the faces of the
players of both teams. FC Dallas was coming off a disappointing effort on the road at Real Salt
Lake that we profiled earlier this week.
Quotes?
Ben...
Again, it was a long week for Dwayne; so right after the second goal I was going to
pull him out for Joe [Ngwenya]. But we needed a goal, and you don't take De Rosario off if you need
a goal.
Nor do you bring on Ngwenya. Can't believe we're hanging on to him.
So I was part of the way though prepping a series of posts on probable moves for DC United in
the summer transfer window when...
McBoom!
De Boom!
Boom goes my post series.
Hmmm. The best laid plans of mice and fullbacks, eh? Instead of tossing out the whole thing, let
me just post what would have been the key conclusions in that series and look at how the moves for
De Rosario and McDonald address (or don't address) what I saw as the outstanding needs for United
at the midway point.
Philadelphia Union at D.C. United - Gamethread - U.S. Open Cup Qualification Play-In Round
Union starting XI: Mondragon, Harvey, Valdes, Califf, Harvey, Nakazawa,
Carroll, M. Farfan, Daniel, Le Toux, Ruiz
Union bench: Holder, McInerney, Pfeffer, Richter, Agorsor, Torres, Mwanga
D.
What an exciting way to return to the season. United showed a new look and a new attitude to the
game. First a few observations followed by player ratings.
Observations:
-You could tell from the very beginning that this team is different from last year.
