PLAYERS IN: Danny Califf - Philadelphia Union (from Midtjylland of Denmark) Roy Miller - New York Red Bulls (from Rosenborg of Norway) Troy Perkins - DC United (from Vålerenga of Norway) Danny Allsopp - DC United (from Al-Rayyan of Qatar) Michael Orozco - Philadelphia Union (on loan from San Luis of Mexico) PLAYERS OUT: Yura Movsisyan - Real Salt Lake to Randers (Denmark) Chris Rolfe - Chicago Fire to AaB (Denmark) Cuauhtémoc Blanco - Chicago Fire to Veracruz (Mexico) Amado Guevara - Toronto FC to Motagua (Honduras) Gonzalo Segares - Chicago Fire to Apollon (Cyprus) Luciano Emilio - DC United to Rio Branco (Brazil) Ricardo Clark - Houston Dynamo to Frankfurt (Germany) Paulo Nagamura - LA Galaxy to Tigres (Mexico) Stuart Holden - Houston Dynamo to Bolton (England) Steve Ralston - New England Revolution to AC St. Louis (USA, second division) TRADES: - Chris Seitz from Real Salt Lake to Philadelphia Union for an allocation and cash. - Chris Albright from New England Revolution to New York Red Bulls for a second and third round pick. - Fred to Philadelphia Union from DC United for an allocation slot (used for Troy Perkins) and the 7th overall draft pick. - Kevin Harmse from Chivas USA to Houston Dynamo for a 2012 draft pick. - Jacob Peterson from Colorado Rapids to Toronto FC for allocation money. - The rights to Jeff Larentowicz and Wells Thompson from New England Revolution to Colorado Rapids for Cory Gibbs, Preston Burpo, allocation money, and a 2011 draft pick. RUMORS:
The off-season will start with the Philadelphia Union taking ten players in the expansion draft on Wednesday. Ives has posted the protected player lists. There's still some confusion about the Generation Adidas players, so I'm not sure who will be taken. If that is updated tomorrow or tonight, I'll post my ten projected picks. From looking over the lists that can be confirmed, here a few I would expect to see taken: Pat Phelan - DM - New England Eddie Robinson - CB - Houston Todd Dunivant - CB - LA Galaxy Robbie Russell - RB - Real Salt Lake
And now the full list is out. A bit of a delay because of how much MLS likes to complicate things with contracts. Its kind of crazy to be honest. But here's my ten if I'm Peter Nowak: Pat Phelan - DM - New England Eddie Robinson - CB - Houston James Riley - LB - Seattle Robbie Russell - RB - Real Salt Lake Andy Iro - CB - Columbus Mehdi Ballouchy - AM - Colorado Luciano Emilio - FC - DC United Sinisa Ubiparapovic - MC - New York Josh Saunders - GK - LA Galaxy Bobby Convey - LM - San Jose I'm debating between Riley and Anthony Wallace (FC Dallas). Riley has more MLS experience, but Wallace has represented the US at youth levels and has more potential. This group gives me a solid, young defensive core. I don't know what the Revs were thinking with letting Pat Phelan go, especially when Jeff Larentowicz is a free agent. Andy Iro has played some considerable minutes on one of the best teams in MLS over the last two seasons. Robbie Russell and Riley are solid on the wings, particularly Russell who scored the winning PK in the MLS Cup. In goal, Saunders doesn't have a lot of experience, but after this performance in the PKs at the MLS Cup, he's worth taking a shot at. The attack is where I might be getting this all wrong as Emilio, Convey, and Ballouchy are on fairly sizable contracts. Philadelphia have the right to negotiate with these players before they start the season though, so it might be worth a shot. Convey is coming off a horrific season in San Jose, but played his best with Nowak in the past at DC United and could take a discount for a comfortable situation. Emilio's contract maybe prohibitive, but his goal scoring record makes him well worth a look. Ballouchy is an interesting case. Colorado got him in a trade for Kyle Beckerman, who raised the trophy as captain of the MLS Cup Champions this past Sunday. He hasn't been worth that price at all, but he has been solid at the front of the attack for Colorado. This group with give Philadelphia a solid core to build around and develop a quality attack from as most of the top players available are defensive players.
Ives with his picks. Not too many he agrees with, and probably for a good reason. He takes Amado Guevara (Toronto FC), Bobby Convey (San Jose), Frankie Hejduk (Columbus), Jesse Marsch (Chivas), Eddie Robinson (Houston), Stephen King (Seattle), Chris Albright (New England), Anthony Wallace (FC Dallas), Aaron Hoblein (Kansas City), and Nick Zimmerman (New York). Ives took a different appraoch here. I went for mostly younger, cheaper players following the highly successful model set by Seattle this past season. Ives spent a bit more, but ended up with more established players. I went younger and left more room for players to get filled in later.
I was kind of hoping they'd choose Guevara. He doesn't have a great relationship with Preki and I don't think he's dependable enough to warrant that much of an investment. Oh well.
I really let this thread go by the wayside, didn't I? For a first update, here's who Philly Union actually took: Brad Knighton David Myrie Jordan Harvey Shevar Thomas Shea Salinas Steffani Miglioranzi Andrew Jacobson Nick Zimmerman Sebastian Letoux Alejandro Moreno They also added Chris Seitz via trade and national teamer Danny Califf moments before and a few days later respectively.
The MLS SuperDraft was today. For the less MLS-informed, its the draft of American-college players or American youth players. Philadelphia Union had the first overall pick and went with Danny Mwanga from the Congo and, more recently, Oregon State. Philly also traded for two additional first round picks and took Amobi Okugo, another underclassman from UCLA and Jack McInerney of the US-U17. Philly took Toni Stahl, a project first round pick, at the start of the second round. Kyle Nakazawa of UCLA went to Philly in the third, but was projected as a borderline first rounder before a poor combine. Brian Perk of the US-U20 went with the first pick of the fourth round to close out a terrific haul for Peter Nowak's first draft. Nowak also added Fred (not that one), in a deal with DC United. Tony Tchani, a defensive midfielder in the mold of Shalrie Joseph, went second over all to Red Bull New York. Tchani was top five, but dominated the combine and moved up to number 2. Ike Opara was the odds on number 2, before announcing he would stay at Wake Forest until graduation in May. Opara fell to three and went to San Jose. Canadian striker Teal Burnbery will follow in his father's foot steps in Kansas City, while versatile defender/midfielder Zach Lloyd went fifth to FC Dallas. Chicago also had a strong draft as Corben Bone fell out of the top five to them at 13, as well as US-US20 backup keeper, Sean Johnson in the fourth round. Other picks of note were Dilly Duka at 8 to Columbus, Zachary Herold at 24 to Toronto FC, and Euan (Stuart's brother) Holden to Houston at 62.
Ricardo Clark has officially left Houston and will be joining Eintracht Frankfurt of the German Bundesliga. Ives seems to think that Clark has a chance to start from day one. The contract officially runs through the end of the current season, but there are mutual options for up to three seasons there after. Still no official word yet from Clark's former teammate, Stuart Holden, about his ventures in Europe. He has been on trial with Bolton, but I haven't seen anything out of that camp. there was a report of him signing with Portugese leaders Braga, but that seems to have been just a wild rumor.
I missed it. What I did see yesterday was Columbus resigning Guillermo Barros Schelotto and Kansas City adding one of the three Colombian defenders signed by MLS. I'm not sure where the other two are going, maybe one is to DC? Was the play Troy Perkins? He was added during the draft, which I didn't mention. A pick and Fred (not that one) was the deal. I forget to who.
It was Australian striker Allsopp. http://www.tribalfootball.com/dc-united-sign-australian-striker-allsopp-583211 Not sure how trustworthy the source is.
It isn't, but Allsopp's profile on the DC United website is a pretty decent source. I forgot about him...mostly because I know nothing of the guy. I would say he is a very capable replacement for the departed Fred and Luciano Emilio and some of the money and a foreign player spot saved with those guys leaving were used on him.
Bolton has finally pulled the trigger on Stuart Holden, signing the former Houston star to a six month deal. Not the best idea as there's no commitment to his development, but not the worst as the Aberdeen born Holden is moving to his other native land. I'm hoping he gets a few appearances and shows enough to get a longer deal at Bolton or elsewhere.
