Major League Soccer announced the details of the MLS Expansion Draft over the weekend. For starters, it will take place on Wednesday, Nov. 24.
Each club can protect 11 players -- which must include any Designated Players with no-trade clauses. Since the details of Omar Bravo's contract haven't been made public, we are left to guess at this status. I think he's probably going to be on the list.
Generation adidas* and Home Grown** players are automatically excluded from the expansion draft and do not need to be protected. As an added caveat, a team with more than three international players can only leave three fewer than their total number of international players protected.
*Roger Espinoza will most likely graduate from GA, leaving only Chance Myers and Teal Bunbury.**Jon Kempin is the only home-grown player on the Wizards' roster.
KC has 7 internationals -- Korede Aiyegbusi, Sunil Chhetri, Zoltan Hercegfalvi, Nikos Kounenakis, Jimmy Nielsen, Craig Rocastle, and Ryan Smith.* Which means only four of them can be left unprotected. Stephane Auvray and Kei Kamara both have green cards and aren't considered internationals.
*I earlier had 10 listed. I have been informed that Omar Bravo, Shavar Thomas and Birahim Diop do not count as internationals.No MLS club can lose more than two players; if Portland or Vancouver claims a team's player, that team has the right to protect another player and pull his name off the expansion draft list. The final list for each team will be made available to Portland and Vancouver two days before the draft.
My best guess on KC's "Protected XI + 3"Jimmy Nielsen, GK
Michael Harrington, DEF
Shavar Thomas*, DEF
Roger Espinoza, DEF
Stephane Auvray, MID
Craig Rocastle, MID
Davy Arnaud, MID
Ryan Smith, M/F
Kei Kamara, FWD
Omar Bravo, FWD
Sunil Chhetri, FWD
Teal Bunbury, FWD (Generation adidas)
Chance Myers, D/M (Generation adidas)
Jon Kempin, GK (Home-grown players)
*Update: My thoughts on including Shavar. I am of the belief that Jimmy Conrad's time as a Kansas City Wizard is coming to an end. He is dealing (apparently) with his second concussion in two years and was stripped of the captaincy earlier this year. I do not wish to see him go, but believe this is the direction the team is heading in. I put Shavar on this list because he would be snapped up by Portland/Vancouver and KC can't go into the offseason with Besler/The Greek/Leathers as their only solid centerbacks. Which leaves... Korede Aiyegbusi, M/DJamar Beasley, FWD
Matt Besler, DEF
Jimmy Conrad, DEF
Birahim Diop, M/F
Zoltan Hercegfalvi, FWD
Aaron Hohlbein, DEF
Jack Jewsbury, DEF
Nikos Kounenakis, DEF
Eric Kronberg, GK
Jonathan Leathers, DEF
Josh Wolff, FWD
Graham Zusi, M/F
I'm fairly certain that the salaries of Wolff, Conrad and Zoltan will make the unlikely expansion targets. But Besler, Diop, Kronberg and Zusi are all candidates to leave.
What do you think?
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