Good Morning! It's really begining to feel like winter here in RBNY land, although it's probably much warmer than the temperatures MLS fans (including the great Matt Conroy - aka Who Shot Sam) were subjected to in Toronto this past weekend. But never mind all that, it's 2010 Expansion Draft time.
This past Monday, the day after MLS Cup, teams submitted to the League a list of 11 players they would be protecting from being picked by expansion franchises Vancouver and Portland. Those not on the protected lists are fair game for selection by the two Northwestern sides.
In the past few days, several mock drafts have popped up on various sites, so let's look at them, as they pertain to RBNY:
Duane Rollins, over at The 24th Minute blog, has this one, where the Red Bulls only lose Sinisa Ubiparipovic. Hey, I can live with that.
Chris Thomas, over at the WVHooligan blog, has this one, where the Red Bulls lose only Andy Boyens. I can really and truly live with that one.
Soccer America's Ridge Mahoney has this one, where the Red Bulls lose Ibrahim Salou & Greg Sutton. Yeah, I confess: I'm not going to lose any sleep if those two are picked.
Last, Phil Shore, over at Shore Thing Sports, has the Red Bulls definitely losing Connor Chinn. This one would really suck, as I really like Chinn and would love for him to continue his development here. He showed his goal scoring form in those US Open Cup play-in games, and in the Juventus friendly as well. Let's hope this one doesn't happen.
But we'll know soon enough as the Expansion draft takes place today at 1:45pm. Before then, a few items to consider, regarding players that may be selected. Extra Time Radio will have a live stream of the proceedings, so make sure to tune in.
As you may know, MLS Commissioner Don Garber announced that there will be an additional two teams in next year's MLS Cup Playoffs. This resulted in a steady stream of articles, like this one (linked by Matt earlier) from Sports Illustrated, calling it a bad move. A few of these should be required reading for Mr. Garber.
First off, Tim Sorweid, at World Soccer Reader, has this great one detailing the problems with the playoff system. The Gaffer, at MLS Talk, suggest the playoffs are already dead, but MLS just doesn't know it yet. The best of the bunch is this one by the National Soccer Examiner's L.E. Eisenmenger, which details the fact that 99% of MLS fans already know: MLS Cup playoffs need more quality, not more teams.
On another subject that's coming up rapidly, Ives Galarcep give us his MLS Big Draft 1.0 today. Yes, the 2011 Superdraft is fast approaching and there is one big item of interest that Ives gives us RBNY fans. Remember Matt Kassel, the RBNY Academy product, currently a junior at the University of Maryland? Well, he's been a highly touted prospect for several years around these parts, but now Ives suggest that the Red Bulls aren't really interested in signing him. Very interesting, as Kassel was recently on a list of College underclassmen that MLS is interested in signing to Generation Adidas contracts. As an Academy product, the Red Bulls would then have first dibs on signing him. Why would they pass on a free pick? Interesting...
Anyway, look for our massive coverage of the Expansion Draft results in the next few days. Viper Out!
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