Fire submit MLS Expansion Draft list
Chicago protects 11 players from Seattle Sounders FC
MLS released the unprotected list Monday in preparation for the 10-round draft that will be held Wednesday.
Sounders FC are allowed to take only one player from each roster, and there will thus be four teams without any player taken. There is a lengthy list of rules that affect the protected and unprotected lists, including a restriction on the number of foreign players that can be made available.
The players the Fire protected included Goalkeeper of the Year Jon Busch, defenders Wilman Conde, Bakary Soumare, Dasan Robinson and Gonzalo Segares; midfielders Cuauhtemoc Blanco, Logan Pause, Justin Mapp and John Thorrington; and forwards Chris Rolfe and Brian McBride.
Forward Patrick Nyarko is automatically protected as a Generation adidas player.
The players the Fire left unprotected, in alphabetical order, are Mike Banner, C.J. Brown, Calen Carr, Tomasz Frankowski, Andy Herron, Kai Kasiguran, Tyler Kettering, Stephen King, Peter Lowry, Lider Marmol, Nick Noble, Marco Pappa, Brandon Prideaux, Austin Washington and Daniel Woolard.
Prideaux is the only regular starter from the 2008 team on the list.
The best young talent on the list include Banner, King, Pappa and Woolard. King had eight starts and played in 20 games, with two goals scored, while Pappa had three starts after his summer acquisition and is a starter with the Guatemalan national team. Banner and Woolard each had two starts this season.
The list includes both of the Fire's backup goalkeepers, Noble and Kettering. It also included three veteran forwards: Calen Carr, who suffered a severe knee sprain early in the season; Andy Herron, who could not break into the starting lineup in his second stint with the team, and Frankowski, who started seven games early in the season and scored twice but fell out of favor with coach Denis Hamlett.
Brown, the team captain, played in only three games due to numerous injuries in his 11th season with the Fire.
Kent McDill is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
