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Rapids in the MLS expansion draft
Medhi Ballouchi, left, and Jacob Peterson were among the players left available by the Colorado Rapids in Wednesday’s expansion draft. (photos by Prost Amerika Soccer, Seattle)
When Colorado Rapids coach Gary Smith said, “We need better players,” after losing to Real Salt Lake in the regular-season finale, there was speculation on my part (and others) that one player he was referring to was Mehdi Ballouchy.
So I wasn’t surprised to find that Ballouchy is on the list of players who are eligible to be drafted by the Philadelphia Union in Wednesday’s expansion draft.
However, I wasn’t expecting to see Jordan Harvey and Scott Palguta, who I thought were the team’s two best defenders, or Jacob Peterson, whom I voted for in the team’s annual end-of-season awards as the Rapids’ best young player under the age of 25.
The draft will last 10 rounds, and Philadelphia may not claim more than one player from any team. Five teams will not have a player taken in the draft. The Rapids have never had a player chosen in any of the league’s expansion drafts.
The Rapids have a much more thorough look at the rules of the expansion draft on the team’s blog.
Here’s a look at all the available Rapids players:
Mehdi Ballouchy
Preston Burpo
Greg Dalby
Facundo Diz
Ty Harden
Jordan Harvey
Pat Noonan
Scott Palguta
Jacob Peterson
Steward Ceus
Mike Holody
Ross Schunk
And here are the players the team protected:
Julien Baudet
Conor Casey
Colin Clark
Omar Cummings
Cory Gibbs
Kosuke Kimura
Nick LaBrocca
Pablo Mastroeni
Drew Moor
Matt Pickens
Jamie Smith
Interestingly, the Rapids protected Ballouchy and Peterson in last year’s expansion draft for the Seattle Sounders, and Kimura was left unprotected. (And, oddly, the Rapids protected Bouna Coundoul, who wound up leaving the team after a contract squabble, and Ugo Ihemelu, whom they traded midseason for Moor).
Burpo, who played a significant role for the Rapids in 2009, survived the Seattle draft, and he also was available for Toronto FC in the 2006 expansion draft. Here’s an old FC Rocky post I wrote about that draft. I had some hits and some misses, but look at the goalkeepers who were available in that draft: Zach Thornton was on the 2009 MLS Best XI, and Nick Rimando, who just was named the MLS Cup MVP with Salt Lake.
So let’s have a look at this year’s expansion draft. Here are the available players from all clubs who will be available on Wednesday for Philadelphia. If you were putting together your own mock draft, who would you pick?
Chivas USA
Conway, Jon
Curtin, Jim
Harmse, Kevin
Jazic, Ante
Kennedy, Dan
Lillingston, Eduardo
Marsch, Jesse
Razov, Ante
Saragosa, Marcelo
Stepanovic, Bojan
Suarez, Claudio
Talley, Carey
Thomas, Shavar
Trujillo, Mariano
Victorine, Sasha
Chijindu, Chukwudi
Mayen, Gerson
Parker, Lance
Chicago Fire
Banner, Michael
Blanco, Cuauhtémoc
Carr, Calen
Dimitrov, Stefan
Dykstra, Andrew
Myrie, Dave
Rolfe, Chris
Segares, Gonzalo
Woolard, Daniel
Lowry, Peter
Washington, Austin
Columbus Crew
Garey, Jason
Gruenebaum, Andy
Hejduk, Frankie
Iro, Andy
Moreno, Alejandro
Nyazamba, Stanley
Oughton, Duncan
Padula, Gino
Renteria, Emilio
Schoeni, Kenny
Burns, Kevin
Elenio, Cory
Grendi, Alex
FC Dallas
Burse, Ray
Purdy, Steve
Ricchetti, Pablo
Rocha, Andre
Sala, Dario
Torres, Daniel
Van Den Bergh, Dave
Wagner, Blake
Wallace, Anthony
D.C. United
Emilio, Luciano
Gomez, Christian
Habarugira, David
Jacobson, Andrew
Janicki, Greg
John, Avery
Khumalo, Thabiso
McTavish, Devon
N’Silu, Ange
Olsen, Ben
Vaughn, Lawson
Wicks, Josh
Allen, Ely
Barklage, Brandon
DiRaimondo, John
Kocic, Milos
Shipalane, Tiyiselani
Houston Dynamo
Barrett, Wade
Chabala, Michael
Clark, Ricardo
Cochrane, Ryan
Landin, Luis
Mulrooney, Richard
Onstad, Pat
Robinson, Eddie
Thompson, Abe
Waibel, Craig
Deric, Tyler
Hayden, John Michael
Ustruck, Erik
Kansas City Wizards
Besler, Matthew
Cristman, Adam
Gomez, Herculez
Hartman, Kevin
Hirsig, Santiago
Hohlbein, Aaron
Kraus, Michael
Kronberg, Eric
McKenzie, Rauwshan
Morsink, Kurt
Watson, Lance
Marquess, Matt
Pardo, Boris
New England Revolution
Albright, Chris
Badilla, Gabriel
Heaps, Jay
Igwe, Amaechi
Jankauskas, Edgaras
Knighton, Brad
Matamoros Castro, Mauricio
Ombiogno, Stephane
Phelan, Pat
Thompson, Wells
Tierney, Chris
Videira, Michael
Shuttleworth, Robert
Los Angeles Galaxy
Dunivant, Todd
Eskandarian, Alecko
Gordon, Alan
Griffin, Leonard
Jordan, Bryan
Kirovski, Jovan
Klein, Chris
Lewis, Eddie
Miglioranzi, Stefani
Sanneh, Tony
Saunders, Josh
Valentin, Julian
Marshall, Yohance
Patterson, Kyle
New York Red Bulls
Boyens, Andrew
Cepero, Daniel
Garcia, Walter
Krupnik, Leonid
Patterson, Caleb
Petke, Mike
Rojas, Jorge
Sassano, Luke
Ubiparipovic, Sinisa
Wolyniec, John
Mbuta, Andongcho
Zimmerman, Nick
Real Salt Lake
Alexandre, Jean
Campos, Pablo
El Khalifi, Rachid
Gonzalez, Nelson
Grabavoy, Ned
Horst, David
Mathis, Clint
Movsisyan, Yura
Reynish, Kyle
Russell, Robbie
Williams, Andy
Cox, Raphael
Nunez, Tino
San Jose Earthquakes
Amarikwa, Quincy
Convey, Bobby
Elliott, Simon
Pitchkolan, Aaron
Ribeiro, Antonio
Salinas, Shea
Weber, Andrew
Wondolowski, Chris
Graczyk, Mike
Roberts, Jamil
Zaher, Michael
Seattle Sounders
Boss, Terry
Eylander, Chris
Graham, Taylor
King, Stephen
LeToux, Sebastien
Levesque, Roger
Riley, James
Scott, Zacharias
Sturgis, Nathan
Vagenas, Peter
Wahl, Tyson
Brown, Evan
Fucito, Michael
Neagle, Lamar
Nyassi, Sanna
Toronto FC
Edwards, Brian
Fellinga, Lesly
Garcia, Nick
Gerba, Ali
Guevara, Amado
Robinson, Carl
Vitti, Pablo
Gala, Gabe
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