Sounders Lose Two in Draft Dealings

The Sounders stood to lose a starting quality player to this afternoon's Expansion Draft, and as it turns out, they lost not one but two. Announced as the ninth pick, James Riley will not actually be headed to Montreal. Montreal traded him with Chivas USA for Justin Braun and G. Mayan in return. After the Impact finished announcing each of their ten picks, they made the announcement that they had acquired Tyson Wahl from the Sounders for allocation money in return.

It's definitely quite a blow for the Sounders to lose both starting fullbacks from last season, but the Sounders still have a very capable left back in Leo Gonzalez and worthy replacement on the right in Zach Scott. In a recent interview Adrain Hanauer expressed that one of the areas that he and the front office were looking to bolster in the off-season is defense, so it wouldn't be entirely surprising if they find a replacement for Riley and perhaps Wahl as well.

The remaining list of draftees is below:

1. Seth Sinovic (SKC)
2. Sanna Nyassi (Colorado)
3. Josh Gardner (Columbus Crew)
4. Jeb Brovsky (Vancouver)
5. Brian Ching (Houston)
6. Zarek Valentin (ChivasUSA)
7. Justin Mapp (Philadelphia Union)
8. Bobby Burling (San Jose)
9. Collen Warner (RSL)

Expansion Draft Protected Lists Revealed

It's that time of the year again, the Expansion Draft held to help supplement and build the roster of an incoming expansion team. It was done in 2008 for the Sounders, in 2009 for the Philadelphia Union, last year for the Vancouver Whitecaps and the Portland Timbers, and now this year for the Montreal Impact. There are several notable players that were quite surprisingly left unprotected, such as Brian Ching from the Houston Dynamo (who in fact threatened to retire if Montreal selected him), one of the Columbus Crew's top goal-scorers last season Andres Mendoza, Sporting Kansas City's captain and Designated Player Omar Bravo, and Freddy Adu who was recently acquired by the Philadelphia Union, among others. Seeing how big name players that clubs are taking a gamble with, it will certainly be interesting to see if Montreal resists the temptation of a more expensive player or not when they submit their list later on today.

To view the complete protected and unprotected lists for each team, head here.