Only 24 hours from playing in the MLS Cup, AJ Soares, Patrick Mullins and Andy Dorman saw the business side of Major League Soccer as they were all left unprotected for Wednesday’s expansion draft.
Each team can protect 11 players and the New England Revolution opted to protect:
Kevin Alston, Teal Bunbury, Charlie Davies, Andrew Farrell, Jose Goncalves (Int’l), Jermaine Jones, Daigo Kobayashi (Int’l), Lee Nguyen, Kelyn Rowe, Bobby Shuttleworth and Chris Tierney. Scott Caldwell was automatically protected as a Homegrown contract.
The Revolution left unprotected: Darrius Barnes, Jerry Bengtson (Int’l), Andy Dorman, Diego Fagundez, Brad Knighton, Stephen McCarthy, Joe Nasco, AJ Soares, Tony Taylor, Andre Akpan, Larry Jackson, Shalrie Joseph, Patrick Mullins, Steve Neumann, Jossimar Sanchez, Donnie Smith, Luis Soffner and Alec Sundly.
The biggest name on that list of unprotected players is Diego Fagundez, but Revs President Brian Bilello took to Twitter to explain that was a tactical move and that Diego will be back with the team next season:
That will pacify the Revs faithful, but the decision to leave Mullins unprotected, while protecting Shuttleworth seems baffling to me. New York and Orlando already have goalkeepers, and I cannot see them wasting on of their ten picks on a back-up goalkeeper. Mullins on the other hand had an up and down season for a rookie, but as he showed in the MLS Cup on Sunday, he is talented young player who will be even better next season.
That New England left both McCarthy and Soares unprotected leaves the impression that their will be at least one new central defender coming in next season. I thought earlier in the season that Farrell looked ok playing in the middle, and one idea could be to slide him over next to Goncalves and bring in a new right back.
What did you think of the protected/unprotected list?