Where’s that list?! I’m anxious to see who we left unprotected.

Wallace was graduated from the GA program so that could have been a factor..

Who was your miss Buzz?

I don’t know. Just told I missed on one.

Ives has the list now

FCD protected Harris over Sala. That’s the one.

Ives list says some weird things.

Take a look at the Ga list.

Agree with Doug – Ives’s list says every FCD GA player except for Leyva graduated.

Buzz, I’m shocked about Sala. Is he off the SH bus? Nice way to show the guy who took over being captain and who helped save one of the worst seasons in FCD history. I thought he was a SH guy and that Hernandez was going back to Mexico. Could SH have already made a deal with Philly? Hope Sala likes a good cheesesteak.

Buzz, I’m shocked about Sala. Is he off the SH bus? Nice way to thank the guy who stepped in to become the captain and helped keep FCD from having the worst season ever. Is there a chance SH already cut a deal with Philly and knows that Sala would go untouched? Pretty risky move, unless they want Sala to go.

He’s not off the bus. FCD must have a reason to think Sala isn’t a high risk exposure.

I guess we’ll find out soon enough if FCD needs a new keeper.

My guess is (as I have stated before) Richetti will be taken by Philly, thus making it unnecessary to protect Sala.

Regarding Sala – Take a look at both this year’s list for other teams and this team’s list for past years. This is nothing new.

Pat Onstand was left unprotected too.

No one jumps out at me on the list as “oh, he’s gone.” Wallace and Wagner – past history with Nowak, but are not sure bets in MLS. Wallace probably has the more upside, but is coming off a knee injury.

Ricchetti is a risk – will he want to stay in MLS? Can they re-sign him to a salary he is more happy with?

I’m not sure that Nowak will want to spend as much money on a keeper as Sala is making, and he probably thinks he has a pipeline to a former U-23 keeper.

It is possible someone could be picked, but I’m not thinking it is likely at this point.

Doug – look at this season. If anyone has ever questioned how important Super Dario is to this club they need only to look at this season. Pat Onstad will be 42 at the start of 2010 and Sala turned 35 this month. I would leave Onstad unprotected as well because he makes considerably more than Sala and has one foot out the door. Take a look what other keepers are making around the league…Sala is cheap, especially for somebody with his experience. Maybe Nowak wants a guy he can pay a pitance, but it might be worth it for him to take Sala and trade him to a team that needs a solid keeper, like D.C. United, in return for somebody else. Keepers can win championships. We saw that last night and experience is key with keepers.

Nowak won’t pick Ricchetti because he could easily pick him up later. The entire league knows that situation. He won’t be a priority at this point.

I know you disagree here Buzz, but I would have protected DVB as well. I know he’s old, even more so for his position, but I still think he’s got a couple of seasons left in him. He’s got experience on his side, and give me that over fresh legs any day.

Josh, I agree that VDB has value, I don’t know if I would protect him or not.

But I was fairly sure SH wasn’t going to.

I also don’t think Philly will take any FCD players.

“I also don’t think Philly will take any FCD players.”

Why not Richetti?

Cause everyone knows Ricchetti is out in the cold here. You can wait a month for FCD to waive him and get him for free. Since Philly can only take 10 picks I don’t see them taking Ricchetti.

Also with Sala out there he might be ripe for the picking. I didn’t factor in his trade value to other teams in MLS. FCD may have hosed this one.

potential losses for teams here:

CHV:Razov, S Thomas, Victorine, Conway

CHI:Banner, Carr, Woolard, Washington

Crew:Garey, Iro (only if domestic player, not SI), Elenio

COL: Dalby, Harden, Noonan, Ceus

FCD:Burse, Wallace

DC:McTavish, Vaughn, (will almost surely lose a player given that Nowak is former DC coach and Gros as asst, w/possibly Ben Olsen coming on too)

HOU:Barrett, Chabala, Mulrooney, Cochrane, Thompson, Waibel, Ustruck (got some good players available. IMO will definitely lose one player)

KC:Cristman, Holbein, Watson

NE:Albright, Heaps, Igwe, Phelan, Thompson (will almost surely lose a player also)

LA:Dunivant, Esky, Saunders, Marshall

NY:Boyens, Cepero, Rojas, Sassano, Wolyniec

RSL:Grabavoy, Horst, Mathis, Campos

SJ:Pitchkolan, Salinas, Wondolowski, Roberts, Convey (even though i dont like this pick, he’s a Philly native and Nowak knows him well)

SEA:Eylander, Graham, King, LeToux, Riley, Sturgis, Scott, Wahl (will lose a player here as all come cheap and have MLS experience in some form)

TFC:Edwards, Guevara (?$$$?)

Buzz,

How do players react to being exposed? Specifically, when you have exposed the MLS assist leader and the keeper who stood on his head after you made him captain, do they take it personally?

I get that it’s professional soccer and there are no guarantees. But that doesn’t mean Dave and Dario would be happy about it. Will we see these two refuse to get on the bus come spring?

Sala is VERY important to OUR team.

That is true, and I’m not trying to argue that point.

But Nowak and co. have no need to pick up what is, as perceived in the general MLS community, a good but not great keeper when they probably feel like they can develop one through their US Youth Team contacts for cheaper.

Trade value to another MLS team? For a keeper with a history of knee issues and one who hasn’t played a full year in a while? We know Sala’s value, and I’m assuming that the team staff is confident in his physical ability, but from afar, I think there are too many question marks about him to think that Philly would feel they would have value if they picked him up – either to themselves or to another MLS team.

Now, if there is nothing else out there to pick up, and Philly wants to take something WE value to see what we would trade back to get him…

But I think that unlikely as there is more than enough to pick from that Nowak will want.

As Buzz said, this is their shopping day. They need to make every pick count.

Jason, it depends on the situation. Hyndman met with each player (or he told me he was going to) to tell them where the fit in the team, the plan, and if they would be protected.

So if the coach explains it well, makes each player understand the plan and why they were risked or not, then you can hope they take it in stride. You hope they buy into what the coach is selling. Most players know only a limited amount of people can be protected.

I’m sure there will be a few ruffled feathers. It almost can’t be avoided.

The only thing people are arguing is why FCD left Sala and/or VdB available. Who would you cut out of the protected list.
To my eye, the only protected players worth considering leaving off the list are Hernandez and, possibly, Chavez. Personally, Chavez seems worth keeping, because of both the raw speed and skill we’ve witnessed and his 18 caps for Honduras that imply he’s better than what we’ve seen thusfar in Frisco.
Is Hernandez’ salary really low? If he’s cheap, then the protection makes some sense, because even at his age he’d be tempting. High salaries along with age, like Sala and DvB, historically prevent expansion teams from picking them. Biggest risk of losing them is if Philly decides to play the Mo Johnston game, drafting players, then trading to other clubs for more assets.

Sorry Doug, but you’re wrong about Sala only being considered a good and not great keeper. The only thing wrong with Sala is that he wasn’t born in this country. If he was a “North American” keeper he would be hailed as one of the best. Those of us who know a little about goalkeeping know that Sala is technically one of the best and we’re lucky to have him because he always seems to come up big for the important games. Now here’s a little anatomy lesson, one surgery for a small tear in your meniscus doesn’t constitute knee problems. By your rationale SH shouldn’t have protected George John because of the injury plagued season he had.

Rueben.

One of the best?

Based on what? Your personal feelings for him? Your personal opinion of his abilities?

This has nothing to do with “those of us who know a little about goalkeeping.” Most of us “know goalkeeping.” This has to do with what Dario Sala has been in MLS, and if you compare his career with those of other keepers, he is not “great.” He is “good.” And he missed significant time to knee problems two of the last three years.

And while you may consider his knee problems to be “minor”, they were major enough for him to not be able to play – and while you may think you can just blow that off as irrelevant, I’m fairly certain that Nowak isn’t going to take a risk like that.

Back to the numbers for a second. Let’s see how he compares to some of the top end keepers in MLS.

Has he had numbers near Matt Reis? Pat Onstad? Jon Busch? Hell, Will Hesmer? Zach Thornton?

No.

And not being born in this country has nothing to do with it. (Really? You’re going to play that card? Come on.)

Look, let’s not make more of this than it is – to US, he is great. No one should be surprised that part of the resurgence we had in the last half of the season came when Dario got back. He certainly is a good enough keeper to win a championship if he has the right team in front of him.

But from the lens that Philadelphia is going to use, Dario is not going to be high on their radar screen. They will take Kevin Hartman before they take Dario.

As for John – Dario is over 30, John isn’t. Dario is on more of a salary than John, and there are – statistically – much better keepers available than central defenders with as much potential and upside as John.