Among the Union's weaknesses during their first Major League Soccer season was inconsistent goaltending. In announcing the team's protective list for Wednesday's MLS expansion draft, the Union failed to protect either of their keepers, Chris Seitz or Brad Knighton.
"If you are going to protect one, it's not fair to the other," Union team manager Peter Nowak said in a conference call. "Both did a very good job. . . . We want to keep the group together and can't do that with both goaltenders."
No matter how it's phrased, it doesn't appear to be a ringing endorsement for either keeper.
A team can lose no more than two players in the expansion draft, when Vancouver and Portland will be stocking their rosters. Once a player is selected from a team, that team can move one player from the unprotected roster to protected.
Danny Mwanga, Jack McInerney and Amobi Okugo, as Generation Adidas players, are exempt and didn't have to be protected.
The Union had to add midfielder Brian Carroll to the protected list after acquiring the 29-year-old midfielder from the Columbus Crew on Monday in exchange for a conditional second round pick in the 2011 MLS SuperDraft and allocation money.
In 2010, Carroll appeared in 28 games, making 27 starts, and had one goal. He played on an MLS championship team with Columbus in 2008 and D.C. United while Nowak was the coach in 2004.
Under MLS guidelines, the Union had to protect three of four international players: Roger Torres, Juan Diego Gonzalez, Eduardo Coudet or Toni Stahl.
The team left the 36-year-old Coudet unprotected.
The 11 protected players: Danny Califf; Carroll; Gonzalez; Jordan Harvey; Sebastien Le Toux; Justin Mapp; Kyle Nakazawa; Michael Orozco Fiscal; Stahl; Torres and Sheanon Williams.
The 11 unprotected: Cristian Arrieta; Coudet; Fred; Andrew Jacobson; Knighton; Stefani Miglioranzi; Alejandro Moreno; J.T. Noone; Shea Salinas; Seitz and Nick Zimmerman.
