Photo by Jerome Miron/USA Today Sports
By DAN KARELL
Orlando City made a big and somewhat surprising splash on Wednesday.
With the first overall selection in the MLS Expansion Draft, Orlando chose Portland Timbers goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts, a selection that few experts saw coming. Ricketts joins Tally Hall to make up one of the league’s strongest goalkeeping corps, and is likely to be the starter from Day 1 as Hall continues to recover from injury.
New York City FC kicked off their Expansion Draft by selecting Real Salt Lake’s Ned Grabavoy, who played under NYC FC head coach Jason Kreis between 2009-2013 when the latter was in Salt Lake.
Other highlights from the Expansion Draft include NYC FC selecting New England Revolution rookie Patrick Mullins, New York natives Jason Hernandez, Thomas McNamara, and Chris Wingert, and centerback George John, who missed the entire 2014 season with a knee injury.
Orlando City, meanwhile, took two forwards in Jairo Arrieta and Mark Sherrod, as well as youngsters Pedro Ribeiro, Danny Mwanga, and Tony Cascio. The Lions also selected versatile, veteran defender Heath Pearce.
Just as the draft concluded, reports emerged that Jalil Anibaba, Orlando City’s third round selection, was being sent to Sporting KC as part of the trade that sent Aurelien Collin to Orlando.
Here’s a closer look at all of the selections from the 2014 MLS Expansion Draft:
2014 MLS EXPANSION DRAFT
FIRST ROUND
Orlando City SC – Donovan Ricketts, Portland Timbers
New York City FC – Ned Grabavoy, Real Salt Lake
SECONDÂ ROUND
Orlando City SC – Tony Cascio, Colorado Rapids
New York City FC – Patrick Mullins, New England Revolution
THIRDÂ ROUND
Orlando City SC – Jalil Anibaba, Seattle Sounders
New York City FC – Jason Hernandez, San Jose Earthquakes
FOURTHÂ ROUND
Orlando City SC – Pedro Ribeiro, Philadelphia Union
New York City FC – Daniel Lovitz, Toronto FC
FIFTHÂ ROUND
Orlando City SC – Lewis Neal, D.C. United
New York City FC – Tony Taylor, New England Revolution
SIXTHÂ ROUND
Orlando City SC – Jairo Arrieta, Columbus Crew
New York City FC – Mehdi Ballouchy, Vancouver Whitecaps
SEVENTHÂ ROUND
Orlando City SC – Heath Pearce, Montreal Impact
New York City FC – George John, FC Dallas
EIGHTHÂ ROUND
Orlando City SC – Danny Mwanga, Colorado Rapids
New York City FC – Thomas McNamara, D.C. United
NINTHÂ ROUND
Orlando City SC – Mark Sherrod, Houston Dynamo
New York City FC – Sal Zizzo, Sporting Kansas City
TENTHÂ ROUND
Orlando City SC – Eric Gehrig, Columbus Crew
New York City FC – Chris Wingert, Real Salt Lake
—————-
What do you think of these selections? Which team had the best draft? Which picks did you like the most?
Share your thoughts below.
Real leagues don’t have expansion drafts, they have promotion/relegation. I hope one day the US can get a real league so they don’t have to suffer the embarrassment that is MLS.
Simple, don’t follow MLS.
But hopefully still come back here to enrich us with his comments; my life would be empty without them!
Perhaps, he follows the MLS with the hope that they make structural changes to bring themselves in line with mainstream soccer, which would help US soccer development tremendously.
I think the Zizzo grab by NYCFC was smart.
Going to miss him on the keyboards in KC, though. Benny will have to hold auditions for a new co-host.
RBNY fans all let out a big chuckle when NYCFC selected Blue Cheese. Can’t wait to see him do two step overs and then back pass to the fullback.
If his knees even hold up. That pick was all risk, no reward. Maybe Kreis just missed his teammate from 8 years ago.
So, with the ten new additions per team, according to the existing team roster pages,
OCFC have 22 players and NYCFC have 16.
I think some of us including myself forgot that this process is help to build a team not just pick the best players available.
Yes indeed. That is multiplied by the fact that you have to pay the player the full value on their contract, so you are looking for bargains even though the teams putting players up for the draft are often looking to dump overly expensive contracts.
Hence EJ being dangled out there. You think DCU would rather put his paycheck and DP slot to work in some other way? You betcha.
So can someone help me understand why this is even a thing. Why do the new teams get to take players from the existing teams? Is it just because MLS likes to come up with weird stuff to confuse the casual follower of soccer in the US?
It’s done to make sure expansion teams are competitive in their first year. Otherwise, starting from scratch, it would be difficult to find 20 MLS-quality players with US citizenship and/or green cards that are not already signed to other teams or leagues. A new expansion team can’t just buy up a bunch of internationals, because there is a limit to how many you can have per team in MLS.
Without an expansion draft, these new teams would have to find free-agents, USL players, or undrafted college players to make up their team – which mean they would lose the majority of their games for their first year (and maybe longer).
I like it, it’s a good idea, and other leagues should do it (if they could).
LOL other leagues should do it.
The other leagues are way too well run for that ( sarcasm ).
Can you imagine ? The 12th and 13th players on RM and Barca get sent to some of the bottom 18 teams….LOL. They might actually have a league !
Hey Clown – no other leagues are still expanding and adding new teams.
Thanks for the educational post.
@DCGooner – dude, you don’t have to be so harsh to people.
He’s a goon, that’s what goons do.
In most leagues, the player’s rights are protected in that a player cannot be moved from one team to another without the player’s consent. In the MLS. a player could be sent from sunny California to snowy Canada without player’s or his family’s consent. The Swiss guy who was sent to DCU midseason last year and his family were quite shell-shocked, when they realized that they have no say and would have to uproot the family and move to a different city during the school year.
Thanks! That makes sense I guess.
Yeah it’s exactly what the NFL does for expansion teams.
There’s really no other country that does it because their teams are never started from scratch and put in the top league.
This whole post in this thread is clownish . . . “Can someone help me understtand why this is a thing?” No, probably not if you can’t comprehend the concept of building an expansion team. “other leagues should do it” . . . you mean like every other league in America, which does it? “Can you imagine if Europe did it? Nope, because Rory pointed out, they don’t just create teams in the top tier there.
PS “Quit Whining About Soccer in the US” said something in another post about having a family in another post, which almost made me think he’s relatable, but in reality, he’s just the nonsense talking troll that all others claim him to be.
No surprises about Kreis taking Grabavoy: for any coach, a trusted midfielder is worth his weight in rubies.
But I was wrong earlier when I predicted no takes from Sounders.
You predicted no takes from the Sounders ?
Why ?
I looked at who else was available from other teams. Several better options.
Of the unprotected Sounders who saw somewhat regular playing time:
Anibaba, Jalil
Azira, Michael
Cooper, Kenny
Gonzalez, Leonardo
Remick, Dylan
Scott, Zacharias
Zach would retire immediately (and take a coaching job at SS2), Leo and Kenny are on the old side, Remick is a big question, Anibaba ain’t making any headlines…. I thought Azira was the pick of that bunch until I saw the other midfielders available from other teams.
Did you think a Sounder would be grabbed? Who?
Not one player taken from Seattle or LA, the two best teams in MLS. Go figure.
Jalil Anibaba was selected from Seattle and being traded to KC from OCSC as a part of the Collin deal.
The two richest teams too. Coincidence ?
ps. as state above Anibaba
Take a look at who was available from LA. It’s not like Juninho was exposed for the taking.
Maybe you would have a case for selecting Dunivant, but the rest on that list are spare pieces. Alan Gordon? Naaaaah.
Pretty surprised Gargan wasn’t taken. Solid player making peanuts.
Can Seattle have him?
😉
NYC and OC probably didn’t like Dunivant and Gordon at their wages. Dunivant at least will be available in the Stage 2 part of the reentry draft.
Gargan on the other hand probably should of been drafted at this current contract.
…should have. Not “should of”. Jeez.
Both clubs crapped the bed in round three. Anibaba and Jason Hernandez? Then both teams take end of the benchers in mwanga for Orlando and ballouchy for NYCFC. I’d give a slight edge to NY in this draft.
It’s clear the coaches and GMs for these teams see things very differently than the rest of us.
Anibaba is part of the Collin trade, as stated above
I glossed over that. The Anibaba selection makes sense for Orlando as it was part of the trade for Collin. So far Orlando is showing a good penchant for deals.
re: Mwanga…it’s not a terrible pick up. 23 year old who is still very promising despite not living up to the hype yet.
He’s a project and I sincerely hope he fulfills his potential. He showed flashes as a rookie but he hasn’t been able to impress MLS coaches at three clubs so far. Here’s to hoping he breaks through.
He didn’t even impress with NASL this last season . . . but that’s why they are GM’s and we are commenting on a message board. They have cap restrictions to worry about as well.
DCU made out like crazy today. While losing Lewis Neal is kind of a drag, and McNamara was an interesting idea, considering who else they exposed, they have got to be happy. They got to keep Arnaud, Korb, EJ…did any other team expose three guys who started that many games and keep them all? Not to mention Opare, who will only get more important as Boswell gets older and Parke’s situation with injuries remains unclear (and he’s not young either).
Us keeping EJ is a curse.
Arnaud is too old at this point to justify his costs for a new club looking to build beyond their first season.
I’ve never been a fan of Korb. But I think that’s due to his baby shinguards…
First DC guy I’ve heard in 24 hours that he’s happy they kept EJ