Monday, November 21, 2011

Use Some Protection, Volume 2

Now that we have the list of players that the Montreal Impact can choose from, the next step would be to do a mock draft. Fortunately for myself, I am gonna leave that up to the experts because, well, it's impossible to do. I bet if I through down 11 names I might get 1 right. The thing is - a player that I think is a good value is probably not protected for a reason. It might be that their salary is higher than expected. It could be that they are coming off an injury filled season. Or worse, it could just be that they are not that good.

So I will leave the prognosticating to others. There will be no calls for Fredy Adu or Brian Ching. Instead, I will take this opportunity to review our picks. It turns out that none of the 7 of us who tried to predict the safe list were exactly right. We all named Montero, Alonso, Rosales, Zakuani, El Flaco, Hurtado, Ochoa and Neagle. One person left off Parke, but to me he was an obvious choice. As we all noted, the final two spots would come down to Fucito, Evans, Riley and Friberg. Turns out that Sigi valued the contributions of Evans and Friberg the most as they were the final two players to be protected. That means Fucito and Evans are available to be drafted.

I don't claim to know all, so I am not going to confidently say that Fucito is gone. The fact is, the Sounders might have a feeling what type of player the Impact are looking for. Maybe they were hearing that Montreal was looking for a Midfielder who can play in the center of the park. Maybe they are hearing that Montreal coach Jesse Marsch likes to play a direct style with a target forward to hold the ball up. Maybe Mike Fucito isn't what they want. maybe James Riley isn't what the want. Maybe this was all a plan. Maybe they will either look to skip the Sounders, or maybe they'll go after a younger player like Montano (who was on loan with them last year) or Carrasco (a young CM) or maybe even Sanyang (a Canadian international).

And yet, here is the thing. Maybe Montreal knew this was coming and has a trade worked out with another MLS team that is interested in Mike Fucito. Maybe they call the Sounders bluff and select Fucito and ship him elsewhere. Who knows what is going to happen. I just Wednesday to come so that I don't have to worry any more.

*****

Ok, I can't help it. Here is a small list of players I would find to be very attractive if I was Montreal: Victor Estupian (CHV), Sanna Nyassi (COL), Josh Gardner (CLB), Maykel Gallindo (FCD), Paolo Cardozo (LA), Ryan Guy (NE), John Rooney (NY), Collen Warner (RSL), Ellis McLoughlin (SJ), Servando Carrasco (SEA), Soony Saad (SKC), Jev Brovsky (VAN)

Of these, I bet none get picked because I have a feeling Montreal will take on the style of their coach, Jesse Marsch, and be tough, gritty SOB's.

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