Peter Nowak must have a personal playbook somewhere that is strictly protected from the outside world because he keeps making decisions that seem odd on the face. His list of protected players for Wednesday's MLS Expansion Draft is no different. Highly paid center back Danny Califf, as well as goalkeeper Faryd Mondragon and midfielder Keon Daniel were among the more curious choices to make the protected list.
MLS Expansion Draft 2011: Philadelphia Union Protected List
The most notable player not to be protected was Freddy Adu, who was brought in at no small expense. It’s certainly possibly that Nowak is simply gambling on the fact that Adu is too highly paid to attract much attention from the Impact. But he has considerably more upside than someone like Mondragon, whose value to the Impact is almos nil.
As expected, Danny Mwanga graduated from Generation adidas and was protected.
Protected players: Califf, Carroll, Daniel, G. Farfan, M. Farfan, LeToux, Mwanga, Mondragon, Torres, Valdes, Williams. Automatically protected: Pfeffer, MacMath, McInerney, Okubo
Unprotected: Adu, Gonzalez, Harrison, Holder, Houapeu, Langley, Mapp, Miglioranzi, Nakazawa, Paunovic, Richter, Tait.
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