Real Salt Lake protects 11

Fresh off their victory in the MLS Cup last night, RSL had to announce what 11 players they would protect in Wednesday's expansion draft.  I had feared that Garth, Bill, and Jason would be put in a very hard spot of chosing to trade or lose either Nick Rimando, who had just carried you on his back to two trophies in two weeks that went down to PK's, and young rising star Chris Seitz.  Well with today's announcement I can rest a bit easier knowing that both will be protected.  The full list after the jump

Here is the list of protected RSL players:

1. Kyle Beckerman
2. Tony Beltran
3. Nat Borchers
4. Fabian Espindola
5. Robbie Findley
6. Javier Morales
7. Will Johnson
8. Jamison Olave
9. Nick Rimando
10. Chris Seitz
11. Chris Wingert

This means that a lot of talent is left exposed, the guy who scored the winning shot last night to win the MLS Cup in Robbie Russell, a guy with two game winning goals for RSL this year in Pablo Campos, and young lions like Rapahel Cox, Jean Alexandre, Neslon Gonzalez, and Alex Nimo.

Each MLS side had to make some hard decisions and a lot of quality players will be exposed, with just 24 players per squad the talent level had to rise over the 28 man rosters from last year. 

If you want to see the entire list of who is both protected and available for the draft click here

I have looked over the lists for a number teams this will be a good chance for Philly, since they are starting without a core of players (something Seattle did have with Keller, Ljungberg, and a number of Sounder USL players). I will be posting the 10 players I would select from the list later today.

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