Crew waives four, becomes roster compliant

Adhering to today's deadline for all 14 Major League Soccer clubs to become roster and budget compliant, the Columbus Crew waived defender Andrei Pacheco, defender Rusty Pierce, forward Jacob Thomas and forward Ricardo Virtuoso.

The four will be available to the other 13 MLS clubs in Tuesday's (March 4) 3 p.m. waiver draft, which will be held via conference call.

In order to be compliant, which the Crew now, is, teams must be in line with the following requirements:

• no more than 18 players on the Senior Roster
• no more than 10 players on the Developmental Roster
•team salary budget must be equal to or less than the cap set forth by the League

The Crew's roster currently features 17 of the 18 senior roster players permitted, as well as all 10 developmental players allowed. Of its 2008 draftees, Andy Iro, George Josten, Steven Lenhart and Ryan Miller are currently on the roster, while Billy Chiles, Cory Elenio, Ricardo Pierre-Louis, Zola Short and Lukasz Tumicz have all returned to school for the time being. They have been able to participate in portions of the preseason and some of them could have the opportunity to train with the club again later this spring.

"With one senior roster spot still available, we have the flexibility to continue to pursue options in order to round out our roster," said Crew Technical Director Brian Bliss. "With six weeks until the transfer window closes, we are confident we will find the right player - or players - to complete our roster and they could come from among the trialists we have had in camp."

CURRENT 2008 COLUMBUS CREW ROSTER
Senior (17)

Guillermo Barros Schelotto #

Brian Carroll

Brad Evans

Jason Garey

Eddie Gaven

Leonard Griffin

Andy Gruenebaum

Frankie Hejduk

Ezra Hendrickson %

Nicolas Hernandez #

Will Hesmer