BRIDGEVIEW, Ill. - Major League Soccer's expansion draft for its fourteenth team, the San Jose Earthquakes, will take place this Wednesday, Nov. 21 at 12:00 p.m. CT with the Western Conference club selecting 10 players. The results of the draft will be revealed on MLSnet.com following the draft on Wednesday.
Each MLS team is allowed to protect 11 players from its current 28-man roster. The Chicago Fire chose to protect a mixture of veteran and up-and-coming talent with its protected list, most notably "Fire Original" C.J. Brown, Designated Player signing Cuauhtémoc Blanco, midfielder Justin Mapp and last season's leading scorer, forward Chad Barrett. The following is the full list of the Fire's 11 protected players:
Goalkeepers: Matt Pickens
Defenders: Wilman Conde, C.J. Brown, Dasan Robinson, and Gonzalo Segares
Midfielders: Cuauhtémoc Blanco, Justin Mapp, and Logan Pause
Forwards: Chad Barrett, Calen Carr, and Chris Rolfe
** Midfielder Bakary Soumare is protected automatically as a Generation adidas player
The following are the Fire's unprotected players available for selection by San Jose in Wednesday's expansion draft:
Goalkeepers: Jon Busch and Nick Noble
Defenders: Jim Curtin, Jeff Curtin, Diego Gutierrez, Jordan Russolillo, Mike Banner, Osei Telesford, and Daniel Woolard
Midfielders: Ivan Guerrero, Brian Plotkin, John Thorrington, and Bruno Menezes
Forwards: Floyd Franks
