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In some ways I feel as thought I've been putting this off long enough. I've thought long and hard about the FC Dallas protection list for the upcoming Expansion Draft. Here at SBNation we're going to be doing a mock expansion draft in the coming days and it felt like a good time as ever to finally put together the list of 11 players FCD should protect next month.
FCD has to protect 11 players while making sure at least three international players are kept. Generation adidas and Homegrown players are exempt.
| Protected | Unprotected | Exempt |
| Tesho Akindele | Jair Benitez | Kellyn Acosta |
| Fabian Castillo | Walter Cabrera | Coy Craft |
| Mauro Diaz | Raul Fernandez | Danny Garcia |
| Andres Escobar | Ryan Hollingshead | Jesse Gonzalez |
| Matt Hedges | George John | Moises Hernandez |
| Zach Loyd | Stephen Keel | Jonathan Top |
| Dan Kennedy | Peter Luccin | Victor Ulloa |
| Blas Perez | Michel | Walker Zimmerman |
| David Texeira | Adam Moffat | |
| Hendry Thomas | Chris Seitz | |
| Je-Vaughn Watson | Brian Span | |
| Nick Walker |
I've gone back and forth on a lot of these players. This guy over that guy and so forth. No list is perfect either. FC Dallas stands to lose at least one guy, if not two in this draft. That is just how these things work.
The toughest part is in goal. The recent addition of Dan Kennedy along with comments made by FCD technical director Fernando Clavijo give me enough reason to protect Kennedy over Seitz and Fernandez. I still think a deal will be made before long for one of those keepers anyways. No way FCD can sit on three starting keepers, we're not Philadelphia after all.
The next toughest part was with veteran guys like Perez, Thomas and Watson over guys like Hollingshead, Moffat, Michel or Span. In some ways I feel like FCD can gamble a bit on this move and keep those three over the four not protected that I just mentioned. Mottat and Michel are veteran players that I just don't see Orlando or New York grabbing and even if they do, so be it. Span and Hollingshead are gambles to be left unprotected but at the end of the day they too are also replaceable.
Should FCD lose a player before the ten rounds are over they are allowed to pull a player out and protect them per the rules of the draft. In that case you gamble with Hollingshead or Span.
It may seem like FCD will lose someone of great value like they did in 2011 with Dax McCarty but I don't see that happening this time around. Clavijo and Oscar Pareja will keep the vital 11, along with the exempt players that are key to the future of this club and go from there.
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