Two Galaxy Starters on Expansion List
Two starters, defender Paul Broome and midfielder Marcelo Saragosa, were among four players left unprotected by the Galaxy Tuesday ahead of Friday’s Major League Soccer expansion draft.
Coach Steve Sampson also elected to leave backup goalkeeper Dan Popik and winger Arturo Torres available for selection by Chivas USA or Real Salt Lake.
The Galaxy was allowed to protect 12 senior players. Its half-dozen developmental players were not eligible for the draft.
Depending on the players made available by the other MLS teams, there is a chance that all four could remain with the Galaxy.
“We’re hoping that none get picked, and we feel it’s quite possible in all four positions,” Sampson said.
Saragosa, 22, a defensive midfielder on loan to the Galaxy from Sao Paulo of Brazil, is the most enticing of the four, but Doug Hamilton, the Galaxy’s president and general manager, said the Brazilian club might have priced him out of reach.
“There is an asking price that is very high at this point, beyond what normally this league would do to acquire a player,” Hamilton said. “If somebody were to pick him up, they would have to try to negotiate that down.
“The logic with him was simply that the acquisition price is so high right now and the relationship between Sao Paulo and the Galaxy is so strong that we feel we have limited exposure by making him available.”
Not so with Torres, 23, whose age and relatively low salary make him a strong candidate to be picked.
“He might be of interest to more than one club and maybe there’s a draft-day deal that’s done there,” Hamilton said. “We feel that we’re slightly exposed there.”
As for Broome, 28, and Popik, 25, Hamilton said he believed that there would be other, more experienced left-sided defenders and goalkeepers available in the draft who would probably be selected ahead of either player.
Under draft rules, once a club loses a player, it is allowed to withdraw one of its other unprotected players, meaning that the Galaxy could lose no more than two of the four.
No team can lose more than three players in the expansion draft.
Chivas USA will have the first pick Friday afternoon, having won the right in a coin-toss with Real Salt Lake before Sunday’s MLS Cup 2004 at the Home Depot Center.
Also Tuesday, Sampson said that in an effort to revamp the Galaxy he would be traveling to Central and South America in search of players within the next three weeks.
“I have trips planned to Brazil, Argentina and throughout Central America, focusing on Costa Rica, Guatemala and El Salvador,” Sampson said. “We have other players who will be coming in from Asia and Europe on trial.”
