FC Dallas exposed list for 2021 Expansion Draft

MLS has released the list of players available in the 2021 Expansion Draft and FC Dallas has seven players available for selection.

FC Dallas Exposed Player List

  • Bryan Acosta
  • Bressan
  • Caiser Gomes
  • Phelipe
  • Andres Ricaurte
  • Freddy Vargas
  • Kyle Zobeck

Based on this list, FC Dallas chose to protect Johnny Nelson – despite having his option declined – over Bressan or Bryan Acosta. FCD must be taking a wait-and-see approach with Nelson who had back surgery last year and likely won’t be back until late February at the earliest.

Update: Even though he was protected in the Expansion Draft, Johnny Nelson could be lost in the Re-Entry Draft.

Nelson is the only change from my prediction.

FC Dallas Actual Protected List

Each team protects up to 12 players.

1Matt Hedges
2Ryan Hollingshead
3Franco Jara
4Jose Martinez
5Jimmy Maurer
6Szabolcs Schön
7Jáder Obrian
8Facundo Quignon
9Nkosi Tafari
10Ema Twumasi
11Nicky Hernandez
12Johnny Nelson

6 Comments

  1. Why protect Jara? It’s probably a long shot that he’s selected, but hey you never know what Charlotte will do.

  2. Well now that I think about it. Doesn’t that mean that they don’t plan on bringing Pepi back. They need Jara to backup Jesus once Pepi is sold . Not sure if you agree.

    1. It’s not like someone is going to pick Jara anyway, I think they protected everyone under contract just cause they could. Heck, they even protected a dude out of contract cause they had space. Not sure it says anything about Pepi. Also, leaving Jara exposed is admitting failure.

      1. I think the reason to protect Jara is more about morale. Considering that Charlotte isn’t going to take Jara (it’s a pipe dream to think that anyone is interested in an over-the-hill overpaid underproductive striker), the only thing exposing Jara does is potentially poison the relationship between him and the club. To leave Jara exposed, FCD would protect another player out of contract. As a player, I could see that as being very insulting. So far there haven’t been any reports of Jara being a bad apple in the locker room, but if you make him disgruntled, that can make for a very bad atmosphere. Then at best you send him away from the team and get absolutely nothing from him. While the Jara signing has been a failure, FCD gets more than nothing out of Jara. And if you end up upsetting the team chemistry, then having to send Jara away, while still paying him, that’s like a triple failure. Counterintuitive as it might seem at fist glance, there just isn’t any upside to exposing Jara.

          1. Thanks. If I spout out enough junk, I’ll eventually write something half-way intelligent. As a great man said, “[e]ven a blind squirrel find a nut coming off the tree once in a while.”

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