A little over 12 hours after hoisting the MLS Cup championship, Real Salt Lake officially announced the 11 players it will be protecting for the Philadelphia Union expansion draft on Wednesday.
The 11 players in no particular order: Javier Morales, Jamison Olave, Fabian Espindola, Chris Seitz, Nick Rimando, Robbie Findley, Kyle Beckerman, Nat Borchers, Will Johnson, Chris Wingert and Tony Beltran.
The other 12 players are at risk of being selected by Philadelphia, but RSL can lose a maximum of one player.
The most notable players who were left unprotected at risk of being selected by the Union are Robbie Russell, Ned Grabavoy and Pablo Campos.
It's unlikely that Philadelphia would select veterans like Andy Williams and Clint Mathis as they look to build a foundation for their franchise.
Yura Movsisyan was also left unprotected because he is leaving in January to play in Denmark. Philadelphia could gamble and select Movsisyan, and then it would own his rights if he ever returned to Major League Soccer.
e-mail: jedward@desnews.com