The Philadelphia Union will finally have some players today, and we should know who they are by mid-afternoon. It's Expansion Draft day, a day exciting for the Union's fans, but nerve-wracking for fans of other teams who don't want to see any of their favorites be taken. The reality of the draft rules means that some quality is available to Petr Novak, and it will be interesting to see how he chooses to build his team for 2010.


I'm not going to bore you with a mock draft or attempt to guess what Novak might do; but I will say that the Union sit behind the eight ball at the moment, and while they can begin to fill their roster today, there's still a long way to go before they'll be ready to take the field as a competitive side in March of next year.


The CBA negotiations, with most of the financial outlay for 2010 and beyond still to be determined, makes the usual processes difficult; as Goal.com's Max Zeger pointed out on Twitter today, at this point in their pre-launch, the Sounders already had Freddie Ljundberg and Kasey Keller lined up; the Union have had barely a whisper of any potential signings.


Still, the bulk of the team, the part that will give the Union the best chance to replicate what the Sounders did in their first year, will join up today (or be flipped for other considerations that might help the team more). I'll be back after the announcement with the list of the ten that Philly has taken.


*UPDATE*

Here are Philly's picks:

Brad Knighton
David Myrie
Shavar Thomas
Jordan Harvey
Shea Salinas
Stefani Miglioranzi
Andrew Jacobson
Nick Zimmerman
Alejandro Moreno
Sebastian Le Toux


For some perspective on what these guys might actually give the Union in terms of service, read Duane Rollins post at the 24th Minute; history says they won't be significant contributors