For Rowdies, Union, expansion tag is only similarity

Posted Mar 18, 2010 by Nick Murray

Updated Mar 18, 2010 at 11:49 AM

While on paper Friday night’s game between Major League Soccer’s Philadelphia Union and the FC Tampa Bay Rowdies is a match between two expansion franchises, the similarities end soon after thanks to the nature of expansion into their two respective leagues.

“The only comparison between us and the MLS is that we are both expansion teams,” Rowdies coach Paul Dalglish said. “It’s probably a little bit easier for them because they get to choose a number of players from a number of MLS teams, they also get to choose players from a draft, so the bulk of their squad is made up before they have to go and scour the world for players.”

Entering MLS this season, the Union first got to participate in an expansion draft last November which allowed them to select 10 players left unprotected by the other 15 MLS clubs, a maximum of one player per team. From this, they got players like forward Alejandro Moreno from the Columbus Crew, goalkeeper Brad Knighton from the New England Revolution and midfielder Nick Zimmerman, a Wharton High grad, from the New York Red Bulls.

The Union then went on to the MLS SuperDraft, where they used the No.1 pick overall to select forward Danny Mwanga before going on to take Jack McInerny and Amobi Ukogu in the first round, and adding another three players in the final three rounds of the draft.

In contrast, the Rowdies have had no league assistance in building their roster, meaning it’s been up to Dalglish and General Manager Perry Van Der Beck to piece together a side from players who were available and could be acquired at the right price for the Second Division franchise.

“It’s different for us,” Dalglish said. “We don’t get to pick anybody else’s players, we just have to go and find anybody that’s out of contract or anybody that’s on a free transfer.”

Dalglish, though, is happy with the players the team has been able to bring in.

“It looks like we’ve done a pretty good job with that,” Dalglish said.”I think as you can see from the level of play we’ve got a pretty good bunch of guys, but now the challenge is really jelling them together and making them develop a winning mentality and playing together as a team, as a unit, and they seem to be doing that.”