Inter Miami, Nashville Prepare for MLS Expansion Draft

Plenty of interest surrounds Tuesday's MLS Expansion Draft as expansion clubs Inter Miami CF and Nashville SC prepare to select players from the league's eligible roster pool.

© Isaiah J. Downing

The 2019 MLS Expansion Draft takes place on Tuesday at 5:30 PM ET as Inter Miami and Nasvhille look for available talent that could help them prepare for next year's campaign.

There are 222 players available for selection from each club's unprotected list and both expansion sides can select up to five players. There are clubs exempt from the draft: D.C United, New York Red Bulls, FC Dallas, the Houston Dynamo and Vancouver Whitecaps FC, as FC Cincinnati selected players from these clubs in last year's draft.

The choices made on Tuesday obviously don't make or break a team's overall identity, but it does give us a good indication of the type of soccer they want to play. Under Gary Smith, who won MLS Cup with Colorado Rapids in 2010, Nashville's identity is perhaps a little clearer, but with Inter Miami, who has no manager yet, there's a lot more to figure out. Sporting director Paul McDonough and his staff have already added Argentina pair Matias Pellegrini (from Estudiantes) and Julian Carranza (from Banfield) and Christian Makoun, an exciting 19-year-old Venezuelan star. 

Matías Pellegrini. El primero. pic.twitter.com/dJHPu1kpLl

— Inter Miami CF (@InterMiamiCF) July 26, 2019

It also added Victor Ulloa from Cincinnati last week, to further strengthen its midfield. 

Nasvhille also made some interesting moves, including acquiring Dax McCarty from Chicago and the arrival of an exciting No. 10, German youth star Hany Mukhtar, signed from Brondby as a DP earlier this year. It also has speed and vision in the wide areas with David Accam and Randall Leal. Panama international Anibal Godoy, coming from San Jose Earthquakes, is another experienced player who will add discipline and grit in the middle.    

Still, there are plenty of intriguing targets in the expansion draft. From Atlanta United, there are plenty of choices including Florentin Pogba and Brandon Vazquez. The latter is a 21-year-old forward who could give depth in the attacking line. LAFC's Mohamed El-Munir is another player who could be picked up as a strong full-back addition.

The theme for this year's expansion draft, therefore, is probably more about experience and resiliency, so the consensus is that Nashville and Inter Miami will focus more on these qualities as opposed to attacking prowess. And this could be a smart strategy as an expansion club's major priority should be defensive depth.

Here is the full list via MLS:

Atlanta United

Mikey Ambrose

Jon Gallagher

Jose Hernandez

Alec Kann

Kevin Kratz

Jeff Larentowicz

Justin Meram

Brendan Moore

Luiz Fernando

Michael Parkhurst

Dion Pereira

Florentin Pogba

Brek Shea

Brandon Vazquez

Chicago Fire

Diego Campos

Stefan Cleveland

Elliot Collier

Marcelo

Nicolas Gaitan

Cristian Martinez

Amando Moreno

Nemanja Nikolic

David Ousted

Richard Sanchez

Bastian Schweinsteiger

FC Cincinnati

Fanendo Adi

Nazmi Albadawi

Corben Bone

Hassan Ndam

Logan Gdula

Jimmy Hague

Justin Hoyte

Roland Lamah

Forrest Lasso

Emmanuel Ledesma

Ben Lundt

Kekuta Manneh

Darren Mattocks

Jimmy McLaughlin

Alvas Powell

Caleb Stanko

Przemyslaw Tyton

Colorado Rapids

Tim Howard

Niki Jackson

Kofi Opare

Abdul Rwatubyaye

Axel Sjoberg

Danny Wilson

Columbus Crew SC

Luis Argudo

Ricardo Clark

Waylon Francis

David Guzman

Federico Higuain

Hector Jimenez

Jon Kempin

Ben Lundgaard

Connor Maloney

Youness Mokhtar

Edward Opoku

Eduardo Sosa

Josh Williams

Romario Williams

LAFC

Lamar Batista

Steven Beitashour

Danilo Silva

Phillip Ejimadu

Mohamed El-Munir

Alejandro Guido

Jordan Harvey

Dejan Jakovic

Tyler Miller

Lee Nguyen

Adrien Perez

Javier Perez

Josh Perez

Peter-Lee Vassell

Rodolfo Zelaya

LA Galaxy

Favio Alvarez

Uriel Antuna

Servando Carrasco

Emil Cuello

Tomas Hilliard-Arce

Zlatan Ibrahimovic

Perry Kitchen

Matt Lampson

Joao Pedro

Juninho

Chris Pontius

Jorgen Skjelvik

Diedie Traore

Minnesota United FC

Abu Danladi

Ethan Finlay

Marlon Hairston

Miguel Ibarra

Brent Kallman

Carter Manley

Wilfried Moimbe-Tahrat

Ally Ng'anzi

Lawrence Olum

Wyatt Omsberg

Angelo Rodriguez

Rasmus Schuller

Bobby Shuttleworth

Montreal Impact

Zachary Brault-Guillard

Omar Browne

Evan Bush

Rudy Camacho

Jorge Corrales

Rod Fanni

Anthony Jackson-Hamel

Ken Krolicki

Bacary Sagna

Amar Sejdic

Maximiliano Urruti

Jeisson Vargas

New England Revolution

Juan Agudelo

Jalil Anibaba

Juan Caicedo

Edgar Castillo

Cody Cropper

Brad Knighton

Michael Mancienne

Brian Wright

New York City FC

Luis Barraza

Daniel Bedoya

Jeff Caldwell

Sebastien Ibeagha

Gary Mackay-Steven

Jesus Medina

Eric Miller

Abdi Mohamed

Ebenezer Ofori

Tony Rocha

Brad Stuver

Ben Sweat

Juan Pablo Torres

Orlando City SC

Carlos Ascues

Alex De John

Adam Grinwis

Cristian Higuita

Will Johnson

Sacha Kljestan

Shane O'Neill

Dillon Powers

Greg Ranjitsingh

Robinho

Brian Rowe

Lamine Sane

Kyle Smith

Philadelphia Union

RJ Allen

Fabinho

Joe Bendik

Aurelien Collin

Warren Creavalle

Marco Fabian

Olivier Mbaizo

Haris Medunjanin

Michee Ngalina

Portland Timbers

Dairon Asprilla

Jeff Attinella

Tomas Conechny

Claude Dielna

Andres Flores

Aljaz Ivacic

Modou Jadama

Kendall McIntosh

Andy Polo

Zarek Valentin

Renzo Zambrano

Real Salt Lake

Tony Beltran

Alex Horwath

Luke Mulholland

Joao Plata

Justin Portillo

Nick Rimando

Kelyn Rowe

Pablo Ruiz

San Jose Earthquakes

Francois Affolter

Matt Bersano

Eric Calvillo

Harold Cummings

Luis Felipe

Carlos Fierro

Marcos Lopez

Paul Marie

Jimmy Ockford

Kevin Partida

Andrew Tarbell

Seattle Sounders

Saad Abdul-Salaam

Will Bruin

Jonathan Campbell

Emanuel Cecchini

Justin Dhillon

Chad Marshall

Bryan Meredith

Victor Rodriguez

Alex Roldan

Harry Shipp

Luis Silva

Roman Torres

Sporting Kansas City

Botond Barath

Eric Dick

Benny Feilhaber

Andreu Fontas

Nicolas Hasler

Jimmy Medranda

Krisztian Nemeth

Seth Sinovic

Rodney Wallace

Gedion Zelalem

Toronto FC

Jon Bakero

Nicolas Benezet

Laurent Ciman

Tsubasa Endoh

Drew Moor

Ashtone Morgan

Justin Morrow

Patrick Mullins

Caleb Patterson-Sewell

Ryan Telfer

Eriq Zavaleta

League Pool GK

Charlie Lyon