The Impact get off to a rather interesting start by taking Brian Ching and swinging a pair of trades during the expansion draft.
Nov 23, 2011 - The Montreal Impact got off to a dramatic start in MLS when they picked Brian Ching with the first pick of the 2011 MLS Expansion Draft. Ching had said that he would retire if he was picked by the Impact, and apparently reiterated that fact to coach Jesse Marsch on Wednesday, but the Impact took him anyway. Marsch said they hope to convince Ching to join the team, but otherwise consider him a valuable trading chip.
The other big move was the trading of No. 9 expansion draft pick James Riley to Chivas USA in exchange for Justin Braun and Gerson Mayen. Braun has at times looked to be a very good target-forward type of player, scoring a pair of hat tricks this season, but also seemed to fall out of favor with Robin Fraser. The Impact also acquired Seattle Sounders left back Tyson Wahl for some allocation money.
Aside from those picks, there weren't too many big surprises. The Impact selected Zarek Valentin from Chivas USA and Seth Sinovic from Sporting Kansas City, two players that were popular picks in various mock drafts.
Rounding out the picks were Justin Mapp from the Philadelphia Union, Bobby Burling from the San Jose Earthquakes, Jeb Brovsky from the Vancouver Whitecaps, Collen Warner from Real Salt Lake, Josh Gardner from the Columbus Crew and Sanna Nyassi from the Colorado Rapids. Most of those players had earned significant playing time for their former teams and give the Impact a solid base on which to build.
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MLS Expansion Draft 2011: Montreal Impact Select Brian Ching, Nine Others
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