Yesterday, I posted a column on the MLS expansion draft and what Chicago players I felt shoud've been protected (For the record, the three players I mentioned were Zack Thornton, Nate Jacqua and Calen Carr).

Well, the newest team in MLS chose ten players today via the expansion draft and Chicago lost forward Nate Jacqua. After only four seasons with the Fire, Nate Jacqua currently sits sixth on the team's career scoring chart.

Jacqua was the Fire's lone All-Star in 2006 and was second on the team in goals. At only 25 years of age, Jacqua's MLS future looked bright. He'll be sorely missed come 2007.

So, like myself, you're probably wondering why the Fire left arguably their best player unprotected in today's expansion draft.

"Nate had concluded his four year contract this year and had expressed his desire to go overseas to further his development. Although, we wanted Nate to remain here in Chicago, we try to honor the wishes of our players and, in this case, we elected to leave Nate unprotected in the expansion draft" Fire head coach Dave Sarachan said earlier today.

Toronto FC will begin play in the MLS Eastern Conference in 2007.