RSL adds Thompson in MLS Waiver Draft

Forward only one of 11 available players picked

MLSnet.com Staff

Abe Thomspon (right), who played with Houston and K.C., joins his third club in 2009. (AP)

Abe Thompson's player page

On a day where teams are used to losing a player due to the MLS Expansion Draft, Real Salt Lake became the only other team besides expansion Philadelphia Union to add to their roster by selecting Houston Dynamo forward Abe Thompson in Wednesday afternoon's MLS Waiver Draft.

Thompson was the only one of 11 available players plucked from the Waiver Draft, which followed on the heels of Philadelphia's selection of the first 10 players to its roster that will begin play as the league's 16th team in 2010.

Thompson comes to the newly-crowned MLS Cup champions after spending time with both the Kansas City Wizards and Houston Dynamo during the 2009 MLS campaign. The five-year MLS veteran has notched 15 goals and 12 assists in his 89 regular season appearances (40 starts), with his best season coming in 2007, when he tallied four assists and registered career-highs with five goals, 15 starts, 24 appearances and 1,127 minutes played as a member of FC Dallas. Thompson was selected by FCD in the 2005 MLS Supplemental Draft's second round following a standout collegiate career for the Maryland Terrapins from 2000-04. Thompson left College Park as the school's all-time leader with 43 goals and 112 points to go along with 26 assists, numbers that twice earned him semifinalist status for the prestigious M.A.C. Hermann Trophy Award.

After failing to find the back of the net in eight games with the Wizards through this past September, Thompson ended up scoring the game-winning goal in his lone regular season appearance with the Dynamo, a 52nd-minute tally in a 3-2 win at Chivas USA on the final day of league play on Oct. 25. Thompson also made a pair of appearances for Houston in CONCACAF Champions League play, making his first Dynamo start and notching an assist on Sept. 22, in a 5-1 win against Árabe Unido (Panama) and coming off the substitute's bench on Oct. 21, at Isidro Metapán (El Salvador) in a 2-3 defeat.

The complete list of players waived by MLS clubs on Wednesday:
Torres, Daniel (FC Dallas)
Allen, Ely (D.C. United)
Janicki, Greg (D.C. United)
Hayden, John Michael (Houston Dynamo)
Thompson, Abe (Houston Dynamo)
Patterson, Kyle (Los Angeles Galaxy)
Valentin, Julian (Los Angeles Galaxy)
Ombiogno, Stephane (New England Revolution)
Brown, Evan (Seattle Sounders FC)
Fucito, Michael (Seattle Sounders FC)
Neagle, Lamar (Seattle Sounders FC)