Sounders acquire D.C. United defender Marc Burch in the Re-Entry Draft

By Money Mike

The Seattle Sounders and the Vancouver Whitecaps swapped Re-Entry Draft spots prior to the draft, so my thoughts after hearing that were that they were actually thinking about drafting somebody. I'm still waiting for information about the trade with the Whitecaps, wondering if a player being traded was part of the deal or not. But instead of picking 14th, the Sounders were first in line in the second stage of the Re-Entry Draft and they wasted no time picking up Marc Burch who spent the last five seasons with D.C. United. The Sounders also lost a couple of forwards who were just completely worthless on this team, Nate Jaqua to the New England Revolution and Pat Noonan to the LA Galaxy.

Marc Burch was drafted in 2006 by the Los Angeles Galaxy in the second round. He actually began his career as a forward. He made three appearances for LA before being traded to the Columbus Crew on July 11, 2006. In his short stint with Columbus, he made seven appearances. On April 4, 2007, Burch was traded form Columbus to D.C. United where he was converted from a striker to a left back and he became an asset to D.C.'s backline. In 07', Burch made 18 appearances with one goal and three assists. From 08-09', he made 54 appearances, tallying another goal and five assists. In February of 2010, Burch suffered damage to his right foot and was out until July 31st when he made his return against Real Salt Lake and made four consecutive starts before re-aggrevating his foot that resulted in season ending sergery. In 2011, Burch missed half of the season with another injury, but still made 17 appearances with one goal and one assist.

Of course, Seattle lost Nate Jaqua and Pat Noonan in the Re-Entry Draft. Jaqua made 66 appearances for Seattle in League play and scored 9 goals for this team (all in 09'). Noonan wasn't any better, making 21 appearances in his two seasons with Seattle and scoring only one goal.

As for Burch, he still has to agree to terms with the Sounders before he's officially added to the roster, which is more likely to happen than not since they traded picks with Vancouver to get him. It's just a question if he can stay healthy because he had his injury problems in his past two seasons with D.C. United. If he can stay healthy and perform the same way he did with United prior to 2010, I think he'll fit in very well here in Seattle.