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(Photo courtesy Major League Soccer)SANDY -- After keeping all of its unprotected players in Wednesday's MLS Expansion Draft, the MLS Cup Champion Real Salt Lake adds veteran forward Abe Thompson from the Houston Dynamo.
The expansion Philadelphia Union were the only other team to add to its roster.
Thompson, 27, 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 ten 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 the "Hoops" 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 would also make 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 (PAN) and coming off the substitute's bench on Oct. 21, at Isidro Metapán (ELS) in a 2-3 defeat.
