12Mar/100
Portland Timbers Dominate Hapless FC Seattle Sounders
The FC Seattle Sounders—the darlings of MLS last season—were thoroughly and completely dominated by the Portland Timbers tonight at Qwest Field in Seattle. Ian Joy and Mamadou Dansu anchored a Timber defense that continually shut down the Seattle offense throughout the night. Steve Cronin played brilliantly in goal for the Timbers. The Timbers' goal was made on an excellent pass from Ryan Pore to Gabriel Obatol, just out of the outstretched hands of Kasey Keller. Pore had stolen the ball from bumbling Seattle defender Tyrone Marshall, who gave away the ball just outside the Seattle 18-yard box. The loss was especially embarrassing for the Sounders, considering they play in the MLS, a league—on paper anyway—that is thought to be superior to the United Soccer League (USL) where the Timbers play. The Sounders, already reeling from a tumultuous offseason that saw their star player, Freddie Ljungberg, pining for a way out of town, didn't look like a top tier MLS team. In fact, if the Sounders played the way they did tonight during the regular season, they'll be lucky to win a game. No heart, no chemistry, and no teamwork seem to be the Sounders' motto these days. I have to wonder if they were simply ...10Mar/100
MLS Preview: Seattle Sounders Prepare for Portland Timbers Game
The Seattle Sounders FC will host the Portland Timbers in its only home preseason match on Thursday, March 11, at the Xbox Pitch at Qwest Field. Kickoff is 6 p.m. PST. The Sounders will be looking to extend its preseason shutout streak which is up to 293 minutes after the 0-0 draw against the Vancouver Whitecaps last weekend. More than 13,000 tickets have been sold to Thursday's game. Qwest Field gates open at 5 p.m. In the Vancouver game, the speed of the Sounders attack was obvious and Sounders FC head coach Sigi Schmid spoke about that yesterday when he met with reporters. “Obviously we are a team that is built around quickness and speed, especially on the offensive part of field. The essence of our game with Ljungberg, Montero, and Zakuani and people like that is their ability to get isolated and use their quickness and use their individual skills and abilities to create space and make plays that way. When things are going well for us it means the ball is moving quickly and it means we are getting the ball early to our front runners and giving them some time and space to take people on.” For the Timbers game, Schmid spoke about ...9Mar/100
Philadelphia Union and FC Dallas Make Roster Moves
With the MLS Regular season less than a month away, most teams are wrapping up their exhibition schedules and fine-tuning their rosters. FC Dallas did their fine tuning by making a deal to acquire four-time MLS All-Star keeper Kevin Hartman, one of the league’s most formidable back-stops. In exchange for Hartman, Kansas City received a second-round pick in the 2012 MLS SuperDraft. Hartman appeared in all 30 regular season games for the Wizards in the 2009 season, earning a 1.40 goals against average and collecting an impressive 105 saves. Hartman's all-time regular season record is 146-120-64 and his postseason record is 22-15-7. The former U.S. National team member holds all the major goalkeeping records in MLS history. He owns the record in games played in goal with 333, games started in goal with 328, minutes played in goal with 29,835, wins in goal with 146, saves in goal with 1,235 and shutouts with 84. "I'm excited to be in Dallas," said the 35-year-old Hartman. "It's the place where I won the 2005 championship with the Galaxy and it's always held a place in my heart. I'm excited to be here to play in front of the Dallas fans and excited to start a new ...9Mar/100
Houston Dynamo To Announce Player Signing
Two-time MLS Cup Champion Houston Dynamo has called a Tuesday, March 9 press conference to announce a player signing. One can only speculate at this point, but there has been quite a buzz the past few weeks surrounding Jamaican National team midfielder Lovel Palmer. Palmer, now in his second one week trail with Houston, has been somewhat impressive so far, his biggest moment to date coming in a friendly back on Feb. 27, when he scored a spectacular long range 35 yard goal in the 16th minute of a 2-1 win over FC Dallas. "He obviously scored a great goal that stood out, but it was also the way he worked on and off the ball," Dynamo head coach Dominic Kinnear said. "He tried to get on the ball, he broke up plays, and he tackled—sometimes very hard—which we like in that position. He was clean with the ball and made good decisions." In addition to his role with the Reggae Boyz (Jamaican National Team), the 25-year-old Palmer is also captain of the Jamaican Premier club Harbour View. Granted, Palmer is currently under contract with Harbour View, but the Premier League Clubs Association in Jamaica has been in the market to sell some of its ...8Mar/100
Sounders Draw 0-0 With Vancouver
The Seattle Sounders are now 3-1-1 in preseason play after drawing 0-0 with the Vancouver Whitecaps on Saturday. The Sounders bossed the game but are not yet in regular season form, as the nine offsides in the game attest to. If the Whitecaps game is any indication on the Sounders approach this season, it is apparent that the Sounders team speed will cause MLS teams a lot of trouble this season.Sounders Notes:Roster Not Trimmed: The ongoing MLS labor situation means that the Sounders have not cut down their roster since returning from Europe. The Sounders still have around 30 players in camp, and this has to be impacting the teams preparations as that is about right players too many. Kasey Keller looking to extend his contract: It looks like once the MLS Labor Situation is resolved that Sounders keeper Kasey Keller will extend his contract for another year. "We've talked about it," Keller said this week upon return from Spain, where Sounders FC held part of preseason training. "We've started talking about it, about extending my contract one more year. We're trying to get the CBA sorted out right now, make sure things goes off without a hitch this year, and ...7Mar/100
Ice Curling Over Soccer? Now You Really Have Lost Your Mind!
Look, I think you all know by now that I live here in the City of Brotherly love, and although the folks at City Hall have continued to ignore my requests and the numerous petitions to rename the City, Phillipdelphia, I still love it here. I’m actually going to love it even more this spring and summer now that we finally have not one, but two professional soccer teams to root for. Unfortunately, while the new teams in town continue to spread their branches and bury their roots deeper into the soccer rich environment here in the Delaware Valley, there are still those non believers who think soccer is a waste of time and won’t succeed here. I’ve got news for you; it already has succeeded and in many cases at the youth level surpassed several other sports in participation numbers. Trust me when I tell you, there are more kids playing soccer year round in the tri-state area (Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania) than any other youth sport. As a matter of fact, the United States Youth Soccer Association boasts over three million players between the ages of five and 19, while the American Youth Soccer Organization has more than 300,000 players between ...5Mar/100
Why the Seattle Sounders FC Will Continue To Be the Hottest Ticket in Town
The Seattle Sounders FC are set to once again be the hottest ticket in Seattle this summer. The Sounders announced earlier this week that the home opener on March 25 against first—year side, the Philadelphia Union, has been sold out. Additonally, the Sounders May 8th game against the Los Angeles Galaxy is sold out as well. With a capacity of 35800 set for MLS games and with 32,000 season tickets already sold, the Sounders have a very good chance of selling out every home game this season. While the Sounders have the best fans in MLS, the question is whether the second year Sounders can be as successful on the park as they are off it? Making the playoffs again is expected and the addition of Dutch FC Twente and Swiss international star, Blaise Nkufo, will help with that. Nkufo, who will join Seattle in mid—July after this summer’s World Cup, where he will be playing for Switzerland, will bring some maturity and experience to the Sounders' attack. At six—foot—two inches, Nkufo has scored over 200 career goals in club and international play. “He’s a proven goal—scorer who has had a good run with the Swiss National Team in their ...4Mar/100
Seattle Sounders Sign Swiss National Team Member Blaise Nkufo
At six feet , two inches tall and 185 pounds, Blaise Nkufo (pronounced Blehz KOOH-fo) is a force to be reckoned with, both from a physical and skill set stand point. In other words, Seattle Sounder supporters should get their kicks out of this Congolese born striker, who now claims Swiss Citizenship. The Sounders announced today that they have signed the Swiss National Team forward on a free transfer, but before booking passage to the Pacific Northwest, Nkufo must fulfill commitments to his National Team and Dutch Club side, FC Twente. The 34 year old Nkufo has scored over 200 goals for club and country and has capped 27 times for the Swiss, scoring seven goals. Five of those goals came during the qualification process for the 2010 World Cup and, as a result, Switzerland will join Honduras, Chile and reigning European champion Spain in Group H when World Cup play begins in June. Nkufo, now in his seventh season with FC Twente, has led the club in scoring each of the past six seasons and last summer became the club's career scoring leader and, to date, has scored 129 goals in 260 appearances for the Dutch club. "I am really ...4Mar/100
Will Blaise Nkufo’s Heavy Workload Be a Big Concern for Seattle Sounders?
The Seattle Sounders today announced they have signed Swiss international Blaise Nkufo from Dutch club FC Twente. Nkufo will play out the rest of the season in Europe before heading out to the World Cup in June, and he is expected to join the Sounders by the middle of July, halfway through the MLS campaign. Even though the Sounders knew they would only have the veteran striker for 15 or 16 games in 2010, they were not reluctant in pulling the trigger on the deal. 34-year-old Nkufo said he will be ready and raring to go when he lands on the West Coast, but I have serious concerns about him burning out. Nkufo has played in 213 league games for FC Twente in the last seven seasons, an average of 30 a year, including 122 games in the last four-and-a-half seasons since turning 30 years old. That’s not including other club competitions or international matches. This season alone, he has appeared in 10 games in the UEFA Europa League, two Champions League qualifying games, and five matches for Switzerland. Twente have eight fixtures left in Holland’s Eredivisie, including a crunch match on March 20 against league leaders PSV Eindhoven, and regardless of whether Nkufo and his ...28Feb/100