Amobi Okugo could be a big time player for the Union. (Kevin Kinkead for WVHooligan)

In this expansion era in Major League Soccer we’ve seen the good and the bad on how to bring a new club into the league. The bad is obviously just about everyone but Seattle. Most clubs stumbled in their first year due to either poor management from the start or bad player choices.

With a new kid on the block it is worth looking into see how the Philadelphia Union are looking right now as they head into their first season. Coming in a year after the Seattle Sounders FC set the MLS world on fire, Piotr Nowak and company have a lot of work to do but so far their efforts have been pretty good.

The Union hasn’t dipping into any big foreign signings just yet but with the transfer window still open there is still time for a couple big signings. Also, don’t be shocked if they do end up with one of those Americans that are rumored to return to the States this winter too.

For this look at the Union I’ll go position by position to see where they need some help before the season starts. (note, I am aware there are other reports like this out there, I’ve had this one in the icebox for a week now. I was merely waiting for a rainy day to release it!) Continue Reading…

Freddie Ljungberg and Osvaldo Alonso have been huge additions to Seattle and to MLS this year. (Getty Images)

While rookies have been doing well this year so far, so have the list of newcomers to the league that aren’t rookies. It seems like last year we talked at length about the lack of positive newcomers until the summer months when guys like Darren Huckerby came into town for the San Jose Earthquakes.

This season is far in a way different as plenty of newbies are making a positive impact on the league. Most of the list below does contain a lot of Seattle Sounder players, but there are a few others that have made similar headlines this year that aren’t in Sounder green.

The list below is really no particular order here. After a while though I will still track the newcomers to the league this season as we gear towards the end of season awards. If you see a newcomer that I failed to remember, be sure to post his name below. Again, no rookies please, they have their own watch list that will probably be updated again next week.

Freddie Ljungberg (Seattle) – As some of you know, I am part Swedish so I am a little biased on this one when I see a Swede in the league and one doing well. So far Ljungberg is playing just the way Seattle needs him to be, a strong part of the midfield and one that hits the back of the net when called to do so. Continue Reading…

Yeah, I guess a month or so back when we talked about Seattle’s expansion club already signing some of it’s USL players to MLS contracts for next year was a little premature.

Well sorta at least.

Not that we didn’t have the right information or anything on it but it appears that the club is finally coming out and saying they have signed Sebastian Le Toux to a MLS contract.

This may not be anything new to people in Seattle. Though I did find it interesting to see that a few people had already sent me this link today.

No word yet on if Le Toux had indeed signed a four-year deal with the expansion club or if that talk was just talk to start out with.

Same thing goes for the talk of Le Toux and a couple other Sounders being on loan this season to the USL Sounders. Yeah, that was something floating out there that a couple players had been signed by the league only to be loaned back out to the USL version of the Emerald City club.

Either way its more official now I suppose than it was a month and a half ago.

And for info on Le Toux, you can revert to the previous post about this subject or check out his wiki page.