Freddy Ljungberg and Sigi Schmid lead the way again in 2010 for Seattle. (Getty Images)

We only have two more clubs to look at here in our preseason look-ins of each Major League Soccer club. Today we head to the Pacific Northwest to see how Sigi Schmid and his Seattle Sounders FC are doing this winter.

For the most part things have been fairly quiet for last year’s expansion darlings. Schmid has kept the majority of his club intact from last season which came very close to a western conference final birth, not to mention they were the winners of the US Open Cup.

So far this winter the Sounders have been fairly quiet, only signing a couple players. Though they will get one big boost this summer with Swiss striker Blaise Nkufo joins them. Until then the Sounders will have to rely on young star Freddy Montero to carry the offensive load, which shouldn’t be much of an issue.

Anyways, let’s dive in to see who Seattle has going into the new season and where else they need to fill in the holes. Continue Reading…

Could Bobby Convey be headed home to Philly? (Getty Images)

The speculation has begun for the Philadelphia Union and their expansion draft that takes place tomorrow afternoon. The 15 clubs released their protected list last night and now the Union have a full list of guys that they can get 10 players from. And the talent is there for Union to get off on a good foot here.

I do have a feeling a deal or two will be worked out tomorrow but that is just a hunch.

Below are the ten I believe the Union could go for tomorrow. I went fairly defensive minded as I think that may be the way Philly goes since they haven’t made any moves yet like Seattle had already done by this time last year. Defense is always a good place to start with a roster and they can fill in the holes offensively this winter. Some of these I may be off on but we’ll see. Continue Reading…

It almost seems like being the best rookie this season is like a death wish. Either you start out on top and fade quicker than anyone thought, get hurt or…well get hurt some more. That seems to be the nature of things right now in the league for our crop of rookies.

Usually by now we have a solid understanding of who will win what award by the end of the season. The thing is this award may be the most up for grabs right now because of injuries and players finding themselves out of favor with their coaches.

Take the number one pick in the 2008 SuperDraft Chance Myers. He started the year out and before the mid-season he was out of favor with the Wizards coaching staff. Not because of attitude but because of performance. Usually number one picks are suppose to be good but Myers certainly was not. His decision making seems careless, which has caused numerous goals scored against KC.

Then you have LA’s Sean Franklin. For a while we figured he was the best rookie, then injuries took their place and knocked him off the top. More recently poor play has hurt his chances of getting this award, not to mention the overall play of his club.

Then you had New England’s Kheli Dube. Finally it seemed like we had a rookie that knew what he was doing. Playing well, scoring goals and making people in New England forget they had an injured Taylor Twellman on the bench. What happens to Dube? He got hurt and hasn’t been seen from in about a month now.

So who has stepped up since then? Anyone? The door was open when Dube went down for guys like Chicago’s Patrick Nyarko and Chivas USA’s Justin Braun. But both went down before anyone could even place their name at the top of a list.

So what’s the list look like now? Some names are still there but some are rising to the top very quickly anymore.

Continue Reading…

I realize it’s been well over a month since I last updated this watch list. For good reason too, there was no need early on to update this kind of a list from week to week. That will come more in handy once we hit late August and September here. But since summer is starting up its a good time to revisit this list and give it a swift update.

A few more rookies are really starting to make an impact on their clubs here as we move forward and approach that half-way line of the season (believe it or not we are only a couple weeks from that). More rookies are starting to get playing time as the US Open Cup rolls around and even more so in league play. They are either earning their spots in practice or are filling in for injured veterans. Either way, some are starting to make the most of their chances here.

Again, this is a watch list, so for now there isn’t a real order here on the players. Though before long expect the order to be one of a ranking-style, but that won’t come until later this summer I would assume. I know I said before I would need a few weeks to truly get a top five, well it looks like I need more time on that. Mainly I want more time on that.

Here we go… Continue Reading…