As the preseason rages on you can enjoy every goal from the first season of Seattle Sounders FC right here!
VS 
Columbus Crew (#1 East) vs Real Salt Lake (#5 West)
Game 1: Saturday October 31st – 5:30 PM @ Salt Lake
Game 2: Thursday November 5th – 7:00 PM @ Columbus (ESPN2)
Regular Season Series tied 1-1
vs 
Chicago Fire (#2 East) vs New England Revolution (#3 East)
Game 1: Sunday November 1st- 1:00 PM @ New England (Fox Soccer Channel)
Game 2: Saturday November 7th – 7:30 PM @ Chicago (Fox Soccer Channel)
Regular Season Seried tied 0-0-2
vs 
LA Galaxy (#1 West) vs Chivas USA (#4 West)
Game 1: Sunday November 1st – 4:00 PM @ Chivas (ESPN2)
Game 2: Sunday November 8th – 6:30 PM @ Galaxy (ESPN2)
Regular Season Series: Galaxy lead 2-0-1
vs 
Houston Dynamo (#2 West) vs Seattle Sounders FC (#3 West)
Game 1: Thursday October 29th – 9:00 PM (ESPN2) @ Seattle
Game 2: Sunday November 8th – 2:00 PM @ Houston
Regular Season Series: Seattle lead 1-0-1
Chivas USA and Seattle Sounders FC both have guaranteed themselves a spot in the 2009 MLS Cup Playoffs. They are joining defending champions Columbus Crew along with Houston Dynamo and LA Galaxy.
That leaves 3 positions up for grabs on the last weekend of the year. Those 3 spots that are up for grabs will have 7 teams possibly still alive to grab one of them. Right now the 3 teams that control their own fate are Chicago Fire, Colorado Rapids, and Toronto FC. If they win, they are in. Chicago Fire only need a single point to ensure their spot.
The other teams that need to win and get some help are FC Dallas, New England Revolution, DC United, and Real Salt Lake. Real Salt Lake would almost need a miracle to sneak their way in, but it is still possible.
This is what the single table looks like going into the last week:
49 Columbus
45 Los Angeles
45 Houston
45 Chivas USA
44 Seattle
42 Chicago
40 Colorado
39 Toronto FC
—
39 FC Dallas
39 New England
39 D.C. United
37 Real Salt Lake
32 Kansas City
30 San Jose
18 New York
I think DC United might be able to sneak in there at the expense of the Rapids. Colorado has to play at Real Salt Lake while DC United has the Kansas City Wizards. Chicago Fire and Toronto FC will keep their positions.
What do you think? Who will grab those final 3 spots?
Several MLS teams took place in the 3rd round of the US Open Cup today. A few of those teams will play again in the 4th round – several will not.
Defending MLS Champions Columbus Crew went to OT and then to PKs against the always dangerous Rochester Rhinos. The Rhinos came out on top in PKs at 5-3 to move on.
The Chicago Fire have been hot in MLS play – but they couldn’t keep it up against Wilmington Hammerheads. The only goal of the game went to the Hammerheads in the first half. Four time US Open Cup champions Chicago Fire can now focus on the MLS regular season.
Chivas USA was the third MLS side to fall to a lower division opponent. They ran into the Charleston Battery and went home 3-1 losers.
Some MLS teams did advance out of this round. DC United beat the Ocean City Barons 2-0 and The Kansas City Wizards snuck out of Minnesota with after winning 4-2 on PKs after a 3-3 draw.
A couple teams will still be in action on July 1st. The Houston Dynamo will be playing at the Austin Aztecs while Seattle Sounders FC will be playing at their old USL rivals Portland Timbers.
Fan voting is under way for this years MLS All Star Game. Just like with other all star games sometimes the fans of one team can dominate the voting. Luckily for everyone that is not on the Seattle Sounders FC roster the fans vote only count 25% of the final tally to determine the starting 11. If that were not the case – as of today the All Star starting 11 would be made up of 8 Seattle Sounders FC players.
Kasey Keller, Freddie Ljungberg, Fredy Montero, Osvaldo Alonso, Tyrone Marshall, Steve Zakuani and Jhon Kennedy Hurtado are the top 7 in the voting right now, while James Riley comes in at the 9th highest voting total. Non-Seattle players currently in the top 11 are Columbus Crew defender Frankie Hejduk, TFC’s Dwayne De Rosario and LA Galaxy’s Landon Donovan.
How would that be for a starting lineup?
The team that is 8 points ahead of anyone else in the league (Chivas USA) would not even be represented. Certainly someone there must be worthy? Would Brian McBride not make the starting 11? How about Josh Wolff?
Maybe Seattle will get into gear and get a starting 11 fully represented by Seattle Sounders FC players. That would be swell. Would MLS realize then that fan voting for all stars is a bad idea?
What do you think? Should fans still be able to get 25% of decision of who starts the all star game?
The MLS All Star voting is underway. This year Everton FC from England’s top league is coming over to get beat up on by our MLS All Stars! The MLS All Stars have historically done very well in these all star games vs European teams. This time they will likely have to face former MLS goalkeeper Tim Howard. Howard has had a pretty successful run at Everton this year.
People are worried that fan voting is going to fill a team full of Seattle Sounders FC and Toronto FC players. I guess just that idea should be enough to tip some people off that fan voting is not such a good idea. The NHL All Star game has only 4 teams represented in the starting lineups this year. How fun would that be to have 2 teams represented in the starting lineup? Go and get voting.
The new team on the block could be in trouble with the league well before their first game is ever played. Recently Sigi Schmid announced he would not return to Columbus after winning the MLS Cup with them this year. Rumors flew that Schmid was going to take the job at Seattle Sounders FC for their first season in the league.
Now the Columbus Crew have filed a complaint with the league office saying that Seattle had improperly contacted Schmid before they should have. The likely outcome will be a payment from Seattle to Columbus if the league does determine that Seattle acted inappropriately.
Hopefully this isn’t a sign of things to come for Seattle. You don’t really want your team getting in trouble even before playing their first ever game.
The newest team playing in MLS right now is the San Jose Earthquakes. They’ve got 2 games under their belt – in their current incarnation. The Earthquakes were around years ago, but the club moved to Houston and became the Dynamo.
Next year Seattle will have a new team, kinda like an old team. The Seattle Sounders have been playing in the USL for 15 years now. Next year there will be no more Seattle Sounders, but instead they will have Seattle Sounders FC – and they will be playing in Major League Soccer. So they are a new team and kinda an old team.
The owners of the new Seattle soccer team wanted to have a “democracy in sports” philosophy, so they let the Seattle soccer fans vote on a name. The choices were Alliance, Republic or Seattle FC. The winner was the write in option of Seattle Sounders. The owners (mostly) stuck with their democracy in sports philosophy by naming the team “Seattle Sounders FC”.
The new team already has 14,000 deposits for season tickets, long before they have their first coach. Hopefully Seattle shows MLS love like Toronto has. Imagine the day that Toronto FC starts winning some games! As one of the worst teams in the league they have some of the best support in the league.
I would have voted for Seattle Sounders FC if I was choosing a name for a team that I was going to be a supporter of. What do you think of the (kind of) new name?
