If you enjoyed Part 1 of my examination of MLS and youth development, you should enjoy Part 2 even more. There's a lot more Seattle Sounders talk in this one, although Adrian Hanauer may not be saying the things everyone wants hear.

In this edition of Major Link Soccer, I Timm Higgins will try my best not to poke bears, cause twitter outrage or other such nonsense. Lets all cross our fingers shall we?

The Philadelphia Union have been under fire from their fan base most of this off season. Recently on their official website CEO and Operating Partner Nick Sakiewicz pens a open letter of sorts to the Unions fans.

Like most of the Seattle Sounders web community this week's major topic is the First XI, the gameday 18 and who will make the roster 30. This week's guest was probably the most difficult booking ever for Jeremiah and Aaron as they had to convince Dave to join them in the new yet-to-be-named studio.

There are 13 players of age that make both lists. Eight of those are from MLS. D.C. United and the Philadelphia Union look to get hit hardest.

While neither pundit picked Zac MacMath, he's probably in the converstion. The of age players that both list?

The Seattle Sounders' preseason roster got just a little bit lighter as they got ready to take off for Florida and Mexico. Although the Sounders didn't officially release an updated roster, Joshua Mayers of the Seattle Times has managed to piece one together:

Goalkeepers (5): Chris Blais*, Josh Ford, Michael Gspurning, Bryan Meredith, Andrew Weber*

Defenders (10): Marc Burch, Andrew Duran#, Leo Gonzalez, Harlinton Gutierres*, Jhon Kennedy Hurtado, Patrick Ianni, Adam Johansson, Jeff Parke, Zach Scott, Michael Tetteh

Midfielders (13): Osvaldo Alonso, Servando Carrasco, Alex Caskey*, Cordell Cato, Brad Evans, Alvaro Fernandez, Lamar Neagle, Mauro Rosales, Andy Rose^, Amadou Sanyang, Michael Seamon, Christian Sivebaek, Steve Zakuani

Forwards (7): David Estrada, Mike Fucito, Roger Levesque, Fredy Montero, Sammy Ochoa, Babayele Soldade#, O'Brian White

* -- trialist/invitee, # -- unsigned draft pick, ^ -- acquired on draft day trade, underline -- recovering from injury with uncertain timeline

Still not a whole lot of surprises at this point.

Roster flux continues though all under contract players are still with the team, some of the Supplemental Draft picks and trialists are now in a different phase of their soccer journeys. Joshua Mayers, of the Seattle Times, compiled the list of missing names. Harlinton Guiterres, Real Espana reservist, is still in camp.

Heading into Year 4 of Major League Soccer's Homegrown Player Initiative, we are starting to see real signs of progress. Here's part 1 of my look at the state of youth development in MLS.

Jurgen Klinsmann has been a polarizing figure since being named head coach of the USMNT, for me the jury is still out. Soon the US U23's will begin the qualifying rounds to earn their ticket London and the 2012 summer games. The problem I have at the moment (and this just might be my brain) is that Klinsmann isn't being too positive about the whole thing.

Remember that video we posted about a week ago featuring a remix of the M83 song "Midnight City" and all kinds of fancy editing by Jimmy Diebold and Bodega Studios? Well, someone went ahead and added all the Sounders footage we were all dying for.

In the demise of WPS, the WPSL (2nd tier, alongside the W-League in which the Sounders Women play) is forming an Elite Soccer League in 2012 for some former WPS teams to continue playing.

This story reports of Seattle committing to a team for 2013 alongside San Diego, Los Angeles, Sacramento and the Bay Area.

Looks like we have some catching up to do. The Seattle Sounders have sold about 14,000 tickets for the March 7 CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinal against Santos Laguna. With a month left before the game, that's a perfectly respectable total, but it's also about 25,000 fewer than Toronto FC has sold for their quarterfinal against the LA Galaxy the same day.

This is part two of a two part series with Real Salt Lake's GM and an agent that has negotiated an HGP deal. More light is getting shined on this rapidly developing portion of the American soccer system every couple of weeks.

As our own malcontentjake and countless others have demonstrated repeatedly, the numerical shorthand for soccer formations which we're all accustomed to (e.g. 4-4-2) is almost completely useless. Whether you have a 'band of 4' defenders or a 'band of 5' is much less important than what those defenders are doing at any given time.

From Joe Roth to Adrian Hanauer to Sigi Schmid to players like Mike Fucito Seattle Sounders FC has been quite clear about their goals for this year. Another US Open Cup title will not be enough. It is a consistent organizational chorus that started at the End of Year Business Meeting and is hinted at in most conversations about the upcoming season.

Continuing their preseason tradition of a Community Shield match to raise funds for charity partners, the Seattle Sounders today announced that their opponent in the Feb. 29 7 PM match will be Jaguares de Chiapas of the Mexican Primera. In a new twist, the match will be free and seating on a first-come, first-serve basis, but the club will be accepting donations at the door.