Coming off a chunk of their schedule that saw them play nine matches in 31 days, it was hardly surprising to show up at Seattle Sounders training camp on Thursday and find that they weren't doing soccer activities. I was shocked to see them playing dodgeball though.

I only got there in time to catch the final, but I was pretty impressed with what I saw.

Without the results of the past few weeks a draw on the road to the newly revamped Chivas USA could be a positive, particularly a come-from-behind draw. In light of the slump that the Seattle Sounders FC are in, is a road draw enough? In some cases 1-1 is a positive. In others it feels like a loss.

How hard do we try to fit the Sounders offensive woes into our preconceived narrative? Fans of teams like Barcelona and Brazil see the Rave Green as too direct. Fans of Fucito, Nyassi and other speedsters see a lack of that now. There still isn't a traditional target man, as Eddie Johnson drifts wide and prefers the ball at his feet unless he's banging in a cross.

A pair of mid-week challenges have led to two more players being suspended by the MLS Disciplinary Committee.

Seattle Sounders midfielder Osvaldo Alonso was suspended two games, and Los Angeles Galaxy midfielder Hector Jimenez was suspended one for their two-footed, studs-up challenges on Wednesday night.

In a season that seemed to be shaping up almost perfectly, the Seattle Sounders have suddenly made a habit of dropping points. They've now gone three straight without a win and while they are still in fine position, it's not nearly as good as it was a couple weeks ago.

The loss to the Columbus Crew is easily the most frustrating of the bunch.

For Seattle Sounders signing Sigi Schmid was clearly one of the most important parts of their success as an expansion franchise, as was picking Brad Evans from the Columbus roster in the Sounders expansion draft. As much as Sounders have been a model for MLS 2.0, Columbus Crew were a model franchise for the beginning of MLS.

By JASON MITCHELL

It was three years and seven matches in the making, but thanks to a pair of goals and stingy defense the Columbus Crew finally beat the Seattle Sounders.

Justin Meram's header in the 16th minute gave the Crew the only goal they would need Wednesday night, but Emelio Renteria's stunning one-touch volley from 30 yards out in the 76th minute secured the victory.

A couple weeks ago we started dropping in some of the gamethread tidbits that you miss on home games because you are in the stadium. This is all the below the fold stuff, with some useful links (although less this week, as I failed to get three questions out in a timely fashion). It includes the matchups, statistics and tactics that are likely to influence who wins or loses the match.

What does a week with six draws get you? Oddly enough a good deal of movement in my power rankings.

I shuffled a couple tiers around, as the top group got one team bigger and the third tier got a few clubs larger. Really that third tier is just a bunch of mess that could either go up or down at this point.

Today's match between the Vancouver Whitecaps and the Seattle Sounders isn't about a trophy (though it will influence the Cascadia Cup). It would be easy to say it is about rivalry, as the competition between these cities within soccer goes back nearly 40 years and 125 games. Instead though, it is about standings.

There's no reason to pretend otherwise, the Seattle Sounders are not playing their best. If not for a defense that has so far been playing out of its mind, who knows where the Sounders would be.

Of course, where they are is pretty awesome. At 22 points through 10 matches, they are basically on pace for 75 points.

There's really not a whole lot to say after a game like last night's. The Seattle Sounders, of course, lost to Real Salt Lake 1-0 on a bit of an unlucky goal by Fabian Espindola. It's tough to say the Sounders deserved more, but they weren't really outplayed either. RSL basically got one chance and did a lot with it.

Who knows if we'll ever see a fully fit Seattle Sounders team, but Saturday's match against Real Salt Lake will be the closest they've been since the season opener. Of the outfield players not on the disabled list, only Patrick Ianni is still dealing with significant health issues. His back apparently acted up on the flight to Dallas and he's now undergoing an MRI to determine the injury's seriousness.

Brad Evans is the starting central midfielder on this team. It seems we as a community have finally come to peace with that. He's not the No. 10 that some still dream of, but there at least seems to be a collective realization that as this team is currently constructed, there are no better options.

The Seattle Sounders are back on top.

On the strength of shutout wins over the Los Angeles Galaxy and Philadelphia Union, Seattle vaulted to the top slot in this week's SBI MLS Power Rankings, a position the club held for one week earlier this season. Things are certainly looking up for the Sounders, as Mauro Rosales continues to build toward 90-minute fitness and Alvaro Fernandez nears his return from a quad strain.

As they say, 'they could have scored 5', but they didn't. They scored one on a technically perfect shot from Mauro Rosales thanks to a perfect pass from Fredy Montero. Other than that, young Alex Caskey had two great looking curlers from the left side, one of which went just wide and one saved by Zach MacMath.

A team already weak on crosses will be without one of their fullbacks as Gabriel Farfan serves his final day of suspension. That same team will be without its coach as Peter Nowak also serves a suspension. This weakened Philadelphia Union side already struggles and their Saturday national TV match on NBCSN will be made more difficult by the poor decisions made two weeks ago.

There's a rather big game coming up tomorrow. The Seattle Sounders wil, of course, be hosting the LA Galaxy in a midweek affair that won't get the attention it probably deserves. The unfortunate reality is that this rather huge game, at least from a psyche standpoint, is smack dab in the middle of the busiest part of the Sounders' MLS schedule.

D.C. United just keep climbing up the ladder.

For the first time this season, Ben Olsen's squad has cracked the top five of the SBI MLS Power Rankings. United defeated the Houston Dynamo 3-2 on Saturday, stretching their unbeaten run to seven games and claiming consecutive wins for the first time since June 2009.

The Seattle Sounders square off against the Chicago Fire at Toyota Park on Saturday at 7:30 PM CST. We turned to Dave Clark of Sounder at Heart for some insider perspective. The answer to the first question in the exchange is below and the rest of the questions in the exchange are after the break.

Sammy Ochoa was the most popular player interview after Seattle Sounders practice. The traditional target forward recorded a brace in the Reserve game against Chivas USA. He knows that the expectations from Sigi Schmid on the First Team or Ezra Hendrickson on the Reserves is to score goals. Sigi reminded the gathered media that players can and do work their way up from success in secondary competitions to meaningful minutes in MLS matches.

By JASON MITCHELL

SEATTLE, WA. - It took more than 2,000 minutes of career action, but Seattle defender Zach Scott made sure his first MLS goal was one to remember.

Some 50 minutes after scooting a header just above the crossbar, Scott confidently headed the match-winner into the far side of the net in the 63rd minute, giving the Seattle Sounders a 1-0 victory over the Colorado Rapids on Saturday afternoon.

Going across three timezones, earning a shutout and settling for a point is hardly a worst-case scenario. Like all ties, though, I think both teams can probably look back on it and feel as though they should have claimed all three points. For my money, the Seattle Sounders have a more rightful claim to that idea.

While the Seattle Sounders FC earned a point on the road, their failure to score in their handful of opportunities showed what a waste that one point was. Alvaro Fernandez pushed forward with a perfect interplay from Fredy Montero only to short pass to David Estrada when both were alone on goal. Later Roger Levesque had a decent angle on goal, but attempted to pass rather than force a save.

Young coach Ben Olsen knows exactly how good D.C. United were. His goal this season is to start to bring them back to that historic level, a level that was killed off when the Seattle Sounders FC showed that RFK is a great place to win trophies on the road. Over these three years when the teams have gone head to head Seattle collected a 3-1-0 +2 Goal Differential in the other Washington.

The MLS disciplinary committee is bringing down the hammer.

After reviewing the past weekend's matches, the league's disciplinary arm has suspended FC Dallas' Jair Benitez, D.C. United's Brandon McDonald and Vancouver Whitecaps' Atiba Harris a game apiece and fined them for violent conduct, and fined D.

Frank Yallop's San Jose Earthquakes are a team defined by a ghost on offense and a simple defensive philosophy. They exist to stop shots and don't care about possession or passing advantages. So far, it's worked. On offense they ride the fortunes of Chris Wondolowski, it's also working. The Seattle Sounders will get to play their own style a bit tonight.

MLS announced today that Dynamo midfielder Adam Moffat has been suspended for one match for a reckless tackle committed against Sounders' Osvaldo Alonso during last Friday's match.

The incident occurred in the 35th minute and the MLS Disciplinary Committee determined the tackle endangered the safety of his opponent.

MLS commissioner Don Garber said before the season that the league's disciplinary committee would take a hard line on excessive challenges and instances of embellishment, and the first instance of that more rigid stance has been put in motion.

The league has suspended and fined Houston Dynamo midfielder Adam Moffat for a harsh challenge and fined Seattle Sounders midfielder Alvaro Fernandez for embellishing contact in their matchup a week ago.

Week 3 of MLS action saw quite a few goals being scored in front of some fairly impressive crowds. Some, like Seattle, left extremely happy with the result. Others though fell at home, sending fans home unhappy. Pedro Gomes recaps the weekend for us.
Seattle Sounders 2, Houston Dynamo 0
The Houston Dynamo looked to continue their unbeaten road record as they traveled to face the Seattle Sounders in front of 38,304 supporters at Century Link Field.

It just wasn't the Houston Dynamo's night and it wasn't that the team played poorly, far from it. Seattle were just a little bit better and took advantage of some luck and a mistake by Geoff Cameron to down the Dynamo 2-0 in front of 38,304 at CenturyLink Field.

Houston started promising with a lot of possession and putting some early pressure on Sounders goalkeeper Michael Gspurning.

David Estrada did it again. No, he wasn't the Man of the Match -- that was undoubtedly someone on the defensive side of the ball -- but he scored the Sounders' opening goal for the third time this season. He also picked up his third game-winner, this one a strike form the top of the penalty area that was on target, but deflected off a Houston Dynamo defender that put the Sounders up 1-0.

Houston Dynamo brought an undefeated record and maximum points into CenturyLink Field to face Seattle Sounders fresh off of their St. Patrick's Day victory on the strength of MLS Player of the Week, David Estrada. Houston, a perennial Western power, now finds itself atop the Eastern Conference after defeating San Jose Earthquakes & Chivas USA.

Red Bull Arena should be lively on Sunday. (Getty Images)

Looking at this weekend's schedule a couple things jump out to you. For one it is a lot of East v. West with the Eastern clubs hosting the majority of the games (4 of 6). Second of all, it is a lot of good team against bad team. Oh boy.

There's no way around it, losing Mauro Rosales for any length of time makes the Seattle Sounders a less dangerous offensive team. Over the long run, there's really no question the Sounders will score fewer goals if he's not on the field. The Sounders should clearly hope he returns from his latest injury as soon as possible.

There have been times where the Nos Audietis crew has been accused of being a bit pessimistic. OK, it was really just that ONE time ... In any case, this is most definitely not one of those times. Jeremiah and Aaron basically gush all over David Estrada and Alvaro Fernandez, justifiably so.

The Seattle Sounders will have to once again have to make do without the services of Mauro Rosales. Coach Sigi Schmid revealed on Tuesday that his star midfielder has a sprained knee and will miss at least Friday's game and could be out as long as several weeks. Schmid said the injury was different than the one that cost Rosales most of the final five games of the regular season and both playoff games.

Let it be known that despite much gnashing of teeth and rending of garments in Sounders-land after the epic flameout in Torreon on Wednesday, that for 3/4's of the tie our boys in, um, "cyan" were battling toe-to-toe with perhaps the best team in CONCACAF at the moment. You may say Monterrey are better, but that represents another side the Sounders have shown themselves capable of playing with.

When a high school coach creates a recruiting film, or a player agent crafts their video sales pitch, for a player it shows everything they can do well. The highlight video from last night's 3:1 Seattle Sounders home win over Toronto FC is exactly that for David Estrada. It shows his understanding of space.

The Seattle Sounders didn't take much time getting over their CONCACAF Champions League elimination, returning to CenturyLink Field to open the 2012 MLS season in stylish fashion.

Sounders forward David Estrada not only scored his first career MLS goal, he notched a hat-trick in the process, to lead Seattle to a commanding 3-1 victory over Toronto FC on Saturday night.