Mike Fucito and Lamar Neagle head to Montreal in exchange for Eddie Johnson. (Getty Images)

The allocation was quick and swift for striker Eddie Johnson. The former FC Dallas and Kansas City man was quickly selected by the Montreal Impact via the allocation order today. The Impact quickly tweeted out that they would be trading him though.

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.

Power Rankings are pointless fun, particularly in the pre-season. The Western Conference is a mess of talent and outside of the top three, it's a difficult selection. You might as well be playing darts with some of these rosters and power rankings. Nonetheless, here are your pre-season rankings for the West.

Today's first practice at CenturyLink Field on the latest installation of FieldTurf saw Seattle Sounders FC focused on primarily on short passes and dribbling to learn how it plays. While the in-fill still sits rather high, there will be some noticeable rooster tails. This is the latest and greatest of the technologies from FieldTurf and the vibe around the team was generally positive.

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.

A year ago, the Seattle Sounders opened their season on March 15. This year, they will essentially do so eight days earlier. On paper that might not seem like a huge difference.

But unlike last year when they opened against a LA Galaxy team that was in the same stage of its season, the Sounders' first opponent will be Santos Laguna, a Mexican Primera side that will have already played nine matches.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Headlines with question marks are always funny, but in this case due to the nature of automated translation and the global nature of football there is little certainty. Indications are that forward Prince Tagoe is no longer with his club. We're talking about a Ghana national team player played in Germany and Serbia during the last season, was heavily connected to the Seattle Sounders at the summer window in 2011, eventually moved to Bursaspor in Turkey.

Even after bidding farewell to five players, the Seattle Sounders' list 39 players as participating in training camp as the team begins activities in Casa Grande, Ariz. The five players who didn't make the trip were Sounders academy product Darwin Jones, University of Washington product Abdul Aman, goalkeeper Tyrel Lacy, invitee Jonathan Prieto and an unnamed trialist.

Sigi Schmid's Seattle Sounders FC took the pitch in anger for the first time. While it may only be preseason anger, the number of cards (10 yellow, 1 red) and the puncture wound on Mike Fucito indicate that emotions were high and form was off. While the game ended with both the Vancouver Whitecaps and Sounders netting just one goal apiece, the point of these matches is not to win, but to prepare to win meaningful games.

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.

Early in the classic baseball movie, Bull Durham, there is a scene where the veteran catcher, Crash Davis, ends up out back of a bar with the pitching protégé he's supposed to be helping to develop. Ebby Calvin ‘Nuke' LaLoosh wants to fight, but Crash hands Ebby a baseball instead and goads him into throwing the ball at Crash's chest.

Tonight's Community Shield game isn't about beating Jaguares de Chiapas (3-5-0 in Clausura 2012, 12th in league). Instead it's sole purpose is preparing to beat Santos Laguna in the CONCACAF Champions League. It also has the advantage of being free for the thousands that will welcome Seattle Sounders FC back home to open their packed 2012.

There's a funny thing that's happened around MLS. Players like DeRo, Donovan, Beckam, Henry and now maybe even Koevermans get the attention as the best offensive players in the game. While national attention on the Seattle Sounders tends to focus on crowd size, there is also a team here that put up the best offensive numbers in the league last year.

A home opener has never meant so much. That statement demonstrates the odd nature of scheduling and success that led to Seattle Sounders FC competing in the CONCACAF Champions League to start their 2012 multiple-tournament season. One could even say that this match against Santos Laguna is the result of the 2010 Sounders success, as it was their Open Cup trophy that year that qualified them for the current tournament.

By FRANCO PANIZO

The chances that an MLS club wins the CONCACAF Champions League this year got a little slimmer, as the Seattle Sounders crashed out of the tournament in embarrassing fashion.

Led by two goals from red-hot striker Herculez Gomez, Santos Laguna defeated the Sounders, 6-1, in the second leg of the quarterfinals series on Tuesday night to advance to the semifinals on aggregate, 7-3.

Some losses shake you to the core. The Seattle Sounders falling 6-1 to Santos Laguna in the deciding match of their CONCACAF Champions league quarterfinal on Wednesday is one of those.

There really is no sugar-coating this one. The Sounders gave up two early goals, managed to equalize on aggregate late in the first half, but were blown out of the water in the second half.

Santos Laguna 6 - Seattle 1 (7-3 agg) A disaster on the road for Seattle turned out to be a good game for Herculez Gomez. Santos was up on the night eight minutes in at the Nuevo Estadio Corona and doubled that lead a minute later. Seattle looked like they would make it a game, with Alvaro Fernandez scoring in the 36th minute.

That's the last time Nick Soolsma picks our photos...SEATTLE VS. TORONTO
　
CENTURYLINK FIELD - SATURDAY 10:30PM ET
TV: SPORTSNET ONE---- RADIO: THE FAN 590
　
THE KICKABOUT:
Even though this official season opener may seem slightly anti-cliamctic after Wednesday's massive win in Los Angeles, this is where 2012 starts for realsies.

There are games in which a player enters a fanbase's collective consciousness. For David Estrada, that was probably this year's CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinal when he scored the opening goal. What happened on Saturday, though, is something entirely different. David Estrada, the 24-year-old who was largely seen as a first-round SuperDraft bust as recently as a month ago, scored a hat trick to lead the Seattle Sounders to a 3-1 victory over Toronto FC in front of a MLS opener crowd of 38,709.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.