When certain teams appear on the upcoming schedule, you feel a sense of - if not dread, then at least caution. There are teams that seem to always play Seattle tough and create an anxious, frustrating game. Perhaps for you that's the Los Angeles Galaxy or Real Salt Lake. Or even a team not as recently dominant, but who can still stymie the Sounders, like the San Jose Earthquakes.

As we enter the 2012 season, there are many questions surrounding the Union, but one of the biggest is what to make of our young striker, Danny Mwanga.

After a fantastic rookie year, Mwanga seemed to regress in 2011. He started fewer games and scored fewer goals than he did his rookie year, and his appearances were inconsistent: during some games he looked like an absolute world-beater, while more often he was anonymous.

Recently I've been spending some time analyzing designated players around the league. The results of DPs on the field have been a mixed bag despite the immense amount of attention they receive when they enter the league. Some are consistently in the pack of the best players in MLS. Others barely see the field.

NEW French football blog: New PSG signings arrive in Blaise of glory

For the new season, MirrorFootball is teaming up with some of the blogosphere's best new writers to bring you even more great football reads every single day. We'll be introducing you to them over the coming weeks so that by the time the first ball of the 2011-12 season is kicked in anger, you'll be firm friends.

While their men were busy in Boston on international duty, Real Madrid's queen bee, Sara Carbonero, played nice with Barcelona's WAG du jour, Shakira, at the Colombian singer's concert in Madrid. Quick poll: do you agree that Carbs 'stole the show' with her recent glam squad makeover or do you feel a bit blaise about her predictably WAGalicious Loubs and quilted Chanel?

The clock continues to tick on Chivas USA as the club decides whether to take Benny Feilhaber, trade him or pass altogether on the U.S. national team midfielder who signed with MLS last week.

Whether you believe Chivas USA might actually consider passing on the chance to select Feilhaber, and then either keep him or trade him, or you see the rumblings of passing as a ploy to spark up trade interest, it is clear there are several teams interested in his services.

It was a bit of wild day in Soundersland today, with a host of stories of various levels of importance breaking. Most of that stuff is clearly off-the-field. Rather than throw together a bunch of short posts, I figured it would be better to lump them all into a single post of Seattle Sounders notes.

Nate Jaqua, Steve Zakuani and Brad Evans all fully participated in training with the Seattle Sounders on Tuesday, improving chances that the trio could be ready to return to action on Friday. As is usually the case, players nearing a return to the lineup train hard early in the week to see how they react.

SBNation Power Rankings - Sounders Falling from 9 to 0 Tier One Votes

Two voters you read gave our opinions on why Seattle falls.

Aaron - While I don't think there's enough new information this early in the season to alter my opinion of most teams in the league, an exception has to be made for Seattle and Vancouver; the Sounders were already at the periphery of Supporters' Shield contenders before the season and the loss of a key player like Blaise Nkufo and zero points from their first two games makes that look a tall order.

It was another game where a supposedly deep starting lineup was forced into two adjustments. O'Brian White continues to fill in for Blaise Nkufo both spatially, and in his hold up play, but missed a few opportunities to score. The larger adjustment was made when Coach Sigi Schmid was forced by lingering injury pulling Steve Zakuani from the lineup.

J Hutcherson of US Soccer Player Newsletter writes of the 2011 MLS season kick-off between the Los Angeles Galaxy and Seattle Sounders.
Other than an unnecessary reminder that wet conditions and artificial turf might not be the best platform for flowing soccer, Tuesday's Major League Soccer opener didn't exactly give us much to work with.

BY ADAM SERRANO

Blaise Nkufo has been relased by the Seattle Sounders according to a team issued press release just hours befor the start of the season.

It has been a turbulent day for the Swiss Designated Player, who has effectively gone from the starting line-up to off the club.

The various SB Nation soccer editors have been dutifully running our preseason MLS power rankings about every other week for the last six weeks or so. In that time, we've seen some minor changes, but nothing particularly significant. We've seen FC Dallas fall out of the first tier and the Houston Dynamo fall out of the second tier.

Over the past few years some players with great college seasons have joined MLS after winning the Hermann Trophy. Darlington Nagbe and Teal Bunbury were the last two, but prior to that Garey, O'Rourke, Wingert, Eskandarian have all had decent careers. This isn't the Heisman. Players that win are good, or better, players in the league.

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Much has been said and written about the relative merits of the front lines of the inaugural MLS rosters for the Portland Timbers and Vancouver Whitecaps.

Liverpool are reportedly considering reviving their interest in Saint-Etienne midfielder Blaise Matuidi.
According to The Times, the Merseysiders are closely monitoring the France international as a move for Charlie Adam continues to stall.
Blackpool are growing increasingly irritated at the conduct of Liverpool in their pursuit of Adam, and the Reds are now ready to cut their losses and sound out another potential acquisition.