MLS And Youth Development, Part 2: Teams Seek More Bang For Buck

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.

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.

The Seattle Sounders have added a PDL team to their youth development program, partnering with the Tacoma Tide and rebranding the team as Sounders FC U-23. The team will be coached by current Sounders academy director Darren Sawatzky and play somewhere in Pierce County, although a permanent home has not yet been determined.

The snow is here and is there a better way to spend an hour or so of your snow day other than listening to Nos Audietis? We think not.

In this highly educational episode, Aaron teaches us about "Ragnarock", the Norse Apocalypse and how it applies and translates to our own "Snowgnarock".

"We're having some conversations about that," Sounders general manager Adrian Hanauer said today. "... We've had discussions about ways in which we might be able to partner together on our academy kids that go off to school."

Tacoma Tide could become Sounders-U23 | Sounders Insider - The News Tribune

It reads like the Sounders/Tide partnership would be an amatuer team, rather than a pro-PDL side like Kitsap.

So this year the Sounders had the best draft in the history of MLS - again. The thing is, our player scouting efforts are so far above that of the average team, we really should be considered a separate case. As an example, did you see me lamenting the loss of Mo Johnston? Remember when I stripped him for Danny O'Rourke and Will Hesmer for a partial allocation?

With neither of Seattle Sounders FC's MLS SuperDraft picks being from Generation Adidas nor pre-signed seniors or internationals the two players are going to have to fight to make the tight roster. A roster than may get even tighter before they report as General Manager Adrian Hanauer said during today's conference call there are "other deals that are possibly pending or getting close.

MLS teams gather in Kansas City to draft from their selection of college seniors, Generation Adidas players and a few pre-signed internationals. You can watch live on ESPN2/3 or MLSSoccer.com at 9 AM or just follow along here. MLSSoccer.com's final mock draft (their third) has Puget Sound native Kelyn Rowe going as high as third or as low as 14th.

An undisclosed location in Kansas City. A temporary Sigi-bunker has been erected in an underground location and is currently host to a predraft party. The computer monitors are flooded with bright colors and visualizations mixing with a reel of Sounders highlights. My World by Iggy Azalea is pumping through the speakers, continually being remixed over with bits of Justice and LMFAO by the Sigibot who is serving as DJ for the night.

Today the SB Nation MLS blog network conducted a mock version of the 2012 MLS SuperDraft. The advantage to doing this is that team bloggers should know their own teams better than a national writer. The disadvantage is that most of us don't follow the national collegiate scene in ways that a real experts like Maureci, Clark and Eskilson can.

Sun streams in through previously hidden windows of the Sigi Bunker. Blackout by Breathe Carolina is on repeat through the room's surround sound speakers at a slightly uncomfortable level of volume. Fake Sigi whistles as he adjusts knobs and polishes various pieces of equipment. Chris Henderson walks in, briefly stunned by the amount of sunlight and music.

Every single agent should say that their player, particularly one of Alvaro Fernandez' quality, is interested in playing for Palermo, a team in a better league for more money. That Fernandez' agent did so is not a surprise. Palermo is a mid-table team in Serie A this season already on its third coach.

The Seattle Sounders appear to be hitting the international market during transfer season yet again.

After officially announcing the acquisition of Swedish right back Adam Johannson on Thursday, the Sounders are reportedly close to signing Danish winger Christian Sivebaek, a player general manager Adrian Hanauer told the Seattle Times that the Sounders are "very interested" in acquiring.

With rumors of Cordell Cato reaching a contract agreement and Mrisho Ngassa's club still waiting for confirmation that Tanzanian international will return for another training stint with Seattle Sounders FC it could be said that Hanauer & Co went for the U-20 Trinidad player rather than the East African U-23.

The first part of Sounder at Heart's recent conversation with Darren Sawatzky featured a few players from this year's U-18s. This second section is more about what the Academy is and how Seattle Sounders FC is handling it. The conversation is lengthy, but shows the efforts the team is taking to develop not just future pro players, but men.

This isn't the big name signing that Seattle Sounders fans have been hoping for, but it sure looks like they are close to signing Trinidad & Tobago teenager Cordell Cato, a forward/midfielder who has played for his country's U-20 team. The Trinidad Express says the deal is basically done, but Sounders GM Adrian Hanauer was more cautious when asked for comment.

When the Alliance Council asked for a larger role in the planning and execution of the End of Year Business Meeting the goal was for a more streamlined event, less repetitive Q&A and an increase in participation overall. On those three goals we probably got 2.5 right. This recap is built from the team's official live blog, my tweets from backstage and my memory of the event.

Mauro Rosales enjoyed an outstanding first season in Major League Soccer, leading Seattle's high-powered offense and earning MLS Newcomer of he Year honors in the process.

The Sounders rewarded Rosales outstanding debut, and secured his services in the process, signing the 30-year-old playmaker to a multi-year contract.

The young Swedish midfielder is on his way to Swedish club Malmo FF after a one year stay with the Seattle Sounders. Per league policy terms were not disclosed, but the word "transfer" reveals an interesting nugget. Adrian Hanauer did exercise that option and then orchestrated a move. This not only opens cap space, a roster slot and an international slot, but may involve more allocation.

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If you are an Alliance member you may also be interested in the Alliance End of Year Meeting. Speakers include Drew Carey, Joe Roth, Gary Wright and Adrian Hanauer.

While still a ways off from being able to announce a new signing, Seattle Sounders GM Adrian Hanauer confirmed reports that the team is pursuing Costa Rican international Heiner Mora. Hanauer also said the team would be looking at the 27-year-old as a right back, although Mora has played several positions during his 18 appearances with the national team.

The Seattle Sounders' search for Kasey Keller's successor has been completed.

Seattle announced the long-rumored signing of Austrian goalkeeper Michael Gspurning on Wednesday, ushering in a new era between the posts at CenturyLink Field.

"First off, you don't replace Kasey Keller.

It has been a near foregone conclusion ever since he was first loaned out several months ago, but Miguel Montano officially signed with the Montreal Impact on Wednesday. The Seattle Sounders did not receive compensation for Montano, but GM Adrian Hanauer noted that his loan last year gave the team the flexibility to sign Sammy Ochoa.

"We continue to discuss the pros and cons to running a PDL team," Hanauer says, "and whether it makes most sense to run an amateur version or a professional version. The reason for not running one, has simply been that we haven't calculated the benefits to be worthy of the expense.

December 2nd is becoming a day of retirements it seems. Earlier today the Terry Boss retirement became official, and now Taylor Graham is also retiring. Graham's MLS career may be one easy to pass over in history, but if there is one thing he was and always will be is a Sounder. Over the past several years with the team in two iterations playing for Adrian Hanauer and Brian Schmetzer he won the Defender of the Year, twice was was names to the First Team in the USL as well as the Humanitarian of the Year in 2009.

The Cascadia Summit will be taking at least a one-year hiatus. The news about the preseason, round-robin tournament between the Seattle Sounders, Portland Timbers and Vancouver Whitecaps was officially broken by Timbers owner Merritt Paulson in this tweet:

piltdownman7Brett Graham @MerrittPaulson Will there be another Cascadia summit this season?

With today's list of players available in the Re-Entry Draft it is important to note the differences between the two stages. In Stage One a player would be pickup up at their current option value, or a "Bona Fide Offer." Now, not all players on today's list will be available in Monday's draft (Seattle holds pick 14).

After a couple of weeks off, we're back at it! We want to thank you for your patience and as we navigate the holiday season we will most likely be on a bi-weekly schedule until closer to preseason.

This week we talk about the loss of players James Riley and Tyson Wahl. As you probably know, Riley was selected by Montreal Impact in the expansion draft and immediately traded to Chivas USA and Wahl was traded to the Impact for allocation dollars.

After a couple of weeks off, we're back at it! We want to thank you for your patience and as we navigate the holiday season we will most likely be on a bi-weekly schedule until closer to preseason.
This week we talk about the loss of players James Riley and Tyson Wahl. As you probably know, Riley was selected by Montreal Impact in the expansion draft and immediately traded to Chivas USA and Wahl was traded to the Impact for allocation dollars.

Any dreams that Seattle Sounders fans had that the Arlo White to MLS on NBC thing was going to fall apart is gone. The loss for the Seattle Sounders and its fans will be the gain of MLS and the United States national team. White's comments on twitter today clearly show an appreciation for the team, the players and the fans.

NBC Sports announced today that it has hired Arlo White as the play-by-play voice of its MLS coverage starting in 2012. White had served as the voice of the Seattle Sounders the past two seasons.

His first broadcast with NBC Sports will be March 11 on opening weekend.

"It is a tremendous honor for me to join the NBC Sports Group, an organization that I have revered from afar for many years," said White in a news release.

The losses of James Riley and Tyson Wahl have Seattle Sounders FC adding allocation money only at this point. It is also rather apparent that their biggest low-budget success of 2011, Mauro Rosales, will be extended at a significantly higher figure, which should be announced very soon. There will also be a new keeper, likely with a budget number that is fairly large considering that the current leading candidate is Michael Gspurning, another situation we expect to be resolved shortly.

As the Montreal Impact look to build for their 2012 season they made two Seattle Sounders related moves during the expansion draft to help their team. First they selected James Riley only to later ship him to Chivas USA for two players - Justin Braun and Gerson Mayen. After the expansion draft the Impact announced that they also traded for Tyson Wahl.

Today in his Q&A with SoundersFC.com Adrian Hanauer talked about away allocation for Cascadia Cup matches. He notes the success of the first year, but is hesitant to think that more seats are needed due to the new hyper-unbalanced schedule.

We have had early discussions about it. We haven't made any decisions.

With the announcement of the twelve players protected from selection in the Montreal Impact's expansion draft there are a few players that could be labeled as "key" to the strong 2011 who were left available for selection. The protected list is heavy on players up the spine was well as wide midfielders but leaves three fullbacks available as neither of the left backs (Tyson Wahl or Leo Gonzalez) nor iron man James Riley are protected.

In SB Nation's Mock Montreal Impact Expansion Draft I was asked to predict what the Seattle Sounders would do. My thoughts change on a daily basis, but of the main questions I had them protecting both Brad Evans and Erik Friberg. Which leaves two of the three young goal scorers available. The mock GM picked Mike Fucito.

In a season of excitement, disappointment and passion it is difficult to figure out which moment is most memorable. For 2009 there was a scene in the early hours when hundreds of fans met the team to celebrate their first trophy. In 2010 another US Open Cup win was highlighted by Sanna Nyassi's brace.

For the first time in months, there we have concluded a weekend without a soccer match on United States' soil. Major League Soccer is counting down to the 2011 MLS Cup at the Home Depot Center and ceded the weekend to International Soccer as FIFA claimed this weekend for World Cup Qualifiers, Euro 2012 Qualifiers and a spate of International Friendlies.

If there is one thing learned in 2011 it is that the Seattle Sounders staff knows how to find and utilize midfielders. From a defensive midfielder who grew into more, to MVP quality play from a minimum salary player who bought into the phrase "trust us" the team is stacked with talent in central third.

Seattle Sounders general manager Adrian Hanauer is delighted with the rate of growth within Major League Soccer.
The North American domestic league has been going from strength to strength both on and off the pitch in recent years and Hanauer is ‘thrilled' with how things are fairing in MLS.