SoccerBlogs

After a 2011 Premier Development League national championship with the Kitsap Pumas, Meredith earned a contract with Seattle Sounders FC, the team that drafted him out of Monmouth University. He was expected to be third-choice behind Gspurning and Weber in 2012, but a series of injuries flung him into the thick of the action in May.

As I was leaving the game last night, I passed by a woman on the street who gave me an interested look. I smiled back. She asked me, "Who won?" I was, to be honest, a bit dumbfounded.

Who won? I honestly did not know.

It took me a few seconds to realize she was talking about the scoreline--as if a friendly like this could be boiled down to a mere goals for and goals against.

Forward Romelu Lukaku scored two goals as European champions Chelsea beat Seattle Sounders 4-2 on Wednesday night at Century Field.

There were impressive debuts from two of Chelsea's high-profile summer signings, Marko Marin and Eden Hazard, who also scored as all the goals came in an explosive first half.

Summer had finally arrived in the Pacific Northwest after a dreary June that only was exceeded in dreariness by the Sounders performance over the same period of time. Seattle Sounders have not won a match in their last ten fixtures, they have managed to gather 5 points, 4 of those on the road, despite their inability to to win all 3 points.

Real Salt Lake is a good team. At home they are even better, and yet a road point, a mere point, won't address many fans worries. Seattle was expected to lose (by prognasticators) and yet earned their first shutout in MLS play in some time. The winless streak continues and will confirm however one feels for about the team at this time.

Seattle Sounders keepers are busy in the news today. Josh Ford, who once won the third keeper job over Bryan Meredith was activated from the short term injured list today. While he was only on the list from May 4th, his injury troubles go back to last year. With the news that Andrew Weber is out for 2-4 weeks Meredith will return to the starting lineup.

As the derby weekend approaches, Stumptown Footy wants to make sure you're fully informed about our rivals to the north. Tomorrow, Ryan will offer his analysis of what the Portland Timbers need to do to win, and Geoff will follow that up with the usual 3 questions of Sounder At Heart.

But first, we'll give you a rundown of what to expect from these Sounders.

In what could be a growing trend among MLS teams, the Seattle Sounders loaned Andrew Duran to the Atlanta Silverbacks, the team announced on Friday. Duran had yet to appear in a MLS game for the Sounders and with their defenders getting closer to full health, there didn't appear to be many minutes to go around.

Wikipedia calls Derby Carrillo's time with the Seattle Sounders a trial. Derby calls it something a bit more. In Friday's phone conversation with Sounder at Heart he said "It's almost exactly like what Bryan Meredith did." His 'trial' with the Sounders was more than a trip to Arizona. He was with the Kitsap Pumas in 2010, practiced with Seattle and even was the backup in some of the ad hoc reserve games on the backfields of Starfire that year.

Over the past three seasons, Sigi Schmid has masterfully maneuvered the Seattle Sounders lineup. Many times, he's rolled out a lineup that has made more than a few of us want to rip out our hair. But more times than not, it's worked out in his favor.

His willingness to go more than 20-deep on his roster is part of why the Sounders have been able to do so well in multiple competitions.

I'm 10 weeks into the 2012 Fantasy Manager and so far, so good. Typically this is about the time of the year where I hit the preverbal wall and stop caring as much about this but like I stated, these weekly posts will hopefully keep me from doing that.

I took a major gamble in Week 10, I subbed out a couple guys as went with an odd 5-2-3 formation.

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.

Bryan Meredith has not allowed a goal in 225 minutes of MLS play. Let that sink in. A 22-year-old goalkeeper, who was cut last year, as recently as six months ago was commuting across Puget Sound to play for the fourth-division Kitsap Pumas and entered this year still fighting for a roster spot, has now posted back-to-back shutouts for the Seattle Sounders.

Did the first half happen? Only about one-third of the highlight package of last night's Seattle Sounders 2-0 win are from that first 45 minutes. It includes "highlights" like FC Dallas player Fabian Castillo sprinting by Zach Scott and slamming the ball into the side net. There's Mauro Rosales getting two opportunities on goal from short range and somehow not finishing.

As you've probably heard by now, Bryan Meredith is going to start for the Seattle Sounders on Saturday against the Philadelphia Union. Michael Gspurning has what the team has only called a "right hip injury" and is going to be out for 2-3 weeks.

Chances are, most of you have not seen much of Meredith.

Nagging injuries, travel, and a Saturday fixture with NY Red Bulls meant that David Beckham and Robbie Keane would not be participating in tonight's match in against the Sounders in Seattle. Galaxy would start Adam Cristman & Chad Barrett up front to match the physicality of Jeff Parke and Jhon Kennedy Hurtado.

The game was an oppotunity for the Seattle Sounders reserve players to go 90, as well as to get Eddie Johnson a half of play within Sigi Schmid's system. Seattle's two goals came in each half. The first came when Sammy Ochoa headed an Alex Caskey corner into an Oregon State Beaver defender, but the shot likely would have gone in any way.

A couple days after he announced the signing on Twitter, the Seattle Sounders officially announced the signing of Andrew Weber. The goalkeeper is expected to be Michael Gspurning's top backup, but will likely be fighting with Bryan Meredith for that spot throughout the season.

"Andrew adds a goalkeeper who has had Champions League experience with Montreal and who has been in MLS for the last few years," Sounders coach Sigi Schmid said in a team release.

One of the writers for another SB Nation MLS blog is wondering if the Seattle Sounders get enough from their Vegas Combine. Shouldn't a team with Seattle's resources be able to capture more talent out of the draft than just those that attend the MLS Combine? Possibly this is true, but it ignores that the Sounders Vegas Combine discovered many talents and it offers the scouting and coaching staff a three day calibration clinic.

Polling for the site 'awards' (no physical award actually given) for Offensive and Defensive Player of the Year weren't really close. It looks like Moment of the Year will see a run-off just like in 2010. Moving into the Young Player of Year the contest may be more about hope than performance. In the past there were a handful of players with large amounts of playing time that would qualify for a U-23 roster.