And I'm not talking about Beckham's 2-year $15 million contract.

I'm talking about Omar Gonzalez. Last month Omar pulled out of the national team training camp for a very exciting loan move to Nurnberg. His very first day there he suffered a season ending injury at the hands well, feet of his USMNT teammate Timmy Chandler.

With 2012 marking the beginning of the USA's FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign and the players here hoping to make a big impression, we decided to look back at the January camp roster from this time in the previous two cycles to see if there is any forecasting to be done on how many players will actually reach the World Cup.

Even for the most faithful Seattle Sounders supporters among us, this has been a bit of a rough off-season. The numbers fairly illustrate why: Nine players that were part of the team during the final game of the season are no longer here. Those players represent more than 14,000 minutes of all-competition playing time or about 29 percent of the total minutes played by the team.

By JOEY SAMUEL

While the retaining of David Beckham's services remains up in the air for the Los Angeles Galaxy, five other players saw their contract situations get a lot clearer on Friday.

Sean Franklin and Bryan Jordan re-signed with Los Angeles, while Adam Cristman's option was picked up, allowing Bruce Arena to keep key parts of the deep squad that won the 2011 MLS Cup and Supporters' Shield.

*The Galaxy announced this morning that the club has re-signed starting defender/midfielder Sean Franklin as well as Bryan Jordan of Temple City and reserve striker Adam Cristman for the 2012 season. The Galaxy also announced they have signed MLS veteran Pat Noonan and goalkeeper Nick Noble. Here's more on the

Sporting KC has done well so far this offseason. (Getty Images)

Well, it is mid-December. The Christmas trees are up and the snow is falling in some places around the country. The Re-Entry Drafts have come and gone for the 19 MLS clubs. Teams are constantly making moves this offseason at times more moves than it seems like ever before.

Swedish midfielder Erik Friberg became the latest Seattle Sounder to depart this off-season, moving to Swedish club Malmo on Monday in a transfer announced by the Sounders.

Friberg played 26 matches for Seattle, recording a goal and assist for the Sounders.

The off-season has been a busy one for the Sounders, who had already lost goalkeeper Kasey Keller to retirement, James Riley and Tyson Wahl in the expansion draft, as well as Nate Jaqua and Pat Noonan in the re-entry draft.

Marc Burch (left) was the first player selected in stage two of the Re-Entry Draft. (Getty Images)

The second stage of the 2011 MLS Re-Entry Draft came and went with a flurry of picks from the defending MLS Cup champions, LA Galaxy.

LA needed depth for the possibly 50ish games that they will play next year with the Champions League knock-out stage in the spring, followed by the 2012/13 group stage in the fall.

Seattle Sounders FC clearly wanted one player in today's Re-Entry Draft Stage Two when they made a last minute trade with the Vancouver Whitecaps for the number one pick. Moments later they selected MLS veteran and former D.C. United player Marc Burch. Burch's 2011 salary is reported to be 97.5k, but is subject to renegotiation per the RED rules.

And they were the busiest MLS team in the draft period. Two are their own re-signed players: recently acquired defender Dasan Robinson and seldom used veteran Frankie Hejduk. The Galaxy also picked up: Chivas USA defender Andrew Boyens, veteran defender Chris Leitch, veteran Pat Noonan and veteran goalkeeper Jon Conway.

So Stage 2 of the Re-Entry Draft has just concluded. It was a bit more lively than Stage 1 but still not hugely impactful. Most teams passed outright with the Los Angeles Galaxy taking a starring role by adding four players and picking up two of their own players again.

Unsurprisingly the Portland Timbers passed on Stage 2 and also passed on selecting their own players once again.

Photo by Jose L. Argueta/ISIphotos.com

Although the majority of teams passed on the opportunity to add players in the second stage of the MLS Re-Entry Draft, a few used Monday's exercise to stockpile depth ahead of the 2012 preseason.

Three teams took multiple players, spearheaded by the defending champion Los Angeles Galaxy, who made four selections: defenders Andrew Boyens and Chris Leitch, veteran forward Pat Noonan and veteran goalkeeper Jon Conway.

The Sounders have lost more players this season than any previous MLS off-season. That's without the official losses of Pat Noonan and Nate Jaqua who could still be drafted in Stage Two of the Re-Entry Draft on Monday. But there have been three retirements, the odd departure of Miguel Montano with basically no compensation, the expansion draft loss of James Riley and the trade of Tyson Wahl for allocation money have Seattle with plenty of openings.

Outside of Fredy Montero getting another long run of 75% or more of available minutes the Seattle Sounders FC have no clear favorite as to which of their remaining three forwards will get the most playing time. The declined options of Nate Jaqua and Pat Noonan do open minutes for the remaining three most used forward.

As the Seattle Sounders retool for a run at multiple Cups in 2012 they declined options on Forwards Nate Jaqua and Pat Noonan, as well as Centerback Taylor Graham. They also declined the option on the retiring Terry Boss. Each player is between 30 and 31 years old and occupied senior roster slots.

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.

Now that we've had a few days to examine things from every angle and formulate responsible judgments, I feel the time has come for a measured and well thought-out reaction to the Jay Heaps hiring. And no, it's not an unintelligible exclamation of frustration.

I still have plenty of reservations about Jay's lack of experience, and also about his leadership style.

Seattle stands to lose an important player in the expansion draft. (Getty Images)

I don't think many folks expected to see this list so soon. With the Seattle Sounders exiting the playoffs last night after there 3-2 (on aggregate) loss to Real Salt Lake, the list had to be made. Boy, Montreal has to make the most of this too as the Sounders stand to lose one quality player.

In his ten seasons in New England, Stevie Nicol oversaw the most successful run in Revolution's history. But, after the club's record sharply regressed over the past two years in particular, the writing was on the wall: it was time for the gaffer to go.

Many will remember that Nicol's debut came in 1999, when he replaced the last storied Revolution manager the Spiderman himself, Walter Zenga for the final two matches of the season.

Sidereal has looked into Shots Plus/Minus in the past, and now we will have it updated on a semi-frequent basis. Due to the limits of available data these are for MLS games only. Data is collected from MLSsoccer.com. These are only additional statistics to measure a player's value.

Fredy Montero joins Nate Jaqua (10), Kasey Keller (09) and Pat Noonan (07, with Revolution) as current Seattle Sounders who earned the Player of the Tournament award from TheCup.US and North American Soccer Reporters. Montero helped the Sounders to their historical third straight US Open Cups by hitting game winners in the quarters, the semis and the Final.

Sigi Schmid's side lacked its best three technical and creative force in the game Saturday night. Forced to use the natural central midfielders (Brad Evans and Erik Friberg) at the same time and deploying Pat Noonan as a withdrawn man the Seattle Sounders did not threaten the Philadelphia Union goal as they typically do.

There's been a lot of talk about how much weaker the Eastern Conference is than the Western Conference. Saturday night's game was a bitter reminder that all it takes is one or two breaks to go a team's way and they can win. That's kind of what soccer is at it's core. In this case an attempted shielding of the ball was disrupted with an quick foot inserted and became an assist as Freddy Adu scored.

Click here to view the embedded video.

After watching their team win the US Open Cup on Tuesday, Sounders fans were not prepared to see the Union waltz into Seattle and take a deserved three points off a lethargic home side.

Second half goals from Freddy Adu and Brian Carroll lifted the Union into first place in front of a sold out crowd at CenturyLink Field in Seattle, WA.

Hey there Union fans. I normally do these at Sounder at Heart and offered to throw it up there for your use. You can hover over or click on many of the data points and learn even more. The lineups are the best guess of the SaH crew and Scott. Sorry about the time and station being for Seattle fans, but you should know when/where to watch.

Sigi Schmid is going to have to find offense from different spots with Fredy Montero out due to his last Yellow. Mauro Rosales and Alvaro Fernandez both have injury issues that could see them with spot time, but it would be surprising if either start. Unlike the last injury wave (Herediano here) there are more healthy options in the midfield.

Some managers in the world will tell you before a match exactly who is going to start and what shape they are going to use. Others don't have fixture congestion and so their first team minus injuries is going to get the play - say the New England Revolution. For the Seattle Sounders Coach Sigi Schmid has depth to make tactical moves (inserting Zach Scott as right back to shut down a winger) and play near split-squads as he competes in three concurrent tournaments.

We've got a lot to talk about this time out; the Sounders waxing of DC United, the loss of Mauro Rosales, the loss to CS Herediano, Seattle's final Cascadia Cup match of the season this Saturday against the Vancouver Whitecaps and the future of Nate Jaqua and Pat Noonan are all discussed at length.

We've got a lot to talk about this time out; the Sounders waxing of DC United, the loss of Mauro Rosales, the loss to CS Herediano, Seattle's final Cascadia Cup match of the season this Saturday against the Vancouver Whitecaps and the future of Nate Jaqua and Pat Noonan are all discussed at length.

When CS Herediano beat the Seattle Sounders on Tuesday night it was not because they dominated play. It was because the team in Electricity acted more like a car battery that was low on charge and couldn't push the starter over. There were only a handful of opportunities for either side and the Costa Rican team's keeper had a brilliant save or two that took a game from a possible draw to a 1-nil win.

There's no two ways about it: Mauro Rosales' injury sucks. Whether it's two or four weeks or somewhere in between, every game the Seattle Sounders have to play without their MVP candidate they are a worse team. It's no coincidence that the Sounders have gone 12-3-6 in games Rosales has started and just 2-3-3 in their other matches.

Normally about now, we'd put together a fancy lineup card for you, but not this week. Guessing Sigi Schmid's lineup against CS Herediano of Costa Rica is difficult. The lineup for Herediano nearly impossible. When the Seattle Sounders beat CF Monterrey it was the least conventional set of XI we have seen him use.

As they usually do twice a year, the MLS Players Union released salary data. As you'll see, there were a few surprises when it came to the Seattle Sounders.

Most notably, you'll notice that they managed to add two players -- Sammy Ochoa and Amadou Sanyang -- while also trimming their payroll.

There's been a ton written lately about the Seattle Sounders FC offense lately. A look at goal scoring from forwards, due to the lack of scoring by Fredy Montero lately, and the look at the shift of Montero back to more of a trequartista. Both really look at the lack of the "other" forward scoring, as much as they do Montero, but in different ways.

Has hell frozen over all of a sudden? What magic and mystery has happened down in Mexico. Last week we saw FC Dallas achieve history with the first ever MLS victory on Mexican soil against UNAM Pumas. The big question that came out of this was whether the Seattle Sounders would have that same magic against the defending champions in Monterrey.

Well, that was pretty awesome, wasn't it? When you go to Mexico and beat a team as good as Monterrey, who happens to be using a lot of their starters, there's really no point in worrying too much about how it actually happened. The Seattle Sounders are 2-0-0 in CONCACAF Champions League group stage play and are suddenly looking pretty good.

Seattle Sounders celebrate their goal against Monterrey. (Photo via MLSSoccer.com)

FC Dallas will always get the credit for the first one, but the Seattle Sounders may get credit for winning the first big one.

The Sounders did the unthinkable last night by fielding a team of half reserves and half starters against the defending CONCACAF Champions League champions, Monterrey and came up with a huge 1-0 win in Mexico.

When FC Dallas made history last week by beating UNAM Pumas in CONCACAF Champions League play, becoming the first MLS team to win an official match in Mexico in the process, the question immediately became how long would it take for another MLS to pull off the feat.

It took less than a week.

That headline seems a little meek doesn't it? Maybe because FC Dallas ruined the sheen a little bit after they beat UNAM Puams, but the thrill isn't quite as big as expected. Or maybe the feelings from the Seattle Sounders 1-nil victory over CF Monterrey Rayados aren't as huge as they should be because what we saw was a bit of a coaching clinic.

We know that some of the regular Seattle Sounders did not make the trip to Monterrey, Mexico for tonight's CONCACAF Champions League match. Mauro Rosales, Fredy Montero, Kasey Keller and Jhon Kennedy Hurtado all, apparently, headed back to Seattle to prepare for Saturday's game against the Columbus Crew.