Seattle to have 1st tier Women's team in 2013

In the demise of WPS, the WPSL (2nd tier, alongside the W-League in which the Sounders Women play) is forming an Elite Soccer League in 2012 for some former WPS teams to continue playing.

This story reports of Seattle committing to a team for 2013 alongside San Diego, Los Angeles, Sacramento and the Bay Area.

Seattle's Steve Zakuani on the road to recovery - Grant Wahl

We know all about Steve Zakuani's horrific injury. There's not necessarily a lot new here for us. But there are some interesting details and Wahl does talk to Brian Mullan, who acknowledges his poor choice of words the day of the incident.

Greetings from sunny and cool Arizona, where I will be spending a few days in Phoenix. I'm here to visit some friends but also to check out some of the MLS training camps that are going on in metro Phoenix, Casa Grande, and Tucson. I believe that New England Revolution, Sporting Kansas City, Seattle Sounders, Real Salt Lake, and San José Earthquakes will be here, so I hope to catch a few glimpses, assuming that their sessions are open to the public, of course.

Los Sounders de Seattle iniciaron esta semana la temporada 2012 con sus entrenamientos en el Starfire Complex de Tukwila. El equipo se trasladará a la ciudad de Casa Grande, Arizona el 30 de enero y luego seguirá su preparación en la Florida. Los Sounders abren la temporada de local ante el Santos Laguna de México [.

The Timbers Army in conjuction with fellow supporters in Seattle and Vancouver have agreed upon the rules for the 2012 Cascadia Cup, whereby all matches will count equally in the three team competition. Despite the imbalance within the 2012 MLS league schedule, the groups decided this would be the easiest way to ensure fairness while making the process to determine the winner as easy as possible

At Gay4Soccer, a call to offer support to gay players and fans:

Imagine how David Testo's career would have gone if he didn't have supportive people to come out to early on in his career while at the Columbus Crew. I'd like to think the kindness and support of the players he told kept him in the game and standing strong against the on-field taunts he's had to endure.

But does anyone, except Seattle - the Sounders are winners of three straight cups - care? I'm sure Galaxy Coach Bruce Arena is thrilled (not): After all it's not like the club has much on its plate this year. Here's more from AP on the U.S. Soccer decision announced today:

Spend too much time examining the MLS scheduling format and the philosophies therein, and one will inevitably fall down a logical rabbit hole - though, to be fair, this doesn't differ significantly from other "major-league" North American sports.

MLS version 3.0, or 2.1, or whatever we are up to, has become all about "local rivalries", or so it seems.

Sounder at Heart reacted immediately yesterday to the MLS schedule announcement, posting an analysis of strength of schedule. They did a great job collecting the data, and concluded that "Seattle's getting it about as good as you can get it in the West, but of course the league bends over backwards for the Galaxy once again.

Major props to MLS for getting the schedule out earlier than ever in recent memory. Supporters Groups can now plan trips to even the early games. I know one the questions at the fore for all of the Timbers Army is if the unbalanced schedule going to help or hurt the Timbers. The answer to that question depends on if Portland's follows the Trailblazers' unofficial philosophy, namely "get energy from the fans at home and win (mostly) but go out on the road and get pushed around.

Twice to Montreal? That's handy.
Taking time from their busy schedule of designing dodgy new kits with blasphemous monochromatic badges, only being rumoured to actually sign players and wetting themselves over the possibility of David Beckham's extended stay with LA Galaxy, TFC today released the official 2012 schedule via Major League Soccer.

It isn't every day that a bright young player like Junior Flores comes around. Major League Soccer knows it and is trying desperately to add him to their 2012 Generation adidas class.

Reports from the Washington Post say that the league has already offered Flores a lucrative GA contract, one likely to be on the high end of those deals signed in this class.

After the lengthy wait to have their chance to impress U.S. men's national team head coach Jurgen Klinsmann, it appears George John and Omar Gonzalez will have to wait a bit longer.

Both John and Gonzalez have left national team camp in Arizona to attend to potential winter moves. John has left the country to pursue a potential transfer while Gonzalez is mulling over loan opportunities.

It sounds like we won't have to wait much longer for the 2012 MLS schedule to come out. It seems that the league has the schedule finalized and will be putting it out hopefully later this week. KC is set to have their home opener on March 17th, St. Patrick's Day, other than that, the schedule isn't really known.

After reviewing the losses I decided to lump the remaining defenders together. Seattle Sounders FC returns two fullbacks, three centerbacks and Zach Scott man-marker. These ratings add clarity in the various authors' opinions about why Seattle is reinventing it's fullback positions signing Adam Johansson, pursuing Christian Sivebaek and possibly adding more wide defensive talent either through a young international or draftee.

The Dynamo have acquired 24-year old midfielder Nathan Sturgis from Toronto FC in exchange for a conditional MLS SuperDraft pick. Jesus Ortiz broke the news on Twitter.

Sturgis hasn't fit in to Aron Winter's plans in Toronto and he has an extremely reasonable salary which shouldn't hurt the Dynamo's cap space too much.

Photo: Earl Gardner

Editor's note: At the end of the 2010 season, we posted a series of season reviews of every Philadelphia Union player. Over the next several weeks PSP continues with a review of the 2011 season.

When the Philadelphia Union took goalkeeper Zac MacMath as their first round pick in the 2011 MLS Superdraft, many a fan and pundit were left saying "Huh?

By Tony Edwards - San Jose, CA (Dec 22, 2011) US Soccer Players -- Tony looks at National Team players in the German Cup, the breakout MLS player, and is pleased Toronto fans won't have to shiver during the CONCACAF Champions League game. Which MLS team in the CONCACAF Champions League is skipping all the MLS Preseason ‘Tournaments'?

Mattocks, Wenger To Sign Generation Adidas Deals

Per the link above they would join Garza. For Sounders fans who signs GA deals may not mean much as it isn't likely that many fall to Seattle's 15th pick, but it would mean that better senior talent would be ready.

Notable: Dom Dwyer is a fallback target for a GA deal, but was at the Sounders Vegas Combine.

Tukwila, Wash.-- Seattle SoundersFC U18 Academy team (6-4-3) overall and U16 Academy team (9-2-2) overall played Vancouver Whitecaps FC today in a northwest division showdown in United States Development Academy (USSDA) play.

The U18 team lost by a score of 1-3.

Goal Scorers: Ian Lange

The U16 team won by a score of 4-0.

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.

Grant Wahl, failed candidate for the FIFA presidency and writer at SI.com on all things football has listed all 19 MLS franchises in order of perceived ambitions. Not surprisingly, LA is #1, followed by Seattle and NY. Not surprisingly either, our beloved Revs are last.

Here is the commentary that follows the Revs entry:

No fan base sends me more complaints about its own team ownership than New England's.

It was as if M Night Shyamalan were directing a documentary on football tactics, the 3-1-4-2 virus sprouting uncontrollably across the globe.

Jonathon Wilson on the 3-1-4-2

Jake's big on this trend and while it isn't one that is likely to be used by Seattle there is an MLS team that does this at times, the LA Galaxy.

Next week, the Portland Timbers could be making some significant player announcements. Part of their plan could be an acquisition during the second round of the MLS Re-Entry Draft taking place on December 12, as the league released the full list of available players today. While Seattle and Vancouver announced significant signings this week, I think the Timbers have a master plan that will soon come to fruition.

Hope You Like Michael Gspurning, He Might Be Here A While

One thing jumped out at me during Wednesday's teleconference: Michael Gspurning really seems smitten with Seattle. That can't possibly be bad, and could mean that he's going to be here for a long time. Here's what I said about that at the Seattle regional site.

Today MLS announced the national television games for MLS First Kick the weekend of March 10th. Sporting KC isn't going to be on national television for their season opener, but the announcement does narrow the field for who Sporting KC could play on the first weekend. The national broadcasts kick off on Saturday on TSN in Canada as one of last year's expansion sides, Vancouver, take on this year's expansion side, Montreal in Vancouver.

The Denver Post is reporting that the Rapids have re-signed Brian Mullan to a multi-year deal. No details on amount or length, but I'm sure those will leak in the coming days. The article also mentions that they're working on a new contract for Steven Emory, and that they would like to re-sign Danny Earls and Miguel Comminges, but they're waiting on a new coach before making the final decision on those two.

"My job is not to be easy on people. My job is to take these great people we have and to push them and make them even better."
~ Steve Jobs (1955-2011)
Sounds like our coach.
Heading to Seattle Friday for NWCL weekend. Schedule;
12/3/11
11:00am vs Spokane Shadow G95 U16 Navy @ Redmond HS Turf.

Today MLS announced the dates for all teams' home openers for the 2012 season. Sporting Kansas City will have their first home game on March 17th, St. Patrick's Day. That's certainly going to make for a fun day for the Cauldron enjoying St. Patrick's Day and a game at the same time. KC will open home season the same weekend as 3 other teams, Montreal, Salt Lake, and Philadelphia, which means that any of the other 15 other teams could be KC's first opponent.

This photo says it all;
Sodium brought home the hardware!
And some new jackets!
From the sidelines
I will have to say I am extremely proud of the way the girls came together this weekend. With only having one practice indoors under their belt the lady warriors rose up, came together and pulled off a Surf Cup Championship.

photo courtesy of Jarred Donalson
It's amazing what a new stadium, with a capacity over 10,385 can do for a team's average attendance. Combine that with a team that is doing well on the field and an atmosphere that has vaulted the Cauldron up into the upper echelon of supporters' groups and you'll see a massive increase in attendance.

Por tercer año seguido el Seattle Sounders ha sido victima del Reclutamiento de Expansión (Expansion Draft), esta vez por el nuevo equipo de la MLS el Impact de Montreal. El club canadiense tomó al defensor derecho James RILEY en su lista de 10 jugadores que le empezarán a dar forma a su plantel para el [.

The Montreal Impact started the 2011 expansion draft with a controversial move, selecting Houston Dynamo forward Brian Ching over the player's objections. Ching let it be known before the draft that he planned to retire rather than leave Houston. In the only trade move, Montreal drafted Seattle's James Riley and sent him to Chivas USA for Gerson Mayen and Justin Braun.

As our long-time readers know, MLS Talk likes to provide serious, well-thought out news analysis mixed with offbeat and laughable soccer-related thoughts. This is the latter type of post. Prior to First Kick 2011, the MLS Talk writers got together ...
Visit http://www.majorleaguesoccertalk.

Ok, I am in a strange place mentally today.
Imagine that Toronto FC had instantly become the Barcelona of MLS and everything they had ever done had turned into football gold. Expansion draft day arrives for Montreal and their leadership says we must pick up all the ex-TFC players that we can, since their castoffs might still have some of the Toronto magic to them.

We're looking to run a feature on your favorite and best moments of the 2011 MLS Season. Was it Eric Hassli's strike to shock Seattle? Mike Magee's stint as a goalkeeper? How about the Luke Rodgers/Landon Donovan drama? Send us your best moment in a paragraph or less and we'll feature them on the site.

This is a tad late so you might have read about it elsewhere already, but essentially we know what the 2012 season is going to look like. We don't have a hard schedule, mind you, but we know, at least, what the format is going to be... And it's not pretty.

We knew already that the schedule was going to change and that it was going to be unbalanced.

Sounders Advance To Group Stage Of 2012-13 CONCACAF Champions League

It seems the answer is finally known. Seattle skips the preliminary round and goes directly to the group stage. Two less games should help with fixture congestion a bit while also making it easier to actually make the knockouts again.

-by Chris Ballard
You might remember that way back in March, Keith, Jason and myself all put forth some predictions regarding the 2011 MLS season. Usually when these things happen it becomes convenient to later forget to revisit them; because it invariably proves that we - as much as anybody else - know pretty much nothing.

If that video doesn't get you excited for a Galaxy season finale that is not about merely winning a championship, but as Staff Writer Phil Collin rightfully observes leaving a legacy then nothing will.

The game is perhaps the most important for MLS and soccer in general in Los Angeles and across the country I argue today in a rare front page column.