Don't normally put stock in transfer rumors, but it's a slow week and this story has legs.

Blackburn boss Steve Kean expects the green light to bid for unhappy Fulham striker Andy Johnson on Wednesday and make him one of the first signings of the winter transfer window.

Kean is due to meet Rovers director Vineeth Rao on his return from a summit with owners Venky's to secure the cash to carry out the £2million swoop.

Don't normally put stock in transfer rumors, but it's a slow week and this story has legs.

Blackburn boss Steve Kean expects the green light to bid for unhappy Fulham striker Andy Johnson on Wednesday and make him one of the first signings of the winter transfer window.

Kean is due to meet Rovers director Vineeth Rao on his return from a summit with owners Venky's to secure the cash to carry out the £2million swoop.

Last year we started a project to talk about players based on their tools. The idea was to get an outfield position neutral judgement of players based on seeing how they behave on or off the ball when the team either possesses or defends as well as how they use their physical attributes. The scale is an average starting center midfielder set at all 6s while a replacement level player would be straight 5s.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The Montreal Impact came away from last week's expansion draft without a proven goalkeeper, but that void was filled in a major way on Monday after the Impact acquired Jamaican national team goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts from the Impact for allocation money.

Ricketts had been one of the best goalkeepers in the league before a broken arm sidelined him and paved the way for Josh Saunders to take the starting job away from Ricketts.

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.

The biggest lineup news is that Mauro Rosales will not travel for the match at Real Salt Lake. That basically assures that the Seattle Sounders will have Lamar Neagle on the left and Alvaro Fernandez on the right. That move will of course shift the substitution plan a bit. Something that is already adjusted because of the higher elevation in Sandy, Utah.

Here is this week's former Wizards update.
Active without a club or unknown
Chris Brunt
Doug DeMartin
Mauro Fuzetti
AJ Godbolt
Willy Guadarrama
Santiago Hirsig
Eddie Johnson
Michael Kraus
Ryan McMahen
Michal Mravec
JT Murray
Anthony Noriega
Ofori Sarkodie
Sam Scales
Ryan Smith
Ivan Trujillo
Lance Watson
MLS
Stephane Auvray - New York - Dressed but did not play in New York's 1-0 win over Philadelphia.

Active without a club or unknown
Chris Brunt
Doug DeMartin
Mauro Fuzetti
AJ Godbolt
Willy Guadarrama
Santiago Hirsig
Eddie Johnson
Nikos Kounenakis
Michael Kraus
Ryan McMahen
Michal Mravec
JT Murray
Anthony Noriega
Ofori Sarkodie
Sam Scales
Ryan Smith
Ivan Trujillo
Lance Watson
MLS
Stephane Auvray - New York - Came off the bench and played 7 minutes in New York's 2-0 loss to KC.

Now that a result isn't necessary tonight, the lineup is a lot more in question. What we know is that Kasey Keller will start on a day celebrating he and the fans. We also know that Jeff Parke is out and Mauro Rosales will be in the 18. Considering that the Seattle Sounders really like winning in front of home crowds the thought here is that Sigi Schmid will be starting a close to Ideal XI, but that Rosales only gets a second half run.

The most intriguing thing is that both teams number 10s are gameday decisions. Neither Seattle Sounders winger Mauro Rosales nor center attacking mid Sebastian Grazzini of the Chicago Fire played in their last match due to injuries. Both though are on a path that could have them making a return to the starting XI for the Cup Final.

While most of the attention has been on the loss of Mauro Rosales due to the MCL tear, this round of the Cascadia Cup is likely to be missing to other wide players for the Seattle Sounders. The Vancouver Whitecaps will be without a key central defender as well. Estimating who Tom Soehn will start where has driven Massey insane as well, so their side is more of an estimate than typical.

The Houston Dynamo got just what they needed Saturday night at Robertson Stadium, three points. In front of 18,465 in the steamy heat, Houston dominated the Seattle Sounders in route to a 3-1 victory.
I doubt Dominic Kinnear could have scripted a better start. If the 5th minute of the match, Brian Ching chested the ball down in the box but couldn't control it.

There are a few things we can take away from this match. And even fewer will be positive towards this season or the next. The Seattle Sounders, despite being on the road, probably should have gotten a draw or better heading into this match against the completely average Houston Dynamo. But that didn't happen.

Editor's note: Sorry, this is so late. Been a long day.

Coming off a game on Tuesday, we're projecting the Seattle Sounders to use a starting lineup that looks pretty similar to the one they've been using for the last few weeks. The only changes we foresee are Alvaro Fernandez being inserted into the left midfielder position that was occupied by Lamar Neagle on Tuesday and for Tyson Wahl to regain his starting spot at left mid.

The New England Revolution could not snap their five-match winless streak at CenturyLink Field this afternoon as they fell to the Seattle Sounders 2-1 in a match that would not have been one for the neutrals. The Revs hopped out to an unexpected early lead but their inability to string passes together and create chances again sank them after the Rave Green regained their composure.

Dark Clouds Can Hide The Sun

Seriously. Sigi Schmid's Sounders aren't dominating as the fans and team had hoped. They look merely average, which in MLS means competing for only two trophies (MLS Cup, US Open Cup). Sure, it would be nice if they competed for the Supporters Shield as well, but we know why this is true.

By CALEB SONNELAND

What started out as a tight match with only a handful of goal-scoring opportunities turned into a goal fest as the Seattle Sounders and Vancouver Whitecaps slugged out a 2-2 draw.

In the second installment of the Cascadia derby, the Vancouver Whitecaps made the trip down to Seattle to take on its nearest MLS rival at the Sounders' Qwest Field.

The sum total of special moments is similar to the sum total of quality referees in all of soccer. Small, and not nearly enough for either side. The Chicago Fire were expected to come out emotionally excited for at the beginning of the match, and if that was them excited their poor fans will be disappointed.

Like we did for the match against Real Salt Lake, this week's Seattle Sounders projected lineup is more of a preferred lineup than one necessarily based on any inside information. In fact, it seems like based on the way personnel was deployed during practice this week, Fredy Montero could be on the bench again this week.

The worst kept secret on Trentside now has legs Mark Arthur has issued a statement confirming that Nathan Tyson [...] Read the original post on eighteensixtyfive

For a team that hasn't had many breaks go their way the Seattle Sounders got a few tonight, but at first it didn't seem like that. Prior to the match starting Alvaro Fernandez had a tweaked hamstring, but insisted that he could play effectively. He could not and Sigi Schmid had to use a sub prior to the 20th minute, and then the weather got worse.

Seattle Sounders FC defender Jeff Parke was voted Major League Soccer Player of the Week by the North American Soccer Reporters for Week 10 of the 2011 MLS season.

Parke headed home the game-winning goal in stoppage time to lift his team over Sporting Kansas City 1-0.

Parke is the first defender to win this award since Chad Marshall in Week 22 of the 2009 season, and he narrowly edged out Philadelphia striker Carlos Ruiz for this week's honor.

SEATTLE, Wa.—Jeff Parke scored on a header off Tyson Wahl's corner kick in the third minute of second-half stoppage time to give the Seattle Sounders a 1-0 victory over Sporting Kansas City on Saturday night. Sounders goalkeeper Kasey Keller made three saves for his third shutout of the season. Wahl's corner kick from the right [.

PARKE 93´ (1-0). Se repitió la historia de hace una temporada. Empate a cero con el mismo rival, tiempo de descuento, Qwest Field, pelota detenida desde la banda derecha. Tyson WAHL envió un tiro de esquina hacie el centro del area grande, cerca del punto de penal. Ahi estaba Jeff PARKE el central que recuperaba [.

In case you haven't noticed, projecting the starting lineups for the Seattle Sounders this year has been ... well ... tough. Rarely has the same group of 11 been rolled out in consecutive matches, and it seems unlikely that we're going to get that this week. Against Sporting Kansas City, we're projecting Erik Friberg to start on the right with Servando Carrasco in the middle, but who knows?

Week Seven of the MLS Season won't go down as one of the prettier weeks the league has ever endured, but it had its share of memorable moments.

The New York-LA Galaxy match was entertaining, Charlie Davies put on another show at mid-week, and the Joao Plata coming out party for Toronto FC was promising, but three scoreless draws and Javier Morales' broken ankle put a damper on things.

Here is this week's former SKC Wizards update.
Still looking for:
Vicente Arze
Nick Cardenas
AJ Godbolt
Willy Guadarrama
Santiago Hirsig
Michael Kraus
Ryan McMahen
Ivan Trujillo
MLS
Jimmy Conrad - Chivas USA - Did not dress in Chivas' 3-0 win over New Englannd.

Steve Zakuani is going to miss next week's game after suffering an absolutely horrific break of his fibula and tibia following a stupid and reckless tackle by Brian Mullan. Zakuani is going to miss the match after that. In all likelihood, he's going to miss a bunch more after that too. Right now, it seems callous to even talk about the result, a not-entirely-insignificant 1-0 win over the Colorado Rapids.

Il più importante dei derby di Serie A va al Milan che ha dimostrato, nei novanta minuti, di desiderarlo di più. Lo regala soprattutto alla squadra rossonera Alexandre Pato, autore di una doppietta che ha messo i nerazzurri al tappetto come un doppio gancio del Tyson dei tempi migliori. Pronti via, neanche il tempo di [.

Our own Dave Clark actually played on a team with Tyson Wahl, Nate Jaqua and Taylor Graham during this Gorrilla FC event raising money for Japan. Hopefully, he'll write about it at some point. Until then, enjoy the video.

The Seattle Sounders are done with two weeks of training camp and we've seen trialists come and go. Nearly all of the Supplemental picks have left as well, and I would expect that only Josh Ford stays the length of camp. Guys like Baptiste, Prieto, Bah and to a lesser extent Neagle have a longer road to run to make the squad particularly with so many returning players.

In light of the news that Michael Tetteh signed with MLS under the Generation Adidas program leaving UC-Santa Barbara with one year of eligibility it should be noted that the draft got a touch deeper today. The left-footed left midfielder/left wingback is a native of Ghana who played high school and college ball in California.