Sammy's USL "Discoveries"

The lil misses is away for the day with homework, so I scavenged the net for sounders news and realized that google has hundreds of articles, but little speculation as to who the next warm bodies are going to be that Seattle's newest franchise brings to camp.

The college superdraft will be held on Jan 15th with it looking like Wake Forest striker Marcus Tracy could be heading to Seattle. A pretty good list of other top-prospects can be found on Climbing The Ladder. A Mock Draft has us taking Tracy, def Sheanon Williams from North Carolina,
Local George John from UW and striker Brian Schriver, also from North Carolina.

Even so, that's only 4 more players, bringing us to 18. Sammy's little lady has class with Sounders Super Search finalist Oliver Wellman, who may end up being number 19, but that's still nowhere near the 35 we expect to show up at training camp.

A big block of players for camp will be ten who will come through the discovery process.

MLS RULES

(E.) DISCOVERY SIGNINGS
Each team has the opportunity to make six (6) discovery signings per season. The last day for discovery player signings is September 15, 2008 - coinciding with the roster freeze date and trade deadline.

As an expansion club, the Sounders get to make 10 discoveries, likely spread amongst current Sounders, a few internationals and current USL players. It's going to be next to impossible to predict who it was that Adrian's found in his world-wide search. The Sounders USL team has likely signees in defender Taylor Graham, and goalkeeper Chris Eylander. Invitations to camp are likely for most USL Sounders with Kenji Treschuk, Josh Gardner, Kevin Sakuda, and Michael Rodriguez probably having the best chances to make the final Sounders FC roster.

Sammy's Ten USL "Discoveries"

These are ten USL players NOT on the Sounders USL side that I would seriously consider inviting to camp.

Jonny Steele - Puerto Rico Islanders - Midfield

Puerto Rico finished runners-up to Vancouver in this years final, but ended with the best record in USL-1, largely thanks to 2008 league MVP, Jonny Steele. The midfielder is not done for the year as he's helping lead the attack into the CONCACAF Champions League as Puerto Rico is now in the round of 8. He's got plenty of international experience as he's spent time with Ireland's U-19 setup and played in the English Championship with Wolverhampton. At 22 he's still got his best years ahead of him. If we don't pick him up then it's likely someone else will. Steele has already been linked Kansas City Wizards by Wizards blog Down The Byline.

Cristian Arrieta - Puerto Rico Islanders - Defense

Arrieta's team leading 7 goals on the season makes it a bit difficult to understand why he's a defender! Christian won the 2008 Defensive Player of the Year for the USL. Apparently he won a reality TV show in Italy giving him the opportunity to play for Inter. Puerto Rico's glad he didn't as he helped lead the team to a table topping display this season. At age 29,he may be ready to make the jump to MLS after a great year in the USL.

Osvaldo Alonso - Charleston Battery - Midfield

Alonso won the 2008 rookie of the year award in the USL while helping the Battery to the US Open Cup final, losing 2-1 to DC United. Alonso was offered a developmental contract by Chivas USA this season but opted to head to Charleston where he thought he would get more playing time. Alonso defected from Cuba during the Gold Cup in 2007.

Alex Afonso - Miami FC - Forward

Unfortunatly, Sebastien La Toux was not the leading scorer in the USL this year. That honor has to go to Afonso, who scored one more goal. The Brazilian's squad did not make the playoffs, but he definitely turned some heads in front of goal. The 27 year old may be ready to make the jump across the continent.

Cameron Knowles - Portland Timbers - Defender

Yeah, although originally from New Zealand. . . he plays for Portland. Knowles was drafted by Salt Lake in 2005 but ended up being released at the end of 2006 because he was about to count as a senior international. The 6'3" central defender had just started to push for first team opportunities. Cameron ended up in Portland for the past two seasons where he's become a mainstay in the defense, with only the keeper playing more minutes.

Scott Palgula - Rochester Rhinos - Defender

Palgula was really close to joining the Red Bulls at the beginning of this year, but an agreement could not be reached between New York and Rochester. The 26 year old won back-to-back championships for the Cape Cod Crusaders in the PDL in 02-03 before captaining the team to the semis in '04.

Randi Patterson - Charleston Battery - Striker

Patterson was selected by the Red Bulls with their first pick of the 2007 draft. He lasted little over a year before being waved and ended up with Charleston where he scored 8 goals in 25 games played. He's still a young man at age 20 and his time spent in Charleston may have given him some more experience and confidence. The potential that saw NY make him their top pick is still there and may make Seattle want to take a look.

Lyle Martin - Vancouver Whitecaps - Defender

Martin was drafted by Chivas USA but ended up signing for the Vancouver Whitecaps. winning the Whitecaps newcomer of the year award on his way to winning the USL championship. Martin's five assists from a right-defense position put him third on the assist chart and tops amongst defenders. The lack of defender on the current roster(especially wide defenders) has to increase the chances that the 23 year old 6 footer will be getting a call from Adrian.

Joey Gjertzen - Montreal Impact - Striker

Gjertzen is a former standout at Tacoma Community College and Evergreen. He never really got a chance in Seattle, but ended up shining in Vancouver winning the league and the MVP award in 2006, before being traded to Montreal in '07. Some expected him to make the jump to MLS in 2007, but a hernia operation kept him from any of the camps. Gjertzen is still in contention in the CONCACAF Champions League with Montreal.

Bill Gaudette - Puerto Rico Islanders - Goalkeeper

Eylander may be a great option, but most MLS team carry three keepers and even if Eylander stays, we will still need another. Gaudette is 27 and has spent a few years in the MLS with Crew. USL's First-Team All League goalkeeper might not be interested in returning to backup status, but it may be worth a phone call to consider adding depth at the keeper position.

These are by no means the only options available, but the point is that the Sounders FC should be able to mine some more quality out of the USL. With a bit of luck, we just might find a diamond in the rough, or at least a hunk of Steele.

Expansion Draftermath

Yesterday's expansion draft has brought our Seattle Sounders FC ten new players.

Strikers
Nate Jaqua - $174,125
Jarrod Smith - $36,000

Midfielders
Brad Evans - $33,000
Stephen King - $17,700
Khano Smith - $46,305
Nate Sturgis - $108,000
Peter Vagenas - $144,000

Defenders
Jeff Parke - $58,737.50
James Riley - $33,000
Tyson Wahl - $33,000

Have joined those already signed:
Freddie Ljungberg ($400,000 counted towards salary cap)
Sanna Nyassi - $33,000
Sebastien La Toux - $84,000
Kasey Keller - Unknown

GOALSeattle.com has (as usual) a good collection of blogs discussing the draft from around the web.

The reaction to the drafted players has been a mixed bag, with criticism often directed at the choices of midfielder Vagenas and striker Smith many less than impressed by the choices made.

Al much has criticism has been directed at the players we didn't take with Chivas' Jorge Flores and the Crew's Eddie Gavin amongst those who many wanted to see drafted.

Sammy says that everyone's gotta calm down a bit as it's unlikely that this draft is going to be the true test as to how the Sounders fare next year. A good draft for Seattle would provide us with four or five potential starters for next year and depth.

One of the points that has not been brought up enough is that all of these players have some reason why they weren't one of the 11 players protected by their respective clubs. If we're going to want to beat those clubs, then we can't do it by taking everyone's 12th man. It's going to be done with the four we already had, getting better than expected contributions out of the USL guys, making some good discoveries and by drafting intellingently in the upcoming SuperDraft (college players).

As a result, I'll declare this draft a success. I'm still not sold on Vagenas because of his rather steep price tag but don't see as many negatives as the rest of the blogoshpere.

EXCITING PICKS
Nate Jaqua is a proven goal-scorer and local boy. He's the most expensive player drafted, but proven and he wants to be here. Good choice.

Brad Evans is a solid midfielder who's going to score goals and was a consistent starter for the remaining champions. Eddie Gavin may have been a stronger player, but he costs almost 8x as much in salary. As a result, we've now got a lot more room under the cap to sign another quality player. If there was no cap, we probably would have taken Gavin. With the cap, Evans makes a lot of sense.

Nathan Sturgis is a very solid player who can play in the midfield and all across the back. He was close to being protected by Salt Lake, but was not in favor of the keeper at the last minute. He's been sniffing around the national team before being injured for the majority of last season. Without his injury he would likely have been protected. He's a risk due to the fact he only played in a few games last year, but if he remains healthy than he's going to be a starter for years to come.

Jeff Parke is a great central defender who was 2 games short of having more appearances than any player for the Red Bulls. He still has 4 games on a suspension for taking preformance-enhancing drugs, is unsigned for '09 and has been rumoured to be heading to Europe, which is why he was not protected. I cannot believe that Adrian would have picked him without having some assurance that he's going to stick around. Negotiations probably started before the pick was made. He gives us a solid vet in central defense . . . the fifth game into the season.

NOT EXCITING, BUT DECENT PICKS
James Riley - An outside defender who can also play wide in midfield. He's been a consistent starter for San Jose and while he's unlikely to be a match-winner for us, he is a prove, solid MLS defender. At 33K per year, he's worth the price

Tyson Wahl - A central defender who might start in a lot of MLS sides. At another 33K he's a good, solid defender and will provide depth at central defense. He was 19th picked overall in the SuperDraft 06 and has 26 starts since then.

Khano Smith - He's been a solid left-winger for New England for the past few years but is slowly being phazed out in favor of the younger Mauricio Castro. He's a solid pro, but we should be hoping that Nyassi can out-preform him for a starting role.

Stephen King is a youngster with plenty of experience. At 17K he's pretty cheap and is worth a shot.

SUSPECT PICKS
Jarrod Smith has not really impressed, and many are surprised, preferring Toronto's Johann Smith or Chicas USA's Jorge Flores to Jarrod. I trust Adrian and assume he saw something, but would be surprised if Smith finds himself above fourth on the depth chart behind Jaqua, La Toux and (likely Superdraft #1 pick Marcus Tracy). Many of us are still holding out hope that young Cuban striker Freddy Montero signs.

Peter Vagenas brings some great experience to the squad having played for years with the LA Galaxy. He's a defensive midfielder and has played for Sigi Schmid before. Many believe that the appearance of Vagenas indicates that the signing of two-time MLS cup winning coach Sigi Schmid is imminent (his contract runs out Sunday, when the Sounders can officially begin negotiations. The knocks against Vagenas are that he's potentially past his prime and isn't worth the price at $140K. Here's hoping he proves his detractors wrong.

Again, these are only some of the players we can expect to show up in training camp, with Hanauer expecting around 35 players to appear in camp when it starts in January. Expect some more international signings, some players from the college draft, some trades and some more discoveries. We can also expect more signings from the USL Sounders and others from the USL.

The fact that we only have 3 defenders looks promising that USL Sounders defenders Taylor Graham, Danny Jackson, and Michael Rodriguez are likely get a shot at the side. Midfielders Leighton O'Brien, Kevin Sakuda and Kenji Treschuk are likely to get an invite to camp while Forwards Roger Levesque and Josh Gardner have to be thinking that can take Jarrod Smith's slot off the roster.

The lack of a keeper in the expansion draft is basically an engraved invitation to current Sounders keeper Chris Eylander.

Many are frustrated with the draft and wishing we did better, but I think we did just fine, with the questionable picks being understandable for salary cap reasons. I do want to emphasize that it's unlikely that more than half of these are around at the end of the season. Many might never even wear our Emerald Kit, but we can finally field a side.

There's little to no chance this'll ever hit the field, but we finally have 11 names, so I'm making a lineup!

- Keller -
Sturgis - Wahl - Park - Riley
Nyassi - Ljungberg - Evans - K. Smith
- Jaqua - La Toux -

Sounding off,
Sammy

Plus a day in history . . . .

As an American I must comment on this day in histroy . . . .

Our country has done some terrible things, but has accomplished some great things. Iraq may be a debacle, but the nomination of Barack Obama is a truly great moment in the history of humanity.

Margaret Thatcher and Angela Merkell are examples of strong women that have led western countries, but this is the first time that any Western country has had a major party nomination for the top office be an ethnic minority.

Whether you support Clinton, McCain or Obama, it must be accepted that Barack Obama has just become the transformative political figure of a generation.

Welcome to the 21st century.

EXCLUSIVE!!! Arsenal's NEW starting XI

I have it on deep, deep background from the club that Leo Messi is interested in coming to Arsenal! Rumor has it that he's going to come in a double switch as both Fabregas and Adebayor will be making their way to the Nou Camp while Messi and Yaya Toure will be showing in the red and white.

Secondly, Samir Nasri will decide to sign for AC Milan, quoted saying, "I want to play with my hero, Mattieu Flamini!"

Unsettled striker David Villa will be coming into the Arsenal Camp for $30 million (divide by two you brits) while Eduardo's going to recover in time for the Euros and is expected to become top goal-scorer throughout the tournament.

A year later than most expected, Franck Ribery will finally make his Arsenal Debut as Arsenal send Rosicky back to the Bundesliga

Injury plagued Robin Van Persie is going to be off-loaded by Arsene as it's been decided he's superfluous to current needs.

Gallas was informed he would no longer be captain and will leave in a huff to Tottenham, vowing vengence on both Arsenal and Chelsea.

To fill the hole in center defense, American Onguchi Onyewu will be brought in to provide strong aerial defense!

Wenger's been quoted as saying, "If you're not good enough for France, you're not good enough for Arsenal, selling Clichy to Real Madrid and sending Sagna to Lyon in exchange for Hatem Ben Arfa.

The money received from Clichy is going to be turned around and spent immediately on Udinese's Andrea Dossena to fill the left-back position.

As a result, next year's Arsenal squad is expected to look a bit like this

Hennessey
Eboue Toure Onyewu Dossena
Yaya
Ribery Messi Ben Arfa
Villa Eduardo


*This rumour is guaranteed to be 100% as likely as any other rumor this summer!*

Arsenal in the Euros

The world of football turns to the Euros and I don't have a dog in the fight, so here's a quick run-down of where Arsenal players sit throughout the Euros!

Cesc Fabregas - Spain
Arsenal's Fab4 wears 18 for the perennial underachievers. The Spanish team has been loaded with talent but unable to win trophies. Premier League notables include, Torres, Xabi Alonso and Pepe Reina. Cesc gets less playing time than I'd like to see, but there's phenomenal competition in a midfield including Alonso, Xavi, Andres Iniesta of Barca and David Silva of Valencia. The team usually plays free-flowing attacking football and is fun to watch. It also contains potential Arsenal transfer targets striker David Villa, defender Raul Albiol and defensive midfielder Ruben de la Red. Spain will ply their trade in Group D with Russia, Greece and Sweden.

William Gallas - France
As unbelievable as it seems, William Gallas is the only Arsenal player on the French national team due to the snubbing of Sagna and Clichy. Diaby has been capped for the French, but his snubbing is more expected than the removal of the Premierships best fullbacks. Gallas may be our only representative but Arsenal alums Thierry Henry, Patrick Viera, Lassana Diara, and Nicholas Anelka have been rostered for les Bleus. Perennially linked Samir Nasri also has received a call-up. A potential injury to captain Patrick Viera has oppened up the opportunity to recent departure Mattieu Flamini. Every Euro has a "group of death" and France is in this year's with the Netherlands, Italy and Romania.

Jens Lehmann - Germany
Is this guy still here?!?!? The mad German recently let in two to as the Germans tied Bulgaria. Chelsea's Michael Ballack has come out defending the German, but his days may be numbered with the national team as well. Lehmann will be defending the net against Poland, Albania and Croatia.

Lucasz Fabianski - Poland
Fabianski may still be fairly unknown to most Arsenal fans, but was a hero for his club in Poland before coming to the Emirates. A recent performance in the clean sheet against Albania. Artur Boruc still appears to have the starting spot, but Lucasz is getting closer. Poland plays in a group with Germany, Albania and Croatia.

Robin van Persie - Netherlands
RVP was the top scorer for the Netherlands with 4 goals during qualifying putting him in ahead of van Nisterooy and Wesley Sneijder. ManU's Edwin van der Sar sits between the wickets while Wigan's Mario Melchiot is likely to play. Arjen Robben, Dirk Kuyt and Klass-Jan Huntelaar all provide attacking flare to the Dutch team. RVP will be causing problems for Gallas in the group of death against the French, Italy and Romania.

Eduardo - Croatia
The Croatian team had lit the qualifier up with Niko Kranjcar, Vedran Corluka, Luka Modric, and Eduardo leading a team that is hungry and a country that is putting their hope into the current generation of players. Arsenal's #9 was the second leading scorer in qualifying with his 10 goals being eclipsed only by David Healy of N.Ireland. Eduardo is a giant of a man and has acknowledged that he's basically an ambassador for the Croatian team for now, but has insinuated that he might be back if Croatia can get out of their group. It might not be great for Arsenal if he came back that soon, but Eduardo is rapidly becoming a much greater figure than your average football player.

Kit and Sponsor for the Emerald City FC

It's official! Seattle Sounders FC have finally revealed our first kit along with an official jersey sponsor and they both ooze Seattle.

The connection to Microsoft has to be one of the best sponsorship deals anywhere inside the MLS if not the world! The company is a huge conglomerate with global reach and have put up $20 million (a serious amount of cash for MLS standards) to buy sponsorship for the next five years.

This opens the very real possibility of the a huge potential fanbase in the form of Microsoft employees. Microsoft's Mecca in Redmond is close enough to Qwest that the employees can come to the matches. They'll be much more likely to attend with XBox covering the chest of the Sounders.

The sponsor's local, huge, connected to the community and has world-wide name recognition. None of the other teams have that sort of connection to a well established sponsor. Volkswagon's not based in DC, Best Buy's not tied anywhere nearly as close to the local community and I can't even tell you what Hoobalife sells.

XBox as a sponsor also opens up whole gamer market for jersey purchases. I doubt that it'll be very long before we have gamers putting their gametags on the back of the jersey as brought up by jerimy over at www.goalseattle.com. Can't you just imagine young kids with the SSFC kit and the name "gAIMer442" across the back?

The kits rolled out by Creative Designs were phenomenal, and hats off to the guys over there! but look closely at this kit, you Sounders supports and you'll see your city looking back at you.It's got our Space Needle, our company, our uniqueness and our colors . . . .

This kit is not rave green, but Emerald.

The Top Goals in Seattle Sounder History!

This is worth a watch to truly appreciate the history of the Seattle Sounders FC!