As seems to come up every week or so, the Marcus Hahnemann to Seattle Sounders talk will not go away, despite the difficulty in making an acquisition and the contract work. With New York Red Bulls having an open designated player spot, cap room and a glaring need for a starting goalkeeper rampant speculation was that they were going to deep their fingers into the pot of gold that is Red Bull Energy Drink and sign the US National Team player.

That idea was put to bed today

Contrary to speculation, that goalkeeper will not be 39-year-old U.S. national team backup Marcus Hahnemann, who has spent the last decade playing in England but whose contract with Wolverhampton recently expired. "No, we have not spoken to Hahnemann," Soler said. "As I understand, he's on his way to Seattle. So I don't think that's an option for us."

emphasis added

And the idea that he will be heading to Seattle shortly obviously re-ignited. Seattle would almost certainly need to move up in the allocation order, free up cap space to still have a DP slot open and find a decent contract for the second half of 2011. As previously noted, MLS teams are asking about the depth at centerback and there are probably four contracts that open up cap space through either trade or cutting who wouldn't significantly change the fortunes of the club - Nate Jaqua, Brad Evans, Erik Friberg and Leo Gonzalez.