First Friday Live Question And Answer

and having a royal rumble to get that last roster spot or two.

As the competition for Forward not-named Montero there will also be competition for the last four spots or so.

Open up all seating for a regular season game this year
or
Sign an aging famous DP

If so, yes

Montero, Zakuani, Alonso, Rosales, Parke, Hurtado, Fernandez and the new players this year
maybe
Evans, Fucito

Cato and Ngassa are the others.

I don’t think Seattle is currently trying to add a CB

but I don’t know any names on it that I think are worth adding.

It is based on the preview we showed at the Date with Sounder at Heart and on the facebook page, but needs a final “can it be a scarf” design.

We will then do pre-orders and are planning on having a release party around either of the Santos games or the TFC match.

Alonso, Montero, Zakuani, Neagle, Fucito, Rosales and Levesque?

Parke and Gspurning

But let’s recall Seattle had two in year one (Keller and Ljungberg). And they added Nkufo which was a pretty big deal. They’ve just had more success with Montero, Fernandez, Hurtado, etc

only roster space opened up

but no limit as to how many could be signed (well, 30). A number greater than 2 would be paid by the team only.

A team can only have a certain number from outside their home zone (50,75, or 150 miles) at each level (U18, U16). But if they are awesome they can be paid good money off cap.

Right now I’m seeing a 60 point year.

another is having gone to Seattle’s Vegas Combine.

Being from greater Puget Sound is my third

not the other way around.

So Seattle freed up an extra roster space, got allocation money. Basically they gambled that Fucito wasn’t of interest and then he was. So they got space to sign a player (which they needed since they had 4 guys on DL) and money to do so.

If the signing is sooner my top choice is either Aaron Kovar (current U18 LW committed to Stanford) or Darwin Jones (Forward at a local CC right now). If they wait Yedlin (RB at Akron on US U20s) or Okoli (Forward at Wake on US U20s) or Palodichuk (b2b CM at Duke).

If they do there are opportunities in coaching or some sponsorship available. One of the positives about MLS is that players make money in “normal” ranges. Outside of the DPs they probably live in your neighborhood.

When baseball was at its peak that was true.

I’m still fairly soccer illiterate, so the the tactical stuff that malcontentjake (I think?) was doing was fascinating.

He’s a much better passer integrating his teammates better

and the potential for a better crosser at right back

The Academy
The Reserves
Facilities

So far they’re doing a great job, but I expect more this year.

And admittedly don’t listen to ICF enough. But there is no man more Sounders than Schmetzer. He’s going to be head coach #2 here.

Not many attacking players get better past their 30s

I’m least confident about the RB depth right now

does that count?

but I would like to see Arsenal.

note – every player listed above is younger than I

A veteran CAM of his caliber would be a really nice addition.

while has a big name is obviously on the down side of their respective careers. I just don’t see a reason why we’d have to. High Risk.

Right Mid, maybe some forward

I know the goal is to face a Mexican side in a friendly.

and crossing from the right.

it doesn’t matter how you ask.

Jeremiah and I reallly try to share as much as we can when we can.

Ford tends to be a bit more explosive, Meredith a bit better positionally. Both are learning about commanding a line, and while they learned a lot from Keller I don’t feel either are ready to a starter in an MLS caliber league.

To equate money being spent in a non-cap league to money being spent in a heavily capped league is a bit dangerous. The biggest reason is that while the Sounders could theoretically spend $10M on one player, that kind of money doesn’t necessarily buy you a $10M player when weighed against the global market. We can probably all agree that Henry and Marquez are not really $7M players if they are only offering their services to top European teams. But MLS has to overpay in order for them to come here.

Put another way, there’s almost no amount of money you could pay Messi (or other top players in their prime) to come to MLS. He wants to play in the best league in the world and no matter what you think about MLS, it’s clearly not one of the best leagues in the world.

What you’re essentially asking, then, is why do we defend the Sounders for refusing to overpay for aging talent? I think that question kinda answers itself.

just one aspect I didn’t see covered.

Which had been an issue. We also saw him switch to a quick/technical forward pairing.

Both were huge improvements that led to the great season.

Things I’d like to see from him is a willingness to use different shape in specific game situations

And Seattle gets their spot back from Portland, which also helps.

They lost Montano (international) and so that’s 3 spots open. They may have ended the year with an open spot as well

We have a ton of players with green cards who don’t count as internationals:

Montero, Hurtado, Gonzalez, Zakuani, White and Alonso are all non-citizens who do not count as internationals.

He used his national team call to defect.

And since he has CAPs with Cuba he can not change allegiance. My understanding is that a player with youth/u23 calls can change allegiance.

But I’ll second your belief that he’ll break out. As for surprises, I think we’ll be pleasantly surprised by David Estrada this year.

10+ goals in all competitions