Does anyone know if they'll be running it again this year, and if so, will Sounder at Heart be running a fantasy competition like they did last year? The main page hasn't been updated since the end of last season. The game had its problems and more than its fair share of detractors, but I really enjoyed it. If it's not running, will Sounder at Heart host a fantasy competition on a different service?

Editor's note: Promoted to the front for general, goose-bumpy awesomeness. - Jeremiah

There he stands, in the pre-dawn silence of Occidental Park, as still as any of the statues. A slight drizzle falls around him, but his hoodie remains dry.

The rain stops as color creeps into the sky. Breaking his vigil, he walks south. I trail behind, the clicking of my nails on the masonry echoing down vacant streets.

We arrive at his destination, stopping in front of the locked doors. The night watchman approaches to shoo us off, but swallows any objections as recognition sets in. Wordlessly the guard opens the gate, gives a brief nod, and hurries off into the darkness. We enter the vacated stadium as the lock clinks shut behind us.

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This is more PSA than fanpost and is clearly not Sounders related, but I thought it would likely be relevant to at least a few SAH readers.

The discussion in the comments of the Super Bowl article relating to concussions in sports got me thinking about a statistic I had heard about the incidence of concussions in sport and girls’/women’s soccer having the second highest rate after football. Being the dad of a soccer playing daughter and son I thought I should dig a little deeper and see if there was more that I should know to help my children in the event of a concussion. A quick search turned up three articles of note. The first is the source of the statistic I had heard, a study published in the The American Journal of Sports Medicine.

Results:

In sum, 2651 concussions were observed in 10 926 892 athlete-exposures, with an incidence rate of 0.24 per 1000. Boys’ sports accounted for 53% of athlete-exposures and 75% of all concussions. Football accounted for more than half of all concussions, and it had the highest incidence rate (0.60). Girls’ soccer had the most concussions among the girls’ sports and the second-highest incidence rate of all 12 sports (0.35). Concussion rate increased 4.2-fold (95% confidence interval, 3.4-5.2) over the 11 years (15.5% annual increase). In similar boys’ and girls’ sports (baseball/softball, basketball, and soccer), girls had roughly twice the concussion risk of boys. Concussion rate increased over time in all 12 sports.

The second article that I thought was interesting was a piece in ESPN The Magazine on the case of a woman soccer player who returned to playing while she was still having concussion symptoms. It was really quite sobering. ESPN The Magazine

The final article was from the New York Times. It is similar to the ESPN article but addresses a broader range of sports. New York Times

Any and all are worth the time to read.

In front of a decent, yet relaxed and rarely vocal crowd, the Sounders played the Vancouver Whitecaps to a 1-1 draw today in Casa Grande, Arizona. The first period saw Starting XI's from both sides and ended 1-0 in favor of the Caps. The Sounders responded with a goal of their own early in a second period which saw both teams make wholesale changes and play backups and rookies. A shortened 30 min third period saw mainly trialists, backup's backups, and guys I'm ashamed to say I couldn't even identify on either team. It was mostly uneventful. Okay...it was entirely uneventful. Steve Zakuani, Patrick Ianni, and Christian Sivebaek did not feature in the game.

The Sounders dominated a Whitecaps team that looks to be a lot more competitive this year with their offseason acquisitions. Camilo scored in the first minute of the match on a play that from the cheap seats, a small 4 row bleacher placed at midfield, looked like a massive mistake by the Sounders' defense. I would later come to find that what most of us on the bleachers couldn't really see was that both Camilo and Hassli were clearly offside. Not a peep came from the spectators in forms of protest, and I don't recall much reaction from the Sounders' players on the missed call either. The rest of the first was marked by stellar possession and movement by the Sounders, with standout performances coming from newcomer Adam Johansson and Mauro Rosales on the right side. The Whitecaps defense played physical and generally mistake free however, and didn't allow for too many looks on goal. And when I say physical, I mean often times down right dirty. DeMerit was vocal throughout and even had a close call with a studs up challenge on Rosales. Mike Fucito was forced into being substituted for everyone's favorite pirate, Roger Levesque at about the half hour mark because of some rough tackles. But overall, despite being down, the impression I got from the first half is that every Sounder was comfortable in maintaining possession, and the new style that is trying to be implemented appears to be heading in a very good direction.

Oh and the 2nd period proved we have great depth. But you already know that. More notes and player specific observations after the jump!

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I stare into Centurylink field every day from my office. In fact, yesterday they started to tear up the old turf. Puzzling however is that it looks like they have removed the big screen from the Brougham End and now have windows instead--the windows stretching between the Fox Sports Lounge windows. I can't tell if the windows are into the sports lounge, or if they are some type of suites or sports desks. Given the Hawks Nest screen is smaller, I can't imagine they would only have that screen. Anyone know whats up at the Clink?

Sounder at Heart is co-hosting (along with Golazo) an away viewing party for the second leg of the Sounders-Santos Laguna CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinal on March 14 from 4 p.m.-9:30ish. The event will double as our scarf distribution event. We of course appreciate those of you who have bought and will buy scarves, but buying a scarf is not a mandatory part of attending. The event is ALL AGES and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. (Speaking of which, the scarves are still for sale. For details read this post.)

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As it usually does, watching the Pro Bowl is giving me a stroke. To remedy this, I will attempt to do my AP Language and Composition teacher proud with a FanPost.

Recently in my browsing of the web for soccer-related videos, I came across a clip from a British comedy show poking fun at the personal attachment "football" fans have to the teams they follow. As sports fans, we have a tendency to use the personal pronoun "we" when referring to the things our favorite teams have done. I've been criticized by my extremely sheltered younger cousin for using "we" when talking about past accomplishments of the Mariners (eg We won 116 games in 2001) but using "they" when referring to upcoming games (eg They're playing again tomorrow). It's a hard point to rebut, usually one I answer by saying "I feel a strong connection to the team," but there's a lot behind both the argument and the counter-argument.

Using the pronoun "we" to refer to our team's accomplishments is a sign of our personal connection to the Sounders. As Dave's signature states, "I am not a Supporter | I am not a Fan | I am a Sounder." It's something the authors here (and I myself) believe honestly and thoroughly, that we the fans are indeed part of the team. Sometimes, it's hard for non-soccer people to understand, so I will lay it out for them simply in this FanPost.

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So, a few times I've mentioned I've been working on a soccer board game. This is a serious, stat-driven game that allows you to take real teams and have them meet on the pitch. If you like baseball games like Strat-o-Matic or Pursue the Pennant, then you'd probably like those, though it uses card-driven mechanics that should make the flow of the game feel more like the real thing.

Anyhoo, I'll be demoing the game for a public playtest at an upcoming game convention in town -- GAME ON! on February 17-19 at the Issaquah Holiday Inn. You can find more information about the convention at https://www.facebook.com/groups/242124702488209/ or ask me and I'll tell you what you need to know.

For the convention, I'll be bringing the 8 MLS playoff teams from 2009 plus DC United from that year, so you can play Seattle's first Open Cup win if you want. The final published game will likely come with the most recent 16 top UEFA Champions League teams, but the system will be "open source" to allow players to rate the teams of their choice.

The next US women's international game is set to start in the next few minutes, and it's not a friendly. The team is playing for it's right to play in win the London Olympics. The concacaf playoffs for that opportunity have been anything but competitive, but this game looks to be promising.

The US won their first two games in the group at 13-0 and 14-0, Mexico won theirs 5-0 and 7-0. Canada is the obvious third power in CONCACAF, but they are in a separate group. Join me in the comments if you are watching the match!

Dave's Note: bumped to frontpage for trialist discussion.

One of the unfamiliar faces at Sounders Training belongs to one of the newest Reggae Boyz. The articles linked below claim that 21-year-old center midfielder Andrew Vanzie of Jamaican top-side Portmore United FC (currently 5 points clear at the top of the table) left last Tuesday for a four-week trial with Seattle Sounders FC. A comparison of his facebook photo to the training photos show that he is definitely one of the players at Sounders training.

Vanzie received his first (and only) cap for Jamaica in September in a 5-2 loss in to Ecuador in Ecuador. He has also represented Jamaica at the U20 and U23 levels. Some sites seem to list him as a defender. However, it appears he plays center-mid for Portmore United. The Jamaican Football Federation link below describes him as "a lynch pin in Portmore United’s midfield". He lists Cristiano Ronaldo (and only Cristiano Ronaldo) under "Favorite Athletes" on his Facebook page.

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