Maybe you saw the tweet, or read the story.

Former England and Arsenal goalkeeper Richard Wright looks set to join San Jose Earthquakes after being given a trial at the MLS side by Frank Yallop.

 How can they do that? I mean transfer season is done, right?

Yep, but what isn't done is the opportunity to sign a Free. Wright is that. And so our dozens of other MLS quality players. Here's a list of those that were in England last year. The most notable is probably one Jay DeMerit.

The Playoff Signing Window closes Sept 15th. Which means a player signed after that could not play in the MLS Cup Playoffs.

The Sounders kind of have a single roster slot open, as they could move a player to the IR and sign one. Both Pat Noonan and Peter Vagenas seem to have injuries that are significant enough that Hanauer could make such a move.

Any Free out there that you would like to see Seattle pick up?

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Head meet ball - ball meet head

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Subject: Nate Jaqua
Skills: Passing with Head, Scoring "Junk" Goals, Creating Space
Past Sounders Winners: Sebastien Le Toux (2009), Chris Eylander (2008)

TheCup.US has only been giving out the award for the past four seasons. Already two Sounders have won. On the current Seattle Sounders roster is a different previous winner - Pat Noonan.

With Nate Jaqua tied for first in goals scored during the tournament proper he is clearly a leader right now to win the award again.

2006 was Andy Herron of the Chicago Fire
2007 was Pat Noonan of the New England Revolution
2008 was Chris Eylander of the Seattle Sounders
2009 was Sebastien Le Toux of the Seattle Sounders

Will you be there when Seattle defends the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup? Will you be their for a Trophy? Will you be there when Nate Jaqua keeps the individual award in Sounders' hands?

A funny thing is happening during MLS expansion. The product is not getting watered down. It is staying stable at worse, getting better at best. It isn't just the multi-ball Designated Player rule, but some of it has to be with better American collegiate players coming to the league, with players staying rather than leaving, and with better scouting of players who want to use the ladder to climb to a more profitable league. There is a fair amount of talent out there, if there wasn't playing on FIFA dates wouldn't be such a big deal, because if there was not talent, the teams would not be losing players.

But teams are doing something interesting this year in their hunt for the Playoffs. As many as FIVE could finish with 50 or more points. And THREE are likely to finish with 30 or less. This is highly unusual in league history. Half the teams on the extremes in a parity league. It kind of happened in 2005 & 2007, but for the hunt for the Shield is not wide open. The chase for a top non-expansion draft pick is usually one awful team.

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Roger Levesque wasn't bad in place of Blaise Nkufo, but the Sounders seemed to struggle with holding possession without a big target man.

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Most of us would have taken a tie at the half. After Steve Zakuani's goal in the 59th minute, I think we fully expected to win. To come away with zero -- especially in the fashion that it happened -- should raise some concerns.

The Sounders came out strong in the second half and were dictating play, culminating with Zakuani's beautiful strike to the far post. The defense wasn't its usual shutdown self, but it appeared as if they were going to do enough to salvage some points.

That all changed a few minutes after Zakuani's goal.

Patrick Ianni and Shalrie Joseph tangled on a corner kick. Ianni may have stomped on Joseph's foot. Joseph clearly slapped Ianni, who probably erred in overselling the swipe. Either way, it was all right in front of referee Silviu Petrescu, who decided not to issue any cards. That decision was made all the more dubious when Fredy Montero was yellow-carded for what appeared to be a fairly innocent shove at 65'.

Petrescu had obviously lost control of the match. The Sounders soon lost their grip on some valuable road points.

A miraculous save on a Chris Tierney attempt on the near post at 69'  kept the Sounders ahead.

Tierney did not miss when given a second chance. He got behind Osvaldo Alonso's mark on a throw-in to equalize at 70'. Marko Perovic gave the Revolution their first lead of the match at 73' and Kehli Dube scored the dagger at 81'.

In a relative blink of the eye, the Sounders suddenly reverted to form we hadn't seen since July 4. Oddly enough, this was the fourth straight loss in which the Sounders have allowed three goals, but it was the first time they had allowed more than one in a match since that fateful game in Los Angeles.

This match should serve as a reminder that nothing is guaranteed. As good as the Sounders have been, they are obviously capable of lapses. Many of the bad habits we saw during that 10-game drought reared their ugly head tonight. The Sounders only got three shots on target; had mental lapses on dead-ball situations; and appeared to become too focused on the referee.

In and of itself, the loss is not the end of the world. If results hold, the Sounders will wake up tomorrow morning still in playoff position. They will still be five points clear of No. 9 Toronto in overall points and .14 ahead of No. 9 Chicago in PPM.

What this loss does is take that much of the Sounders' cushion away. This was really a match the from which the Sounders should have expected to take at least a point and increases the press ure of getting three points from Real Salt Lake on Thursday. It also makes those road matches at Columbus, at Chicago and at Kansas City much less easier to write off. 

Hopefully, this was not a sign the schedule is starting to get to the Sounders. It really doesn't get easier anytime soon, as they'll be traveling more than 18,000 miles and take something like 12 plane trips in next few weeks.

The Sounders can render all of this moot by beating the reigning MLS Cup champions at home on Thursday. Another loss, though, and any confidence built from that seven-match unbeaten streak will be all but gone. 

Stats and quotes after the jump.

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Recapping the week's match specific news
Match Day Quick Reference Card - Team without Nkufo - Scouting Report

In the trailing shadow of Hurricane Earl a team with designs on being a Cup contender faces a team in a lost season that managed once again to come in second in a secondary tournament. The Seattle Sounders will be riding a high from Wednesday's US Open Cup Semi-Final win. The New England Revolution lost in the SuperLiga Final.

Even the best central midfielder in the game hasn't been able to carry the Revolution, showing that this is a team game. Shalrie Joseph has a Goal +/- of -0.8 and a Shot +/- of -2.8. This team game needs more than one great player. New England does not have that particularly with their International Losses, Suspensions and Injuries.

What can Seattle do to gain 3 points on the Road?

1 - Unleash a Secondary Scorer - While Fredy Montero seems likely to score in any game. He needs 10 goals in 8 games to meet his 20 goal in a season mark. But if Seattle only counts on Montero for goals they are a weaker team than they can be. This would be a great game to mix some scoring from Nate Jaqua, Alvaro Fernandez and especially Steve Zakuani. Zakuani's return to scoring and not just assisting would come from him diving in at an angle from the elbow rather than towards the endline for the assist as we saw twice Wednesday night.

2 - Stop Shalrie - He's a beast, and should be in a league wide best XI in any year. He can change a game on either end, and has a knack for set-play success as well. Seattle should NOT man mark him though, as it would take one of their players out of the game. Instead I would suggest a zonal marking system shared by Osvaldo Alonso and Michael Seamon. Using Seamon's young, fresh legs to harass Joseph on the New England side of the pitch, and then when he does enter the attack have Alonso pick him up and stop the forward movement. Combining the high pressure that Seamon would be applying would likely lead to turnovers in threatening positions.

3 - More Talent Equals More Chances - New England has two players out for international duty (Sainey Nyassi, Kenny Mansally), one out due to a Red Card (Cory Gibbs) and a Keeper out for injury (Matt Reis). While Seattle does have a few players out that are current starters but not on the injured list (Blaise Nkufo, Nathan Sturgis, Sanna Nyassi) they are really only weakened significantly at the Central Midfield spot in the Arrow (Seamon is more CM/CAM than CDM/CM of Sturgis). The greater talent level though has to be converted to chances. Keeping the pace of the game up will be one part of that, and not overpassing inside the attacking 18 will be another.

Notes: Mike Fucito returns to the New England area as a native and in the 18. It would be good to see him get minutes tonight. Gillette Stadium has brand new Field Turf, finally repaints their lines, but is still dozens of miles away from Boston (which hasn't hurt the other team that plays there one bit). Weather tonight should be lower 70s, clear and windy at game time. Michael Seamon has a G +/- of 0, Shots +/- of -6.3 and a Shot % differential of +3.4% in his limited playing time. Only one New England Player as a positive +/- in either goals or shots - he's played 6 minutes.

TV Tonight is KONG
Radio is 97.3
Arlo White has the Call (did you read the interviews?)

Rooting Interest for other Matches
Philly over KC
LA over Chicago
Columbus v DC United result does not matter for Seattle
Dallas over Toronto
RSL v Red Bull result does not matter for Seattle
Chivas USA over Colorado
Houston over San Jose

THIS IS YOUR GAMETHREAD

Jim Rogash - Getty Images

Marko Perovic has been the Revolution's most consistent offensive threat.

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The Revolution are not good. Other than a four-match unbeaten streak -- against four teams that are all struggling -- they have not been good all year. They are tied for the second worst goal differential (-13) and are being outshot worse than any other MLS team.

They lost their starting goalkeeper (Preston Burpo) to a horrific injury, their current starter is fighting back problems and, if Matt Reis can't go, the Sounders will face the same Bobby Shuttleworth that allowed three goals in the teams' first meeting. They are also without the services of the refusing-to-retire Taylor Twellman, two of their top offensive players (Sainey Nyassi and Kenny Mansally are both with Gambia) and one of their top defenders (Cory Gibbs will miss this week's game after getting red-carded last week).

Long story short, no matter who starts at forward for the Sounders, this is a match they really should win.

If it all starts going wrong, though, you can bet Shalrie Joseph and Marko Perovic will be invovled. Joseph, the standard by which MLS central midfielders measure themselves, is having a bit of a down year with just four assists on his stat sheet. But Sounders fans know all too well about his capabilities, after the Grenadine international scored three goals against Seattle last year. Perovic, while lacking the Sounders-specific history, has been New England's top offensive player this year, having scored five goals. Both players warrant watching.

Zack Schilawski, after an impressive start to the season, has slowed considerably. The rookie scored his fifth goal on May 29, but has not scored since then and has been coming off the bench recently.

It is worth noting that the Revolution have played considerably better at home than on the road, having claimed 17 points in 11 matches at Gillette Stadium and outscoring opponents 14-13. Included in that home record is a 2-0 win over the Galaxy, which admittedly looks much less impressive in light of the Galaxy's recent struggles. Other quality home results include wins over Toronto and New York and ties against FC Dallas and San Jose, all teams currently in the playoff hunt.

There have been quotes from coaches around the league that MLS should not be playing on a FIFA international date. Teams are losing quality talent to Euro 2012 qualifiers, to African Cup of Nations, to friendlies in CONCACAF and CONMEBOL, and yet with a third of the season left the MLS sides still need to gather points.

In an ideal world MLS would be able to have these weekends open so that its best players would be available for both club and country. In an ideal world MLS fans would actually show up to weeknight games, and would watch matches not involving their own team on television.

Because that's why MLS teams have to play on these weekends. Since the primary fuel for revenue is around the game-day experience, MLS can not afford to have light gates. If MLS made TV ratings like the NHL (an actual rating point) that would become its fuel and they could play some weeknight matches and miss these FIFA dates.

But let us also note that it isn't just MLS and USSF Div 2 that are playing this weekend.

Argentina
Australia
England's Leagues outside of Premier and Championship
Scotland's non-Premier leagues
Spain and Italy's second and lower flights
Wales and Northern Ireland's top flights
Brazil
Uruguay
Colombia
Paraguay
Ecuador
Costa Rica
El Salvador
Honduras
Mexico

That's a lot of leagues with similar talent level to MLS, and a few that are better. Yes, the biggest leagues in Europe have the weekend off, as does Japan. But outside of Europe, this is a weekend, and weekends mean football.futbol.soccer - MLS.

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He defined the American Target Man

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Billiken, Crew, Cottager, Fire

National Team

Today, I found out that the single player most responsible for my love of this game will no longer be a professional. Brian McBride's career is over - done. He didn't play in the match here against the Chicago Fire, and for that I'm a bit sad.

But due to the odd circumstance of knowing another St. Louis Billiken I followed Brian on the National Team, and with the Columbus Crew. In fact in the earliest of years of MLS I listened to Crew games on radio when I was in the Army. Most evenings I could pick it up at night, and if I couldn't I would listen on the internet.

He was the first pick in MLS Draft history. He was an American who captained an EPL side.

For many Americans he defined what it means to be a Target Forward.

An era is over, and I'm a bit saddened. Even as I'm as excited as ever for the game here in America, it will suck to not have my favorite player wearing the MLS badge on his shoulder.

Thank you Brian, for everything that you have done for the game in this nation. May your retirement be filled with joy, family and friends.

This is not due to International duty, as is true for the Nyassi brothers and Mansally of New England. But the Sounders FC video preview mentions that Blaise Nkufo did not travel.

So our very recently updated Quick Reference Card is already out-of-date. Though at only one position.

Nate Jaqua is mentioned as likely to start, but considering that he just went 90 on Wednesday, will he go 90 tomorrow?

sounders vs. revolution 0903-2

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UPDATE: All fixed!

First a little housekeeping: You'll notice a slight change in the right rail. Instead of having conference standings, we've switched to a single table. The top two teams in each conference are highlighted with a line marking the playoff cutoff. The teams are actually ordered by PPM, but we also have points, records and goal-differential. Hopefully, you will find that more useful than the standard conference standings which requires you to look back and forth to figure out the playoff race.

As for this week's lineups, we're expecting Mike Seamon to get his first MLS start in place of Nathan Sturgis. We're not 100 percent on this, but it sounds like Sturgis' hip injury may at least warrant some caution and with Seamon a capable backup and facing the struggling Revolution, this seems like a good opportunity to get Seamon some time.

The rest of the starters are pretty much what we can expect the team to do whenever it's at full health for the rest of the season.

On the Revolution side, they are without the services of Sainey Nyassi (for the same reason the Sounders are without his twin brother Sanna). We're also expecting Matt Reis to be back in goal after missing a game with a back injury. 

There also appears to be good news on the weather front. I just checked the forecast and it appears as if the game will actually be played in clear skies as Hurricane Earl is supposedly going to miss the Foxborough area.

Here's the printable version:  sounders vs. revolution 0903 (print)-2