In just his first preseason match on Sunday, Eddie Johnson showed why the Seattle Sounders were willing to make an aggressive move to acquire him and why that move carries some risk. The 27-year-old forward scored one goal, on a left-footed shot from distance (highlight after jump), and helped contribute to two others during the Sounders' 5-0 win over Florida Gulf Coast University. But he also came off the field after the third goal clutching his hamstring, cutting his day just a little short.

Although the injury was reportedly not very serious, it did serve as a reminder that Johnson is, at the very least, clearly not fit to be playing 90 minutes in the immediate future.

"We only wanted to get 30 minutes out of him," Sounders coach Sigi Schmid said. "Obviously it's been a while since he's played so he needs to get fit and we've got to now be careful with him. I don't think our fans can view it as, 'OK, now he's going to start against Santos Laguna and play 90 minutes,' because that's probably not a realistic goal. I think he will have an impact on that series, but we have to decide how that's going to be.

"Now the concern is just that we build his fitness up appropriately and don't come to a period of time where he's going to get heavy legs, as well."

Johnson was replaced by Sammy Ochoa in the lineup and played the final 61 minutes of the match. David Estrada was the other forward for the first 47 minutes of the match and was eventually replaced by Babayele Sodade. Estrada scored a goal and Sodade supplied pressure on the Sounders' fifth goal, which was an own goal. Christian Sivebaek converted a penalty and an unnamed trialist scored the other goal.

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Judging from the tone of Seattle Sounders personnel on Twitter following Friday's trade that sent Mike Fucito and Lamar Neagle to the Montreal Impact in exchange for Eddie Johnson, the move came as a surprise. Shock is a fair way to sum it up. But rather than waste my time explaining it, here's a sampling of some of the reactions.

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Obviously recognizing what a huge hit the first installment was, Brad Evans was at it again on Twitter. This time he interviewed new Seattle Sounders teammate Cordell Cato. Among other things, we learned that Cato is a boxer-briefs man, that baked chicken is his favorite dish, that he's a little afraid of Zach Scott and he even suggests that he may soon by joining Twitter.

It's also worth noting that Cato was probably in a very good mood during the interview, as he scored a goal in the Sounders' 2-0 victory over the Columbus Crew. The youngster is definitely off to a good start. (In case you missed it, here's a link to his interview of Michael Gspurning.)

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Over a one month stretch, Sammy Ochoa and Seattle Sounders FC will face three teams from Mexico. Two of those matches are merely preseason tuneups for the more significant two-leg CONCACAF Champions League matchup against Santos Laguna. For Ochoa, in his first preseason with Seattle, he has a little extra motivation to succeed against teams in a league where regular playing time and success were limited.

I want to show them that they missed out on a good player and hopefully we do good against those teams.

In his battle for playing time, he makes it clear that he has to adjust back to the American style of play, rather than his five year experience in Mexico. He also mentions several times, "I'm here now." Though the topic of playing against familiar teams is natural, it is not his focus for the season -- he is focused on the upcoming MLS season. Ochoa describes the differences in play:

I played here when I was younger, but still I played five years down there and it's a lot different. They don't press as much, they let you keep the ball. They keep the ball. They let you turn. They let you do a lot of stuff that MLS won't let you do. I have to get adapted here. You have to be quicker in MLS. There the game is a lot slower and that's how I was used to playing, but being here I have to get used to the way of play here.

It is in upcoming training games against Jaguares de Chiapas and Atlante where the new father (Thiago Samuel Ochoa, his second child, was born February 1st) can show the coaching staff that a full preseason with Seattle will help him fit into regular rotational minutes as the partner to Fredy Montero. Whether it is Sammy Ochoa or Mike Fucito who starts a match, the other will almost certainly be ready to come in as a substitute. Some games, and possibly the two quite important Champions League matches that start the season, will call for skill sets that only one of those players offer.

The Seattle Sounders' preseason roster got just a little bit lighter as they got ready to take off for Florida and Mexico. Although the Sounders didn't officially release an updated roster, Joshua Mayers of the Seattle Times has managed to piece one together:

Goalkeepers (5): Chris Blais*, Josh Ford, Michael Gspurning, Bryan Meredith, Andrew Weber*

Defenders (10): Marc Burch, Andrew Duran#, Leo Gonzalez, Harlinton Gutierres*, Jhon Kennedy Hurtado, Patrick Ianni, Adam Johansson, Jeff Parke, Zach Scott, Michael Tetteh

Midfielders (13): Osvaldo Alonso, Servando Carrasco, Alex Caskey*, Cordell Cato, Brad Evans, Alvaro Fernandez, Lamar Neagle, Mauro Rosales, Andy Rose^, Amadou Sanyang, Mike Seamon, Christian Sivebaek, Steve Zakuani

Forwards (7): David Estrada, Mike Fucito, Roger Levesque, Fredy Montero, Sammy Ochoa, Babayele Sodade#, O'Brian White

* -- trialist/invitee, # -- unsigned draft pick, ^ -- acquired on draft day trade, underline -- recovering from injury with uncertain timeline

Still not a whole lot of surprises at this point. The guys that won't be making the trip are Ever Alvarado, Jason Banton, Wes Feighner, Tim Pontius and Andrew Vanzie. While Sounders coach Sigi Schmid said there's always a chance that some new faces could join the team still, he didn't exactly make it sound like that was very likely. I'd say it's probably a safe bet to assume the First Kick roster will be assembled from this group.

There are 35 guys still listed. I would be willing to bet the Sounders hit March 1's roster-compliance day with 28 healthy and two more on injured reserve/disabled list. Based on what I've seen, there's probably nine guys fighting for five spots.

After the jump, I'll look at the battles as I see them, by position:

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Roster flux continues though all under contract players are still with the team, some of the Supplemental Draft picks and trialists are now in a different phase of their soccer journeys. Joshua Mayers, of the Seattle Times, compiled the list of missing names. Harlinton Guiterres, Real Espana reservist, is still in camp. After practice Sigi Schmid noted that Alex Caskey was in the concussion protocol and Josh Ford's injury is a lingering issue of unknown recovery length. Mike Fucito also did not practice today for injury reasons.

Today's sessions featured finishing drills running concurrent to a large wide field game with three mini goals per side. As Coach Schmid indicated last week these styles of exercise are new to this preseason as the team had earlier focused on fitness and passing drills. Later there were two small sided games where quick passing and attacking were at a premium.

Post practice Sigi provided more clarification to what he expects from the central defenders this year and the difference between being an attacking player as opposed to an option to maintain possession and reset the attack.

It's not that I expect the defenders to be storming forward like mad men into the attacking parts of the field. What I want is for them to be more involved when a play breaks down for them to be an option to play back to. Then they can move the ball, get the ball to the other side of the field... and not sort of feel that the ball is there now and it's not coming back to us and we're out of the play. There's always going to be opportunities to get our left back forward, our right back forward at the right times, that's the way I've always coached and the way my teams have always played. On the same token I'm not looking for Jeff Parke or the other centerback to make a rambling 30 yard run slashing past three players in middle of the midfield and having a shot from the 20.

What I'm looking for is that they are involved, and that if they see the play breaking down on one side of the field they say 'hey give it to me' and I can get it to the other side of the field. So I'm not uninvolved now because we're in the attacking third of the field. Instead I'm involved in terms of the play breaking down.'

Sigi also noted that David Estrada is now seeing more time as a forward due to the unknown length of O'Brian White's condition and Estrada's ability to fit into that role.

Now with a stunning 1-1 draw in the books against the Vancouver Whitecaps the Seattle Sounders announced five preseason scrimmages in their "Florida" phase of training. Florida in quotes because the key note match will be against Atlante FC behind closed doors in Cancun, Mexico on February 22nd at 4PM Pacific. Atlante is currently tied for second with a 3-1-1 record and lead the Primera with 9 goals scored.

That match ends that phase of training which also features matches against Orlando City SC (2011 USL Pro regular season and playoff champions) on Feb 13th, the Columbus Crew (47 points, 4th in East in 2011) on Feb 15th, the United States U-17 Residency team (featuring Sounder Academy player Paul Christensen) on Feb 16th and on Feb 19th they face University of Gulf Coast (39th in final NCAA rankings).

There are also indications at the Ticketmaster website that the Community Shield will be on Leap Year Day. An opponent has yet to be announced. If Seattle were to maintain the tradition of the Shield from other countries the opponent would be the LA Galaxy, but the team is also focused on preparing to face Santos Laguna in the CONCACAF Champions League Champions Round.

Even after bidding farewell to five players, the Seattle Sounders' list 39 players as participating in training camp as the team begins activities in Casa Grande, Ariz. The five players who were let go were Sounders academy product Darwin Jones, University of Washington product Abdul Aman, goalkeeper Tyrel Lacy, invitee Jonathan Prieto and an unnamed trialist. Injured players O'Brian White and Michael Tetteh also didn't travel to Arizona as they receive treatment in Seattle.

Replacing those players were several expected names. Adam Johansson is meeting his new teammates after his stint with the Sweden national team kept him out of the first couple weeks of training. Also joining the team are recent draft pick Wes Feighner and Honduran trialists Ever Alvarado and Harlinton Gutierres. Jamaican trialist Andrew Vanzie, who until now was with the team as an unnamed trialist, has been officially added to the training camp roster.

In all, things haven't really changed that much since camp opened. The competition for spots, especially at the tail end of the roster, is still fierce and there doesn't appear to be any clarification as to who will be the Sounders' backup goalkeeper.

Taking a quick glance at the roster (the full version is after the jump), I'd venture to guess that about 23 players all but have their spots assured. That leaves 16 players fighting it out for the remaining 5-7 spots. Any number of factors could come into play, and there's a chance a few of these guys could continue to train with the team even if they don't make the roster.

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