Fans that have been pining for the Seattle Sounders to make a big move this offseason got their wish on Friday as the team traded Lamar Neagle and Mike Fucito to the Montreal Impact in exchange for former United States international Eddie Johnson. The move comes as a rather massive shock as both Fucito and Neagle were thought to be in the team's longterm plans. Fucito even seemed to have the inside track on the starting forward job alongside Fredy Montero.

"Eddie is a high quality striker who is a very good finisher," said Sounders technical director Chris Henderson, who coached Johnson at Kansas City. "We are very excited to have him join Sounders FC in our quest for another successful season."

Even if it hadn't been fan favorites Fucito and Neagle being traded, the acquisition of Johnson would have been shocking enough. Johnson was once one of the United States' most promising stars, but that was a lifetime ago in soccer terms. He has not scored a professional goal since 2010 when he was on loan to Greek club Aris and has not even played since last April when his contract with Fulham was not renewed.

The Sounders are clearly banking on the 27-year-old regaining his old form. Prior to leaving MLS after the 2007 season, he had scored 41 goals in 127 matches. His final year with the Kansas City Wizards, he had 15 goals and six assists in just 24 matches. He has also scored 12 international goals in 41 appearances with the United States national team, but he's made just one appearance since 2008. As recently as a couple months ago, he was cut by Puebla after just a couple days in training camp.

Johnson will surely have a mountain to climb in the eyes of fans. Not only were Fucito and Neagle among the team's most popular players, but they were also relatively young, cheap and productive. Fucito, 25, is coming off a year in which he scored six goals and had three assists in less than 1,600 all-competition minutes. Neagle, 24, scored seven goals and had two assists in just a tick over 1,700 all-competition minutes.

"It's always difficult to part ways with two quality individuals who have contributed greatly to the success of our first three years," said Sounders FC head coach Sigi Schmid. "We saw this as a unique opportunity to bring a player in with World Cup and international experience who can help us in our quest to win the MLS Cup."

Not to be too much of a wet blanket, but rumors that the Seattle Sounders are pursuing Michael Ballack appear to have no basis in reality. At least, that's the plainly obvious way to read comments Sounders GM Adrian Hanauer made to Sounder at Heart.

"Although Michael Ballack is a player that we have admired for many years, he is not a player that we are currently pursuing," Hanauer said in an email.

Ballack has often been mentioned in connection to the Sounders, presumably because the front office is believed to have an affinity for German players (although no German has ever played here) and many would like to see them add more of an attack-minded central midfielder. The source in the Goal.com article that identifies the Sounders as pursuing Ballack could very well be using those criteria or just making stuff up.

Sounders fans should probably be somewhat relieved by this news. Not only would Ballack be expensive -- he's reportedly hoping to get somewhere in the neighborhood of $6 million a year -- but he's also 35 years old and has not been allowed to go 90 minutes in a game since Dec. 17.

The past few days have altered the landscape of MLS, the Western Conference and, specifically, Cascadia. While many of us have always believed that the West was much stronger than the East, the amount of talent that has flooded in during the past week alone has only strengthened that belief.

Let's review: The Portland Timbers have added Kris Boyd, the leading scorer in Scottish Premier League history; the Vancouver Whitecaps traded for Sebastien Le Toux, who's contributed to 45 goals over the past two seasons; and the LA Galaxy brought back Edson Buddle, who scored 19 goals during the 2010 season. Those three moves would have qualified as the most significant of any one week this offseason, but all happened during a three-day span.

The Seattle Sounders, for my money, still have the deepest and most balanced team of the bunch, but these moves have at the very least closed whatever gap previously existed.

"I think the West has always been tougher and the West certainly got tougher," Sounders coach Sigi Schmid said during a Wednesday conference call. "The teams in the West, especially in the Northwest, are going to be aggressive. They want to be successful and they have good, solid fan bases that want to see their teams be successful."

Interestingly enough, Schmid acknowledged that those very moves that made his rivals stronger could open up some opportunities for the Sounders to improve. Schmid mentioned the Galaxy and Whitecaps, in particular, as potentially having players available, who may have been pushed out by these moves.

Might the Sounders be interested? After the jump, I'll look at some of the more intriguing players that could be available and at what price.

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UPDATE: Sounder at Heart has confirmed that Alvarado and Harlinton are both on the Sounders' Discovery List. We don't expect them to be training with the Sounders just yet, though. That will likely have to wait until Arizona if it happens.

Reports this morning out of Honduras were that two Real Espana players would be on trial with MLS teams. This evening Goal.com's Spanish language MLS subsite reported those two players are Ever Alvarado and Harlinton Gutierrez who will be with the Seattle Sounders. Alvarado, as previously noted, is a young left back who Diez.HN recognized as one of the breakout players in the Honduran league this past season. Gutierrez Harlinton is also a teen defender, but this time in the center where he played with the Real Espana Reserves. That link indicates the two will be at training this weekend.

Even on a day when the Sounders added five other players to its options through the Supplemental Draft, including two internationals, the team continues to find players who may be able to add that little bit extra. Competition throughout the lineup will be as tough as ever. There are now 38 players who are reported to be coming to preseason training at some point.

The Seattle Sounders continued their active offseason on Wednesday, officially announcing the signing of 23-year-old fullback/midfielder Christian Sivebaek. The move has been rumored since late December, and the player himself had even confirmed the deal.

"Christian is a player that we have been following for quite some time," Sounders technical director Chris Henderson said in a team release. "He is a good one-versus-one dribbler who can provide consistent quality service to our strikers. He has good speed and physical presence.

"He has been an up and coming player in Denmark," added Henderson, "and we are looking forward to adding Christian to our attacking arsenal."

Sivebaek -- the son of former Manchester United player John Sivebaek -- has appeared in 80 league matches and scored six goals with Midtjylland, a team in Denmark's first division. He has also made 19 appearances for various Denmark youth national teams. But after getting starter's minutes at Midtjylland in recent years, mostly at right back, Sivebaek seems to have fallen out of favor and has appeared in just three matches this season. There have been reports that part of the reason for the fallout was his desire to play more in the midfield.

Like fellow international signings this offseason Adam Johansson and Michael Gspurning, Sivabaek appears to have been won over by the crowds and professionalism in the Sounders organization.

"This is an exciting opportunity for me, to be joining such a club as Sounders FC," Sivebaek said in a statement. "I am looking forward to playing in MLS and for one of the best and biggest teams in America. I am very impressed by the professionalism of the club, the high quality of players and staff, and the great number and passion of their fans."

The expectation would be that Sivebaek, who stands 6-foot-3 and weighs 194 pounds, would be Mauro Rosales' primary backup at right midfield and could possibly spell Johansson in a pinch. Sivebaek's signing brings the Sounders roster to 27 players just days before the 2012 MLS SuperDraft. The team has also reportedly signed Cordell Cato. Either way, there are precious few remaining open spots on the roster.

Headlines with question marks are always funny, but in this case due to the nature of automated translation and the global nature of football there is little certainty. Indications are that forward Prince Tagoe is no longer with his club. We're talking about a Ghana national team player played in Germany and Serbia during the last season, was heavily connected to the Seattle Sounders at the summer window in 2011, eventually moved to Bursaspor in Turkey. His agent and national team coach are both Serbian and he's played in the UAE and Saudi Arabia as well. Prince Tagoe is a symbol of the global nature of the game.

His release by Bursaspor is another symbol of the international game. Roster churn is a way of life in most leagues. Tagoe's move to Turkey did not result in a strong offensive output (1 goal in 11 appearances), nor is Bursaspor in a position to make it into European qualification, a key path to money. So, despite paying a significant transfer fee to Hoffenheim Tagoe is either released, or will be shortly. Though a growing league, Turkish teams can't afford players that aren't producing right now.

Still, despite his lack of production in first and second tier European leagues he remains in the national team plans for Ghana at the Cup of Nations. There are mutterings in Ghana that this is because of his agent's relationship with the national coach. Tagoe will have one month to show the world that he deserves a contract and playing time. He will do so on a team that enters the tournament as a favorite.

Whether the Sounders are still interested in Tagoe is unknown, but with rumors of Alvaro Fernandez being interested in Europe and the dreams of fans that the club isn't done yet the possibility of a reclamation project for a once promising youngster is enticing. A few dominoes would need to fall, but the potential for significant winter moves still exists.

The Cordell Cato v Mrisho Ngassa "battle" may not exist at all. Word out of Mrisho Ngassa's Tanzanian club (Azam FC) is that they will release him to Seattle Sounders FC on a free. After purchasing him for a national record 40 thousand dollars this would be a huge move for a club in a relatively poor footballing region. A move that would seem to be done so theplayer could "shine internationally."

Azam FC secretary general, Idrisa Nassor says the club are willing to release forward Mrisho Ngassa to MLS club Seattle Sounders for free

— Tom Legg (@tomlegg) January 1, 2012

This news comes via Tom Legg's twitter account. Legg also writes at site Eastern Promise and profiled the Tanzanian national team recently for Sounder at Heart.

Ngassa played on the right in his trial appearance with Seattle against Manchester United, but also plays on the left wing in a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1. The 21 year old has experience at many levels with the National team and is the primary offensive focus for Azam in league play.

During the Adam Johansson conference call Technical Director Chris Henderson noted that competition for roster spots will continue despite a seemingly "full" slate.

We're still going to come in with a pretty good group of players. There's players who are still competing for spots. If we find there is a position where we think there's another player who is new to the group that we think can come in and replace one of these players we're going to consider that. So [the training roster] may be smaller but not by much.

A young player with upside from a region that Seattle wants to grow available on a free would seem close to a no-brainer if his talent appeals to the team.

Every single agent should say that their player, particularly one of Alvaro Fernandez' quality, is interested in playing for Palermo, a team in a better league for more money. That Fernandez' agent did so is not a surprise. Palermo is a mid-table team in Serie A this season already on its third coach. They fired one in preseason and another just under two weeks ago. The club holds four Uruguay players and seven other Latino players. They are clearly used to working with this agent. Automated translation of the Goal.com article does make it seem like there is an ongoing negotiation with a decision date just prior to Seattle Sounders FC's preseason opening, but is dependent on agreeable terms. Fernandez is under contract so there would be a fee going to Seattle if MLS and the Sounders agree to the move.

For fans that want Seattle to make a huge splashy signing there is a requirement that the club open a Designated Player slot as it is likely that even if Mauro Rosales is not a DP there would only be room for a Youth DP. Fernandez finished 2011 as the team's second leading scorer (11 goals all competitions) and tied for fifth in assists (5 all comps) while playing in the third most games (39, 31 were starts). With Steve Zakuani's future in question a loss of Fernandez would be significant. When Zakuani is fully fit Alvaro is likely to be used as a super-utility man starting every game, but moving across the attacking midfield roles.

MLS teams with good players on the fringes of strong national teams will always deal with constant transfer rumors. While this one is not strong highly dependent on salary and other terms. It offers the flexibility to to Hanauer & Co to the entire world of players up for a potential replacement signing. Losing Flaco would also be the least damaging of any loss among a core player.