Just in my email box as I return home from practice
Sounders FC Signs Costa Rica International Gonzalez
RENTON, WASH. – The Seattle Sounders FC have signed Costa Rican defender Leonardo Gonzalez, it was announced today. Per Major League Soccer and club policy, terms were not disclosed. Gonzalez’s signing will be finalized upon receipt of his P-1 work permit and International Clearance.
Gonzalez, 28, will join Sounders FC after completing his call in to the national team for the CONCACAF Gold Cup. He has been capped 59 times by Costa Rica, including three starts during the 2006 World Cup.
"It’s nice to have to have a naturally left-footed player. He can play left back, play center back in a pinch, and he can also play wide and run the whole line for us," said Sigi Schmid, Sounders FC coach. "He is an attacking left fullback with good size and athleticism. He’s very willing to get forward out of a defensive position and does a good job defensively."
This isn't the player news I was expecting, but now the Sounders have only one slot available until an IR/DL player gets healthy.
UPDATED!!!
To put that in league perspective
KC, NY and TFC all have three slots open at this time (1 of KCs is for a developmental).
LA, DC and SJ have two slots (1 of LAs is a developmental)
RSL has 2 slots, this correction provided at link here. HT to RSLFM at MLS-R
Chicago, NE, C-Bus, and SSFC have 1 slot open (Chi and NE with it as a Developmental)
Houston, Colorado, Dallas and Chivas are all Full with 24.
This is all with rosters current as of TODAY (Seattle includes the announcement of Leo, but not Dragovan). The "Open Slots" remove DL players from their team's active rosters. Yes, in some cases this would mean that a slot is only temporarily available, but for teams competing in multiple tournaments that have fans complaining about depth, it might be a good idea to take a 6 week loan of a guy or two, or three (KC).
Here's the source data
Team Seniors Developmental DL Open Slots Total Roster Internationals
Kansas City 18 3 4 3 25 2
New York 17 4 1 3 22 4
Toronto 17 4 0 3 21 12
Los Angeles 19 3 2 2 24 3
DC United 18 4 0 2 22 7
San Jose 18 4 0 2 22 3
Chicago 20 3 1 1 24 5
New England 20 3 1 1 24 7
Seattle 19 4 3 1 26 5
Colombus 19 4 0 1 23 6
Salt Lake 19 4 0 1 23 3
Houston 20 4 1 0 25 4
Colorado 20 4 0 0 24 4
Dallas 20 4 0 0 24 6
Chivas 20 4 3 0 27 5
Oh, and for those that don't like to do math on their own, there are a plethora of International slots open per MLSnet.com. Which while it can't be counted on as being 100% accurate, indicates that only TFC has used 100% of their slots (NE will as of July 15th). But there are over 50 international slots open.
Expansion hasn't weakened the league. The inability to keep American/Canadian talent home, while not filling the 33% of the rosters that could be dedicated to the rest of CONCACAF/Africa/CONMEBOL, not to mention some day tapping Asia.