The Sounders fly off today for Florida, so I’m not sure we’ll be getting any club news today.

However, here are a few interesting thoughts from coach Sigi Schmid, left over from the Friday media session:

Coach Sigi Schmid

On if the rookies have to adjust from being on the college schedule) “It’s always a little more difficult because they get in their rhythm of the seasons that they’ve had in college. So now you’ve got guys that are in here, [who], by the time we get back from Florida they’re about seven games into their regular season at that point. They usually don’t hit the wall, if you want to call it that, until usually about May or June, and that’s really when they hit the wall. Right now, everything is still new, everything is still excitable and so they’re okay for right now.”

On if he’s happy with the roster trimming process so far) “Yeah. Obviously, we’re moving forward. There are a couple of guys that, even in the last group, that we liked, and we’ll keep our eyes on. We’ll keep monitoring them. We just felt, at the moment, we were okay in certain positions. But there’s still a couple of young guys that we think have potential and we’ll keep our eyes on them as we move forward.”

On if there have been any surprises in camp so far) “Anybody who plays well is always a good surprise. From that standpoint, everybody is putting in a really good effort. We’re trying to make some decisions on some players. David Estrada is a player that we’ve pushed Read more »

With rumors of a new arena in Sodo, and the potential re-entry of the NHL and an NHL team into the market, we asked general manager Adrian Hanauer today what two new major sports teams in town might mean to the Sounders.

“I don’t know,” he said. “But thankfully, it’s not in my hands. Generally as a Seattle guy, anything that improves the quality of life in the region, the development in the city, I’m in favor of. And if there’s competition, we just have to rise to the occasion and be good competitors and good partners.”

Hanauer was asked …

Read more »

We got to speak to Sounders coach Sigi Schmid and general manager Adrian Hanauer today, for the first time since the Sounders revealed their series of preseason friendlies leading to the start of CONCACAF Champions League and the MLS seasons.

Here’s some of what they had to say:

HANAUER on making the Community Shield a free event:
You know we always like to shake things up and do things a little differently and keep our partners around the league on their toes. We wanted to raise money for our charity partners, and it just seemed like it’s easier …

Read more »

There’s been a recent flurry of Sounders news regarding games — newly scheduled games, re-scheduled games — here’s a quick reminder:

*The club leaves Saturday for Florida, where these games await: Monday, February 13 – 1 p.m. Training Game v Orlando City SC; Wednesday, February 15 – 8 a.m. Training Game v Columbus Crew; Thursday, February 16 – 7 a.m. Training Game v U17 U.S. National Team;Sunday, February 19 – 1 p.m. Training Game v Florida Gulf Coast University; Wednesday, February 22 – 4 p.m. Training Game v Atlante FC, Cancun, Mexico

*Jaguares de Chiapas of the Mexican Primera Division will provide the opposition for the Community Shield match Feb. 29 at CenturyLink Field. Admission is free, but donations for the club’s charity partners will be accepted at the gate. Gates will open an hour before the 7 p.m. kickoff, and seating is first come, first served through the lower east bowl.

*The Sounders announced that about 14,000 tickets have been sold for their CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinal home match against Santos Laguna on March 7. Tickets are available at SoundersFC.com.

Single-game tickets for the MLS season go on sale at 10 a.m. Monday … also Read more »

Here’s the news from the club:

The Seattle Sounders FC announced plans for the club’s third annual “Community Shield” match which will take place on Wednesday, February 29 at 7 p.m. on the Xbox Pitch at CenturyLink Field. The Sounders FC will face the Jaguares de Chiapas of the Primera División de México in a preseason match. This year’s match will be free of charge but the team is encouraging fans to pay it forward. Donations will be accepted at the gates for the team’s charity partners.

Proceeds from the match will benefit the team’s five community partners: America SCORES Seattle, Boys & Girls Clubs (King Co. & Bellevue), Special Olympics Washington, Washington Global Health and Washington Youth Soccer.

The Community Shield match is presented by adidas. During a halftime presentation, adidas will make a $2,000 donation to Sounders FC community partners and will host many of their youth soccer clubs at the match.

Gates will open at 6 p.m. Seating is first come, first serve throughout the lower east bowl.

The model for the event is based upon the “Charity or Community Shield” matches in England, where they are a long standing tradition featuring the champions of the FA Premier League against the winners of the FA Cup with all proceeds going to charity.

Read more »

Th Sounders have one more day off before returning to practice tomorrow at Starfire and then flying off to Florida on Saturday.

While awaiting local developments, here are a few items of note:

* The USA men’s national team has announced that it will face five-time World Cup champion Brazil in Landover, Md., on May 30. The match will be shown on ESPN2.

* Colorado traded MLS Cup hero Macoumba Kandji to the Houston Dynamo for a conditional draft pick in a move that is seen as opening space for a potential big addition. Click here. (For all the upgrades in the West this off-season, here’s a good overview of what’s been happening in the East.)

* Speaking of the Rapids, how about this plan to include the names of season-ticket holders on the team jersey.

Closer to home, here’s a Vancouver Sun piece on former Sounder Sebastien Le Toux warming to his new team: the Whitecaps.

Finally, here’s a piece from the University of Washington, with reference to recently released Sounders supplemental draft pick Abdul Aman:

The Huskies men’s soccer team had four players drafted or signed by MLS teams this year, tying for the most ever drafted from the team in a single year, and the most since four players were also drafted in 1998. Brent Richards, Jacob Hustedt, Jamie Finch and Abdul Aman were all picked up by MLS clubs.

Read more »

This just in from the club:

The Seattle Sounders FC announced today that the match versus Real Salt Lake scheduled for July 18 at CenturyLink Field has been moved to Wednesday, October 17. Start time and broadcast information will be announced at a later date.

The Saturday, September 8 Sounders FC match versus Chivas USA will have a start time of 1 p.m.

Here are some other highlights from coach Sigi Schmid’s conference call with local media today:

Can you give us an overview on how Arizona went and what’s coming up?)
A: “I think Arizona went well for us. I think we got the work done that we wanted to get done in terms of establishing our fitness base, so I was pleased with that. Part of building fitness is you also have to give guys a little time to recover and so forth, so we trained this morning. It wasn’t a regeneration morning training; it was a regular training session. We worked on our tactics and on our defending a little bit and then we’ll be off on Wednesday and Thursday. We’ll train again Friday and then we’re off to Florida. So we wanted to get a little break, make sure everybody saw their families, got a couple days off, regenerate a little bit and then we’ll get back to work in Florida.”

We heard about Mike Fucito having a puncture wound and the possibility of a staph infection after Monday’s game. How’s he doing?
A: “It really wasn’t that deep. He didn’t really have Read more »