Here’s a couple of takes from the Houston and Salt Lake City players on the Dynamo and Real players who moved to the Seattle Sounders in the Wednesday expansion draft:

Nate Jaqua leaving Dynamo for Seattle



By Bernardo Fallas

Houston Chronicle – November 27, 2008

As expected, the Dynamo lost forward Nate Jaqua to Seattle Sounders FC in Wednesday’s MLS expansion draft.



Jaqua, who re-signed with the Dynamo over the summer after a six-month stint in Austria, tallied four goals and four assists in 14 league games, including 11 starts.

Read more »

There are 10 new names to go on the backs of those green Sounders FC jerseys, as the team seemed to do pretty well today, with a nice mix of young players with experience.

Here’s the TNT report on the draft.

Here’s the take from general manager Adrian Hanauer:

"We feel like we got a great mix of players. We got an experienced veteran who has been there in the trenches and played lots of MLS games in Peter Vagenas. We got mid-tier experienced guys in Parke, Jaqua and Khano Smith. We’re very excited about the

Read more »

The Sounders currently have four players. On Wednesday, they will add 10 in the MLS expansion draft — giving them enough to field a team.

Here are the expansion rules and the list of players made available by the other MLS teams on Monday.

The Columbus Crew won the MLS Cup league championship over the New York Red Bulls today, ending the league season.

Next time the league laces up the boots, Seattle Sounders FC will be in the club.

And the intriguing question is whether Crew coach Sigi Schmid will be Sounders coach Sigi Schmid by then.

His contract ended when the season did, and his name has been mentioned in connection with the Seattle job for a while. And that was even mentioned on the game telecast today.

Here’s a recent update from ESPNsoccernet.com.

…

Read more »

The MLS 2009 season will begin March 21, a week earlier than usual.

That’s one of several changes regarding MLS competition issues announced by commissioner Don Garber.

Full information is available at the MLS website.

Here are the highlights:

Competition elements for the 2009 MLS season are:

Rosters:

Following an extensive review of the operation of the Reserve Division over the past four years, MLS has decided that it will be more efficient to cease operation of the Reserve Division and to divert funds from its operations to more

Read more »

The Sounders have already announced their main TV deal, but now they have added an interesting relationship with FSN that should work out as a nice bonus for fans.

Here’s their news release:

The Seattle Sounders FC and FSN announced today a multi-year agreement that will increase the broadcast exposure for soccer fans in the Northwest. FSN will also serve as the presenting sponsor of the Sounders FC Members Association, which provides the team’s supporters one of the most integrated and unique connections to the franchise in all of sports.

"From day one, we pledged to

Read more »

The USL first division took another shot this week with the Atlanta Silverbacks’ announcement that they will sit out the 2009 season.

The Silverbacks cited the economy, and the Atlanta markets’ efforts to step up to Major League Soccer.

Here’s more.

The New York Times did a very good, wide-ranging question-and-answer session with MLS commissioner Don Garber, which amounts to a state-of-the-league session.

Here’s the link.