Seattle Sounders FC announced today that it has released preseason training players Kevin Sakuda, Hugo Alcaraz-Cuellar, Kenji Treschuk, Youssouf Kante and John Fishbaugher.

Fishbaugher is a former member of the Tacoma Tide and the USL Sounders.

The Sounders completed their initial part of training at the Seahawks facility in Renton today. A practice that had been scheduled for Saturday has been canceled. Next, the team shifts to Oxnard, Calif., for training and its first friendlies, Monday through Feb. 14.

That’s the take of the Vancouver Sun in this story, which portrays the stadium troubles in Ottawa as an opportunity for Vancouver.

I hope they’re right, because Seattle-Vancouver certainly seems to hold more rivalry potential than Seattle-Ottawa.

I missed training today while heading off to Arizona with the UW basketball team.

However, FC kindly sent along some quotes from Sigi Schmid’s meeting with the media, and I’m passing along a few highlights here:

On today’s training regiment: "Today’s training we wanted to make a little bit shorter then over the last couple of days. We did a little bit of fitness at the very beginning with Dave (Tenney). Then we had a little bit of a fun that wasn’t as much running in it. And then we just wanted to work on a game where

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After weeks of negotiation, defender Jeff Parke has decided to test the soccer waters overseas.

"We have been in touch with Jeff Parke’s representatives,” general manager Adrian Hanauer said through a news release today. “We are aware that Jeff is planning a trip to Belgium and has tryouts with two clubs. We think Jeff is a tremendous player, and that’s why we were willing to risk selecting him in the expansion draft. We will continue to keep in close contact. We continue to hold his MLS right and we’re hopeful that he will some day play for Seattle

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The Sounders’ 30-game regular-season MLS schedule was released today (see posts below).

This morning I got a chance to discuss a few aspects of it with general manager Adrian Hanauer and coach Sigi Schmid.

A few highlights:

Hanauer overview: “It’s never perfect. It is front-loaded. We take some rough road trips at the end of the year. But it is what it is. We just need to focus our energy on taking care of business, getting points wherever we can and hope that we’re in the playoffs at the end.”

Hanauer on the early

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Sounders 2009 MLS regular season schedule

March 18 vs New York

March 28 vs Salt Lake

April 4 at Toronto

April 11 vs Kansas City

April 18 at Chivas USA

April 25 vs San Jose

May 2 at Chicago

May 10 vs Los Angeles

May 16 at Dallas

May 23 at Colorado

May 30 vs Columbus

June 6 at Chivas USA

June 13 vs San Jose

June 17 vs DC United

June 20 at New York

June 28 vs Colorado

July

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The 2009 MLS schedule has been released.

The Sounders’ will open the season with a pair of home games: the previously announced March 19 game vs. New York at Qwest field and then home to Real Salt Lake on March 28. Then they head to Toronto April 4.

Here’s the release from MLS:

The 2009 MLS regular season kicks off Thursday, March 19 with a spirited and historic match – the inaugural game of Seattle Sounders FC. In front of an anticipated capacity crowd at Qwest Field, U.S. goalkeeping great Kasey Keller and Sounders FC will

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MLS reports “slight technical delays” with the release of the regular season schedule, which was planned for 9 a.m.

They say it should be up shorts, and I’ll post as soon as it is.

(Meanwhile I see that San Jose has found a jersey sponsor: Amway. Not as cool as X-Box, but …