Dave's random mumblings…

The momentum is building and with 10 points out of the last 12 available in the league this looks a lot like the team we expected to see at the beginning of the year.

First there was Sundays great performance at San Jose, and it really was a great performance from Seattle. Unquestionably the better side throughout the game, the first 20 minutes were some of the best end-to-end team football they’ve played this year. The effort shown in the second half when San Jose threw caution to the wind in the effort to get a point at home was very solid.

I think the biggest difference between today and a couple of months ago is the workrate and effort from the entire team. Having Osvaldo Alonso back made a huge difference to Seattle’s second effort, he played a very physical game and really controlled the midfield.

The passing was crisp, possession was controlled, and when the ball was lost a lot of effort was put into getting it back. In the past it’s not been quite as hard fought in the middle of the field.

Montero looks so good right now, the more I see him play the more I’m convinced hes going to be a very, very good player. He’s maturing and with players like Sanna Nyassi and Fernandez feeding him he’s got a chance to keep the scoring streak going.

Tonight was the second leg of the CONCACAF Champions League preliminary round game. Seattle led 1-0 from the first leg in El Salvador was all they needed to go through to the group stage. The pitch looked marginal and the rain never let up for the entire game, but once again we saw a solid team performance that got the result they needed.

This turned out to be a very entertaining game, both teams played decent football. Metaplan went ahead before half time with a well-taken goal that gave Keller no chance.

From then on Seattle clearly had a majority of the possession and were playing well enough that they were going to score sooner or later. There were a couple of close off side calls, one of which had Levesque through on goal, but Seattle looked comfortable and patient looking for the opening.

The chance fell to substitute Alvaro Fernandez. He scored his first goal in a Seattle shirt with about 15 minutes left to play. With away goals counting double Metapan needed to score twice to go through. It was not happening tonight, Seattle looked to competent to allow that to happen again this year.

So another six games this year, including with games in Mexico, Honduras and Panama over the next three months. That sounds like a fun way to spend a few days vacation this fall.

Sounders are now 7 games undefeated in all competitions (league, Open cup and Champions League), the team have moved into play off contention and seem to be hitting form at the right time.

Sunday is Houston at Quest, a team we are building a very nice rivalry and the first meeting since Seattle were bumped out of the play offs by Houston last year. Another win and three points would go a long way to securing that play off place. Going to be a fun night under the lights.

Ljungberg has moved to Chicago, with what’s happened over the last few weeks it is clearly a move that makes sense for Seattle. I don’t know if what went wrong will ever fully come out, rumours are there was a significant rift within the club. Schmidt, Hanauer and most vocally team captain Keller all questioning Freddie Ljungbergs commitment to the team. I’m sure over the next month or two we’ll learn more and more about what actually happened.

Freddie before the DCU game in June

Ljungberg was the second player signed by the team, Sebastian Le Toux was the first, and this signing did a lot for the franchise. It gave the entire organization an instant level of credibility months before the first ball was kicked and that they were willing to spend the money to attract top level talent. In short it made the football world take a little notice of this new club in the MLS.

In return Ljungberg has been a great ambassador for the league and club. He’s been very generous to the fans and has been clear that overall he’s enjoyed his time both at the club and living in the Pacific Northwest.

On the flip side he has occasionally held himself to a slightly different standard than the rest of the side with occasional weekends off and reporting late to training camp with no consequences because of a “misunderstanding”. To be fair to Freddie, the management has allowed it to happen.

Being late to the pre-season camp in Seattle earlier this year does seem to have particularly upset some of his teammates, most vocal was Casey Keller. But it started an undercurrent of discontent that may have led to his leaving the club with only a couple of months left on his contract. Additionally he’s had a somewhat public falling out with Sigi Schmidt over his discipline and attitude towards referees during games.

There is no question the Freddie has been on the receiving end of some vicious tackles, it seems to be a tactic that a number of teams employ against the more skillful players. It’s one of the things the MLS needs to take care of if they want to see the game played the way it can be.

Once he was dropped from games and was training alone it was just a matter of where he would go, rather than if he would go. His agent said a number of English and Italian clubs were interested in signing Ljungberg. The fact he ended up at Chicago rather than an ambitious European club looking for leadership shows that the interest never went much beyond a quick phone call to his agent.

From section 130 watching Freddie on the ball over the last 18 months was a treat. Clearly he was one of the most creative players in the league. The league never really suited his style fully, but when ever he was on the ball there was a chance that something interesting was going to happen. He did occasionally let his frustration that his team mates were not always at his level show, but generally he played his role as a leader well on the pitch.

I’m looking forward to welcoming Freddie back to Seattle on August 28^th when the Fire comes to RBP.

Thanks Freddie.

The move of Ljungberg to Chicago coincides with the arrival of Uruguayan international Alvaro Fernandez from Nacional.

This is the sort of player the league needs to attract. Signing big names like Beckham, Blanco, Henry and Ljungberg make a big splash in the sports pages and get people looking in the leagues direction. However it does not do much for the credibility of the league as a whole. Football in America and MLS (rightly or wrongly) has a reputation as a bit of a retirement home for big names.

Some of this is the legacy of the NASL where huge names like Pele, Beckenbauer, Alberto, Cruff, Moore and so on came to the league for a last big pay cheque before easing into retirement. This gave the league huge interest around the world and in some markets put bums on seats, but did nothing to add credibility that the NASL was a good or stable league.

If you have any interest in what led to the excesses of the NASL it’s worth looking for “Once in a Lifetime: The Incredible Story of the New York Cosmos” written by Gavin Newsham. It goes into this in some detail and is a good read. In short the lunatics were running the asylum, and in the case of the NY Cosmos running it with other people’s money with little accountability.

Back to Seattle’s new signing Alvaro Fernandez and why I think this could be more important the New York signing Thierry Henry.

Today Fernandez is not going to sell as many Seattle shirts as Henry will in New York, but I hope that’s not how the league defines success.

He’s clearly a very skillful player. He was part of a Uruguay side that played some attractive football and made the semifinals of the World Cup. He is only 24 and has shown the ability to be successful at the top level, his signing has a massive upside, is only going to develop and get better over the next couple of years.

To be realistic the MLS is not a league that talented players around the world aspire too. The complex contract structure, single entity ownership, salary cap and relative popularity in a packed sports market place ensure that the MLS is never going to be“destination league” for the world’s best players.

However there are still a couple of roles it could take going forward, namely either a place to send promising players for a few seasons and see what they have, or a retirement home for big names. Given the choice I’d far rather the MLS be seen as a top level development league and finishing school for players like Montero (who is a potential superstar) and Fernandez.

Big day for live sport yesterday. It started with the first real, all day long Alpine stage on the Tour De France. There is something just awe inspiring about cyclists doing 20KPH along steep alpine roads, and I mean inspiring in a “WTF, are you serious” kinda way.

The end of the live coverage of Le Tour dovetailed nicely into the start of the live coverage of the British GP. A very interesting race that Mark Weber led from lights to flag, the first corner saw the two Red Bull cars going at each and giving no quarter. Vettel came off the worst, but clearly not all is happy between the two Red Bull drivers (and both are under contract for next year at the same team).

Weber won, Ferrari had a disaster, Vettel drove from the back of the field to finish 7th and Rosberg beat Schumacher once again. Hamilton finished second and is still the championship leader, 12 points ahead of his McLaren team-mate Jenson Button, had a great drive to finish fourth after driving through the field after qualifying a disappointing 14th.

As the champagne spraying slowed down the pre-game for the World Cup Final was just starting up. A lot has been written elsewhere about this game, the best team won. Not sure if Holland’s coach, Bert van Marwijk, took inspiration from the way Inter Milan beat Barcelona in the Champions League final, but the Dutch went out to throw Spain off their game and get something. They came close, going forward the Holland looked good at times. Ultimately Spain was too good, the goal superbly taken, a tough chance made to look easy.

One story that’s got more press than it probably should have done was Paul the physic octopus. He continued his perfect record at picking the results of World Cup games involving Germany, and after Germany was eliminated, the final.

After Paul predicted an Argentine loss in the quarterfinals, Paul got death threats and recipes for braised octopus sent to him. German fans repeated this over reaction after he called the semi-final, correctly once again.

At this point I went into work for a couple of hours to finish a couple of things for meetings today. Nothing interesting, but to round off the day of sport was Seattle hosting Dallas at Quest Field. Seattle needs to the points, is yet to beat a team in their conference (home or away) this year. Dallas is one of the teams that are fighting for a play off place and need the points as much as Seattle does.

There were a number of changes, both forced and unforced. Ljungberg was out with an ankle problem (hopefully real, not a “transfer window is almost here” ankle problem), Noonan, Marshall and Vagenas were dropped. Seamon, Sturgis, replaced them and Jaqua got his first start of the year after his return from injury.

These changes along with the inclusion of Montano provided a very different look, and they played with a lot of energy and for the first half played some of the best football I’ve seen all year from Seattle. They played far better as a team that last weeks big loss to LA (a very good team by the way).

Seattle went in at half time 1-0 up, good possession and some nice passing meant the lead was well deserved. Riley connected with Seamon, who swung in a cross into the box for Montero to head past Hartman. It was a well-worked and finished goal. Seattle looked comfortable coming in at half time.

Things changed shortly after the restart when Montaro was sent off, there was a hard tackle by Dallas’ Shea, and the two players had a big coming together. The ref said Montaro threw an elbow and he was sent off for retaliation. I was in the bathroom and caught the replay on the TV’s and did not see a sending off offence on the replay.

The call seemed very harsh, especially after watching the Dutch play earlier. Had there been a MLS referee in charge of the World Cup final there would have been 7 or 8 players left on the pitch.

Seattle 1 - 1 Dallas

Seattle played down a player for close to 35 minutes, the team defended well, defended in depth and worked very had to keep the lead. It took a very well taken goal in the 87th minute to equalize.

Another result they probably should have had, the defending was good enough that I had some confidence they were going to hold onto the lead despite being down a man. Keller made a couple of good saves and it took a very good header to beat him.

There are a lot of positives to take from the game, the improvement over the LA game was clear. The younger players did themselves no harm and hopefully gave Sigi something to think about for the game at DC United on Thursday.

Another big night at Quest field. Once again not the result I had hoped for, coming away with a 3-2 loss.

Pre-game entertainment this time included the worlds biggest grill! Its not going to fit on my deck, or even the driveway.

The BIG grill

Onto the game… DC have the worst record in the league, but after a horrendous start have picked up 13 out of a possible 15 points coming into the game tonight and were on something of a hot streak. Seattle was also looking good and had a lot of momentum after dominating New England Saturday. It looked like a good match up, and other than the score line it was an entertaining game to watch.

The ECS unveiled a huge and very impressive banner of Keller holding up the US Open cup prior to the game. This was the trophy Seattle won last year by beating DC United at RFK. Best titfo so far this year, nice job by the Emerald City Supporters.

Nothing like a big game under the lights

The game started out at quite the pace, both teams came out to play good football, the ref was quick to throw a couple of yellow cards and did a good job at keeping control. Seattle certainly had the best of the first half hour, they had long periods in control when they played some very entertaining passing football.A couple of shots on goal, one header from Noonan that went very close, but few other really good chances continue the theme we’ve seen a lot this year.

Unfortunately and not for the first time this year the opponents first goal came against the run of play. I was in the bathroom and missed it, but the noise left no doubt about what had happened.

A few minutes later the second DC goal came via an uncharacteristic fumble by Keller shortly before half time.

Even though they went in at half times 2-0 down, it felt like they had the best of the first half and there seemed to be some optimism for pulling it out in the second half.

This was extinguished when Chris Pontius completed his hat trick with a very pretty lofted header to the far post with about 15 minutes left to play.

Seattle Sounders 2 - DC United 3

Seattle made it exciting by scoring twice in injury time, James Riley got a lucky deflection that gave DCU keeper Troy Perkins no chance. A minute later Fredy Montero added a second. Seattle had one more chance but it was not enough to pull out the win. Troy Perkins had a good game, he made a couple of good saves to keep Seattle scoreless until late in the game.

Seattle had plenty of play and lots of chances, but once again was struggling to actually get shots on goal. The passing was typically good, but following the usual story broke down in the last quarter of the field.

There were exceptions, Ljungberg especially seemed to relish having the ball at his feet and had one of his best individual games. He got into it somewhat with the ref during the second half and collected another booking, but I find it difficult to find fault with his play. Most of the good chances came through him at some point in their build up.

Ljungberg having a slight difference of opinion with the Ref

Seattle is off for a couple of weeks now and hopefully once we get back from the World Cup break Nate Jaqua and Osvaldo Alonso will hopefully be back from injury. The addition of Swiss forward Blaise Nkufo sometime after the Swiss are eliminated from the World Cup could be huge.

The other thing to remember is the interest in Montero and Ljungberg shown by European clubs during the last transfer window. The next chance for European clubs to sign players starts in early July. CSKA Moscow were supposed to be interested in Montero, I’ll be interested to see if he’s in green for Seattle’s next home game on July 11^th.

As a sports fan in Seattle 2008 was pretty bad. Sonics left to become the Thunder (and they still suck), the Mariners were unbelievably bad, the Seahawks were rough and the Huskies did not win a game.

As someone who used to go to most of Coventry Cities home games before moving to Seattle, I understand disappointment and suffering is a fundamental part of the fan experience. I used to think not flirting with relegation in the last couple of weeks of the season was a good year.

That expectation was reset on opening night. When I brought season tickets I never imagined anything like that happening, the atmosphere was incredible and 32,000 people made it a night to remember. So much fun, it started with the march to the match and just kept going for the next three and a bit hours. The first goal followed by the second and third, Sigi paying tribute to the USL Sounders by sending Roger Levesque on as a late sub so the faithful could show their appreciation. I’ve been to a lot of games and that night is pretty close to the top of the list.

Barcelona and Chelsea visited mid season and showed two packed houses how the game can be played. Barcelona especially were sublime, the way they controlled the pace of the game was beautiful to watch.

The MLS is a physical league and some Seattle players have been on the receiving end. The refereeing has not helped, lets just say the quality has been mixed. There are a couple of refs that have let games go and been consistent in their calling, but they are in the minority.

I love the game and at the beginning of the year I saw a team that would be fun to watch, had a lot of firepower in Montero and Ljungberg, but big holes in defence. I did not see many 0-0 games on the cards. I was partially right, the team played some very entertaining games, but the defence led by Keller and JKH was tighter then I’d ever imagined. However up front it became a season of missed chances and a big swoon during the middle of the season where scoring seemed little more than a dream.

Next year we get to see CONCACAF Champions League, hopefully we get an away game somewhere south of the border with a beach, that would be a fun trip.

There are three games left, the Sounders are in the thick of the playoff hunt. Yes it would be nice to have it all wrapped up before the Dallas game, but a big Saturday night under the lights with the playoffs on the line would be fun, the atmosphere will be electric. Nights like that are why I watch the game.

This has been an interesting year. Sigi Schmid and Adrian Hanauer succeeded in putting together an expansion team that has at times been very entertaining to watch, incredibly frustrating at other times with missed chances galore. The one thing it’s never been is boring.

I’ve loved every game at Quest, the season tickets were a great investment and there was no question about what was happening when the renewal e-mail arrived this week. Big thank you to the ECS and the other supporters for making the stadium the envy of the league. I can’t imagine how good it’s going to be in 2011 when Portland and Vancouver join the league. That’s going to be fun.

The question that keeps comming up in conversation is what’s been the problem with scoring?

Montero has more than lived up to his billing preseason, very exciting to watch, and while clearly not quite the finished product ready for the Premier league, I would not be surprised to see him playing in Europe after January transfer window. He would make a great goal poacher feeding off all the loose balls in the box.

Nate Jaqua is the enigma, moments of great play, his first touch is above average, but why can’t a 6’ 3” forward score with his head? He’s played for 7 clubs over the last 6 years and that is a telling stat. I wonder if he will go unprotected once again in the expansion draft in a couple of months. He is not a classic center forward able to take on defenses by himself, he seems to need players making complementary runs to create space for him to play into, and that’s not happening.

I’ve talked about Zakuani before, and it’s no secret I’m a big fan. He’s certainly on the radar of a lot of European clubs, another year in Seattle under Sigi would be great, but I think playing back in the UK is in his future. Exciting to watch, not afraid to run at defenders and as the season has gone on he’s got a better understanding of what’s going on else where on the pitch and that’s made him even better.

Then there is Ljungberg, unquestionably the best player on the pitch and perhaps the league. I love his passion and vision, whenever he gets the ball expectation builds and more often than not he delivers.

He has been asked to do a lot. Roaming in midfield close behind the front two from wing to wing is a lot of ground to cover. Close to every attack goes through him at some point on the way forward. I’m not sure if this is by design, or if he feels the success of the team rides on his shoulders.

This may have been part of Jaqua’s problem, as Ljungberg moves forward with the ball it’s forcing Jaqua out wide, out of his natural position and taking space away from Zac (or Le Toux). In turn gives less space to the defenders and Brad Evans to move forward to provide the second effort to regain possession and recycle it forward when the ball is blindly booted clear of the opponents penalty area.

The team seems to play a more natural, flowing game when Ljungberg takes less upon himself, plays a more central attacking midfield role, the game still flows through him and he still gets to scare defenders when running at them. That’s when Freddie is at his best, and that’s when the team seems to click a little better.

It’s easy to forget that this is an expansion team, with a core of players that stay together for the next couple of years this team will only get better as they build the database of other teams and each other. Its been fun, and the product on the field is only going to get better and better.