World 3, MLS 0

It was a bad night for Major League Soccer clubs involved in international matches, as Chicago lost in the SuperLiga Cup final and New York was booted from the CONCACAF Champions League. Then, there was the exhibition in Seattle.

In the third annual SuperLiga, Mexican club Tigres defeated MLS's Chicago Fire 4-3 on penalty kicks after the Cup final finished 1-1 AET.

New York, meanwhile, lost the away leg of their home-and-home with T&T side W Connection 2-1 and were bounced 4-3 on aggregate from the CCL.

Finally, European champs Barcelona filleted the Sounders 4-0 due to the "strange alchemy" of Lionel Messi.

Sound the bell, they're off

MLS's newest franchise smoked MLS's most disappointing franchise, as the Seattle Sounders defeated the New York Red Bulls by a score of 2-0 in the opening game of the MLS season. It a pretty ugly game, the Sounders pace showed that New York still have not addressed their defensive issues from a year ago. Goals by Colombian new boy Fredy Montero and former Crew striker Brad Evans gave Seattle their first win in their first game. But before Drew Carey starts dreaming too big, they should consider just how poor of a performance New York turned in. Here are the highlights:

MLS Superdraft: The sound of one hand clapping

If a league holds a draft and no one is around to report on it, is it still Super?

MLS held its annual craptacular Superdraft. Click here for the results. If you've read my blog, you know that I don't put much stock in MLS's annual Superdraft.

But his year's draft was notable because it featured MLS newest franchise, Seattle Sounders FC. With the first overall pick of their first Superdraft as an MLS club, Seattle chose English striker Steve Zakuani of the University of Akron. He was Soccer America's Player of the Year and the pick by many MLS mock drafts (yes, they exist...some people have too much time on their hands I guess). Will he live up to the hype? Well, history's certainly against him (see Chris Carrieri et. al.). But recently the performances of the No.1 picks have been a bit more mixed (exhibit a: Nikolas Besagno-2006, exhibit b: Maurice Edu-2007 and exhibit c: Chance Myers-2008).

Other Seattle selections were Wake Forest defender Evan Brown, left back Jared Karkas from Azusa Pacific (a Christian college) and midfielder Michael Fucito from Harvard. Seattle did well to draft defensively in the later rounds, as most clubs have had more success in the Superdraft finding defense rather than offense.

Sounders pick through the litter

The Seattle Sounders, MLS's 15th team, selected from the list of unprotected players and began to assemble the squad that will begin play next summer. Apparently they spent more on Ljunberg and Keller than I thought or they are planning another spending splurge soon because they went bargain hunting, selecting some head scratchers in Wednesday's expansion draft.

1. Nate Jaqua (Houston Dynamo) - 174K
2. Nathan Sturgis (Real Salt Lake) - 108K
3. Jeff Parke (New York Red Bulls) - 59K
4. Jarrod Smith (Toronto FC) - 36K
5. Khano Smith (New England Revolution) - 46K
6. Peter Vagenas (Los Angeles Galaxy) - 144K
7. Tyson Wahl (Kansas City Wizards) - 33K
8. James Riley (San Jose Earthquakes) - 33K
9. Stephen King (Chicago Fire) - 18K
10. Brad Evans (Columbus Crew) - 33K

The last two picks are probably the smartest. King and Evans will certainly pay back an investment of $51,000. And Pacific Northwest homeboy Jacqua is a good selection. Khano Smith is underrated, as is Jeff Parke, but Seattle is going to pay too much for Sturgis. And why would you want to spend that much on old Vagenas. I mean Vagenas is stinky. He doesn't get much play. Why would you pay that much for Vagenas? Even Amish teens on rumspringer would stay away from Vagenas at that price.

Sound choices for Seattle's draft

Since Freddie Ljungberg certainly counts as Seattle’s designated player and goalkeeper Kasey Keller was probably signed for around the 200K mark, the Sounders have about 1,800,000 to spend on an opening day roster.

The following is an assembled starting 11 that would be both economical and competitive. I'm not thrilled with Eddie Gaven (despite his recent resurgence with the MLS champions), but beggars can't be choosers. So I splurged on Rohan Ricketts. Don't you want 50 Cent sportin' a Sounders kit at his next concert? I’d like to put the rest on a gift certificate, Mr. Sajak.

GOALKEEPER

K. Keller (?)

DEFENDERS

C. Waibel (70K), I. Joy (120K), P. Ianni (108K), W. Barrett (149K)

MIDFIELDERS

R. Ricketts (213K), N. Grabavoy (90K), T. Cooke (173K), C. Ashe (33K)

FORWARDS

F. Ljungberg (?), E. Gaven (165K)

Note: 2008 salary in parenthesis

MLS draft? Already?!?

Well, sort of. Major League's newest franchise will be selecting among the league's unprotected players in a special draft on Wednesday. Having already signed a netminder and a goal-scorer, who will they go after to complete the team? And with Freddie Ljungberg up top and Kasey Keller between the posts, does it matter? Here's a list of decent players from each club with the fat excised (for a complete list click here):

Chivas USA
Razov, Ante
Suarez, Claudio
Talley, Carey
Victorine, Sasha

Chicago Fire
Brown, C.J.
Carr, Calen
Herron, Andy
King, Stephen
Prideaux, Brandon

Colorado Rapids
Burciaga, Jose
Cooke, Terry
Erpen, Facundo

Columbus Crew
Evans, Brad
Gaven, Eddie
Noonan, Pat
Oughton, Duncan

FC Dallas
Davino, Duilio

D.C. United
Doe, Francis
Dyachenko, Rod
Gallardo, Marcelo

Houston Dynamo
Ashe, Corey
Barrett, Wade
Ianni, Patrick
Mulrooney, Richard
Onstad, Pat
Waibel, Craig

Los Angeles Galaxy
Franchino, Joe
Kirovski, Jovan
Klein, Chris
Vagenas, Peter

New England Revolution
Smith, Khano
Thompson, Wells

New York Red Bulls
Magee, Mike
Wolyniec, John

Real Salt Lake
Deuchar, Kenneth
Joy, Ian
Kovalenko, Dema
Mathis, Clint
Williams, Andy

San Jose Earthquakes
Grabavoy, Ned
O'Brien, Ronnie

Toronto FC
Ricketts, Rohan
Ruiz, Carlos
Velez, Marco

In other news:

Wizards acquire forward Adam Cristman from New England for allocation money and Kansas City's natural 3rd round selection in the 2009 MLS SuperDraft. Bargain for KC.

Notes from around MLS

Introducing Thierry Henry? Ronaldo? Nah.
Next year's newest MLS franchise, Seattle Sounders FC, is inviting fans to come out the Qwest Field a little early, as in this Thursday, to attend a "special player announcement" press conference. Seattle is calling it an "historic event." Could it be the unveiling of Thierry Henry as Seattle's first DP? Probably, not. What's more likely is that it is Washington native Kasey Keller. But I wouldn't call that historic -- at 38 years old maybe you could call it prehistoric. I kid because I love.

A baseball fan, a NASCAR fan and a soccer fan walk into a bar...
Chivas USA have teamed up with Auto Club Speedway and the Los Angeles Angels of MLB to create ticket packages for those imaginary people who like all three of those sports. But I have to say, I've never met a soccer fan who liked baseball or NASCAR OR a NASCAR fan who liked foreigners or soccer OR a baseball fan who liked exercise.

Time to fire up the FIreClavijo web site again
The Rapids are 2-5-3 in their last 10 matches. They have scored a paltry 14 goals in 10 matches and allowed 16. Their only wins came against a Angel-less New York and a team in just as much turmoil as they, FC Dallas. But for some reason Fernando Clavijo is still employed. Could a change be in the thin air of the Mile High City? It depends on how you interpret Hercules Gomez recent post-loss comments:

"This one hurts. Three in a row at home hurts. The last three games we have had the better of the play. That's soccer and let's be honest: Something is not working, something is not right, something has to change. We are all professionals and we know what comes with the territory. I think we need to come out with a different attitude. Deciding to play the last 15-20 minutes of the game, every game, isn't really working out."

Clavijo must have naked pictures of Stanley Kroenke.

DC go deeper than Wells
DC have added a new goalkeeper to challenge current starter Zach Wells for time between the sticks. Liberian keeper Louis Crayton has been participating in practice with the team while paperwork is completed to add him, possibly before Saturday's match at Chicago. Crayton has played for eight Swiss clubs in 11 years and made 36 national team appearances.

RSL stands for Recycled Striker Land
Guess who's returning to MLS? Everyone's favorite, fat beer-guzzling Georgian -- no, not this guy -- Clint Mathis. The Galaxy currently hold the rights to Mathis, but are reportedly willing to trade them to RSL. A deal is close to being finalized.

Revs target Tico tough guy
After acquiring, then trading Pat Noonan, it appears that the Revolution are going to use their higher allocation spot to bring in 24-year-old Costa Rica defender Gabriel Badilla from Deportivo Saprissa.

Disarray in Dallas continues
I've said it many times before, but the firing of Steve Morrow was the beginning of the end of a team that at one time had potential to be a force in MLS, now they're just a farce. Their latest brain fart? Let's ship our future, MLS All-Star Juan Toja, off to Bucharest. Ok, so they were successful in keeping one player from jumping off their sinking ship (Kenny Cooper), but how do you allow Toja to be lured away by a team called FC Steaua Bucuresti. Oh, but they're not done, as they added forward Jeff Cunningham from Toronto FC (where neither got significant playing time) in exchange for a third round pick in the 2009 SuperDraft. Cunningham? Are you serious? I won't rehash my feelings on Cunny, but FC Dallas' incompetence in player personnel is mind boggling. The 'oops also added Dutch striker Victor Sikora, 30, who doesn't appear to bring a lot of firepower, having only scored three time in 46 appearances with NAC Breda.

RSL adds Double-R, the second
No, not Robbie Rogers. Robbie Russell. I know what you're thinking. Who? Russell is a 30-year-old American right back who has never been capped and has plied his trade in Norway and Denmark. So, there's that.

MLS homecomings continue

According to the Houston Chronicle, American forward Nate Jaqua has been offered his old job back, temporarily.

Dynamo president Oliver Luck told the chronicle that they have offered the 26-year-old striker a contract to rejoin the Dynamo with an eye toward trading him to the expansion Seattle Sounders FC. Jaqua has reportedly expressed a desire to play in Seattle because it is close to his native Oregon.

Jaqua left Houston last December for Cashpoint SC Rheindorf Altach in Austria, playing just half a season before being released.

In other transfer news, San Jose is waiting on league approval of their new signing Brazilian midfielder Francisco Lima. Lima played for Brescia in Italy last season, his fourth team in three years.

Sounders go XBox Live

Major League Soccer's next new club, the Seattle Sounders FC, announced that Microsoft would be their official shirt sponsor and previewed the kit with "Xbox 360 Live" emblazoned on the chest.

I'm not going to get into the whole debate surrounding shirt sponsorship and should they be featured so prominently on the jerseys. Mainly because it is a debate that I care very little about. Soccer haters in this country often point to it as somehow un-American. For them, I have six letters N-A-S-C-A-R.

More importantly, does this mean that MLS can finally get decent representation in the video gaming industry, beyond EA Sports throwing a league a bone? What ever happened to that shitty game ESPN MLS Extra Time? I think it was a Konami game, so they could use a winning 11 platform.

This game is lame

Seattle Sound the Same

To quote Jane's Addiction: nothing shocking. Fans voted to name the new MLS franchise in Seattle after the USL.1 club. According to the press release, over 14,500 fans voted and half of them submitted write-in votes -- "49% of which included a derivative of the name Sounders." But what is derivative of the name Sounders? Sound? Noise? A long surgical probe FC? Maybe HotForWords could explain. Along with their uninteresting, uninventive name, they unveiled their colors and crest (oh, green and blue in Seattle...how original).