Tomorrow is the expansion draft for MLS. The expansion draft happens when new teams join the MLS. This year the Portland Timbers and The Vancouver White Waters will join the league. Each team gets to have eleven players that cannot be drafted. The Sounder's protected players include Kasey Keller, Fredy Montero, and Steve Zakuani. Each team will lose two unprotected players to another team but once a team has lost one player they may add one more to their protected list. One big surprise came when the Swiss striker Blaise Nkufo was not included on the Sounder's protected list after the big commotion of getting him after the World Cup brake.

The Protected Sounders:

Fredy Montero

Steve Zakuani

Jeff Parke

Brad Evans

Mike Fucito

Nate Jaqua

Alvaro Fernandez

James Riley

Kasey Keller

Jhon Kennedy Hurtado

Osvaldo Alonso

Players that can be traded:

Baudet, Julien*

Boss, Terry

Earls, Danny*

Estrada, David

Gonzalez, Leonardo

Graham, Taylor

Ianni, Patrick

Levesque, Roger

Marshall, Tyrone

Montano, Miguel

Nkufo, Blaise

Noonan, Pat

Nyassi, Sanna

Scott, Zacharias

Seamon, Michael

Sturgis, Nathan

Wahl, Tyson

*Were traded for Peter Vagenas from the Colorado Rapids

The End Has Come

The Sounders season ended Sunday with a 3-1 aggregate loss to the Galaxy. In the second game the Sounders played as if they were winning 2-0 not losing. The Galaxy's super star line up pretty much dominated the entire competition with two goals from Edson Buddle and one from Omar Gonzales. By the end of the game the Sounders were desperate and put five forwards in in attempts to score a goal. A goal finally came from Steve Zakauni in the the 86th minute but it wasn't enough. A lot of credit has to go to the British football star David Beckham who had assisted both goals in the second game. The Sounders were disappointed hoping to have mad all to way to Toronto on November 21.

This Saturday the Sounders gained a shutout against the Chicago Fire the final score being 1-0. During the game Kasey Keller of North Thurston High had a spectacular save. Blaise Nkufo scored the only goal with a gorgeous feed from Steve Zakauni. The Sounders went in knowing they were facing a desperate Chicago team. The Fire has gone 4 games without a win and the Sounders have one their last three games. The Sounders are now deadlocked with the Colorado Rapids for a spot in the play-offs. The Sounders are now 11-9-6.  

Today was the first day of my last season of soccer practice. For me soccer practice like a practice for any other sport is a love hate relationship. You know it is good for you and so you need to work hard but you also know that you really don't want to and your body doesn't want to either.  So I hope that this year will be a year that the team learns a lot and works hard. Go Eagles! :)

Vote for the World Cup to Be in the U.S. in 2018!

Sign the petition for the World Cup to be in the U.S. at www.gousabid.com .

Sounders beat Chivas USA 3-1 which means they get to host the championship game of the 2010 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup. The goals came from Nate Jaqua in the 9' and the 92' and Fredy Montero. The Sounders won the Open Cup last year playing the championship game at D.C. United.  They have gone six games against MLS teams without losing and they went seven games including CONCACAF games without losing until they lost to Monterrey on August 25. The Sounders have been on a roll since they traded the midfielder Freddy Ljungberg to the Chicago fire. They beat the Fire last Saturday 2-1. The forward Fredy Montero was awarded player of the week this week. Steve Zakauni returned last Saturday after missing five games from a minor pelvic injury. Sanna Nyassi missed the game yesterday and will miss the game Saturday against the Revolution because he was called by the Gambian national team for the African Cup of Nations.

30 Million Strong

Today is the hundredth anniversary of the popular Brazilian club SC Corinthians Paulista. The Corinthians have about thirty million fans nicknamed the "Fiel" (Portuguese for faithful or loyal) which is the second largest amount of fans in Brazil after the club Flamengo. Thirty million is more than the population of Australia (twenty-two million) or the population of Chile (seventeen million) added to the population of Portugal (twelve million). The Timao (a nickname meaning the big team) is one of the most successful in Brazil having won the first edition of the FIFA Club World Championship, the Brazilian Serie A four times, and the Brazilian Cup three times. The clubs official mascot is the musketeer but another important symbol is Saint George. Their current coach is Adilson Batista and one famous Brazilians who played for the club is Ronaldo. The Corinthians anthem is:

Salve o Corinthians

(Hail Corinthians)

O campeão dos campeões,

(The Champion of the champions)

Eternamente dentro dos nossos corações

(Eternally inside our hearts)

Salve o Corinthians de tradições e glórias mil

(Hail the Corinthians of thousand traditions and glories)

Tu és orgulho

(You are the pride)

Dos esportistas do Brasil

(Of Brazil's sportsmen)

Teu passado é uma bandeira,

(Your past is a flag)

Teu presente, uma lição

(Your present, is a lesson)

Figuras entre os primeiros

(You stand among the firsts)

Do nosso esporte bretão

(Of our British sport)

Corinthians grande,

(Great Corinthians)

Sempre Altaneiro,

(Always towering)

És do Brasil

(You are Brazil's)

O clube mais brasileiro

(Most Brazilian club)

The Away Kit

The Home Kit

Hopes of a Home at AC Milan

Today was the transfer deadline and AC Milan seems stacked with Brazilian talent including Ronaldinho, Alexandre Pato, and their newest arrival twenty-six year old striker Robinho.  The Italian club signed Robinho less than twenty-four hours after signing on Zlatan Ibrahimovic from Barcelona. They both signed four year contracts. Robinho hopes to find a home at Milan after joining Manchester City in 2008 with a record transfer fee of thirty-two and a half million pounds. But the forward was unsettled at Man City and played the second half of the last season on loan to the Brazilian club Santos.

Soccer Crazie

Some Americans say that the reason soccer doesn't pick up in the US is because it is too slow and goals are few and far between. But, I happen to disagree wholeheartedly I say to those people that they probably have never watched a whole game to see how addicting it can be. You are glued to your seat for two forty-five minute halves waiting for the next goal and you can not do anything during that time in case during the few moments you turn away you might miss something epic. A soccer game is full of edge of your seat up and down suspense. Soccer is a dominating religion in some countries they worship legends like Pele' and Franz Beckenbauer.  They take time off work for the World Cup. They lay everything aside for ninety plus minutes for pure excitement. In one city in Brazil they painted every public building green and yellow for the World Cup. In the US half the people I ask didn't watch a second of the World Cup one person had no idea who Landon Donovan was. This to me is a tragedy. This glorious sport is not as widespread as it ought to be. And so I dedicate this blog to those poor ignorant souls so that they may inherit the joy that us fervent fans possess. This blog will contain everything to do with soccer from local school games to the MLS (mostly the Sounders) to national teams to individual soccer stars. I hope you will follow my ranting and raving over this amazing and unique sport!