Steve Zakuani

Defender Zach Scott and midfielder Steve Zakuani are both scheduled to undergo surgery this week.

Scott will have a sports hernia procedure in Philadelphia on Wednesday.

Zakuani will have reconstructive surgery on his right shoulder in Seattle on Thursday.

Both are expected to recover in time to join preseason training in January.

FROM: MLS Commissioner Don Garber

RE: Thank You and MLS Cup 2009

DATE: November 11, 2009

The inaugural season of the Seattle Sounders FC will forever be known as one of the key moments in the history of soccer in America.  I have no doubt that it was one of the most successful launches of an expansion team in the annals of professional sports.

When we launched the team, I never could have imagined that the Sounders FC would average over 34,000 fans per game and set records for season tickets and total regular season and playoff attendance.  As importantly, the Club captured the imagination of the entire city – from the “March to the Match” to the passionate fans and supporters who painted the town “green” each home game.

As an Inaugural Season Ticket Holder, I want to thank you for your commitment to the Sounders FC and your belief in Major League Soccer.  Your support has played a key role in the success of the Club and has established a new paradigm for what professional soccer can be in our country.

As you know, MLS Cup – the Championship of Major League Soccer – will take place at Qwest Field on Sunday, November 22nd.   As a season ticket holder, you received a ticket to this very special event.  I want to encourage you to “Give us your Full 90″ and support the Sounders FC and MLS by attending the match.

The Sounders FC had a terrific year – on and off the field.  We plan to honor all Sounders FC fans and players during a special pre-game ceremony before a live television audience on ESPN.

I hope I can count on you to continue to show a worldwide audience that Seattle is a great soccer city and the Sounders FC have passionate, knowledgeable and truly committed fans!

I look forward to seeing you at Qwest Field on November 22nd.

Montero, 22, from Barranquilla, Colombia burst onto the MLS scene in 2009, leading the expansion Sounders FC in scoring with 12 goals while recording seven assists to tie for the second highest total on the team with Nate Jaqua.

Montero got off to a blazing start with Sounders FC, tallying two goals and an assist in the club’s season-opening win against the New York Red Bulls before a sellout crowd at Qwest Field and live national audience on March 19. He was named MLS Player of the Week for Week 1 and MLS Player of the Month for March after scoring four goals and tallying one assist in the opening month.

Montero joined Sounders FC after four seasons with Deportivo Cali in Colombia. He spent the 2006-07 season on loan to Colombian squad Atletico Huila. The 2009 MLS All-Star was a key contributor to a Sounders FC team that found success on and off the field in its inaugural season.

Montero’s 12 goals included four game game-winning tallies – against the Red Bulls (March 19), the San Jose Earthquakes (June 13), the Colorado Rapids (June 28) and D.C. United (Sept. 12). Montero led the voting ahead of teammates Kasey Keller and Freddie Ljungberg, the other finalists for the award.

The Newcomer of the Year honors the player who is in his first season in Major League Soccer, but has prior professional experience, making him ineligible for Rookie of the Year honors. The award’s prior recipients were D.C. United’s Luciano Emilio (2007) and San Jose’s Darren Huckerby (2008).

Additionally from the club-

Montero finished tied for third in goals (12) and game-winning goals (4), and led MLS in shots (86) and was seventh in attempts on goal (32). He also scored the first goal in Sounders FC’s 2-1 victory over D.C. United for the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup.

Seattle goalkeeper Kasey Keller and midfielder Freddie Ljungberg were the other two finalists for Newcomer of the Year.

“This is a great honor for Fredy because he faced some formidable competition for the award within our own team,” said Sounders FC head coach Sigi Schmid. “He had a great first season in MLS, and we’re very proud of his accomplishment.”

Montero came to Sounders FC from Deportivo Cali. He twice led the Colombian First Division in scoring, including 2006-07 while on loan to Atletico Huila.

The 22-year-old Colombian was among Seattle’s four representatives in this year’s MLS All-Star game.

Montero made a most favorable first impression in MLS and has sustained a remarkable pace throughout the season. He made the transition to a new land and a new language while remaining one of the most prolific attackers in the league.

Scoring two goals and adding an assist in his debut match, Montero’s start was the strongest since Brian McBride in the inaugural season, and his three goals in the first two games was the most productive since Luciano Emilio in 2007. He was named March Player of the Month.

From June 13 to June 28, Montero scored in four consecutive games as Seattle went 2-0-2

Montero has exhibited power with his heavy outside blasts, plus creativity in beating defenders on the dribble. Two of his scores were voted MLS Goal of the Week. He finished tied for second on the team and ninth in the league with seven assists, and he suffered the second-most fouls (62).

Are you rooting for Houston, because they ended the Sounders’ season? Are you cheering on the Fire because you like to watch Blanco dive? Are favoring with LA because, well, they are LA? Or are you hoping that Real Salt Lake wins so you can see Kyle Beckerman’s Sideshow Bob hair some more?

Who do you want to win? Vote!

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.
Personally, I am rooting for the LA Galaxy to win the Cup over the Chicago Fire. No, I am not a Landycakes or Beckham fan, but I think that result raises the profile of the MLS Cup and of MLS itself to a much wider net in the US.

Luckily, LA & Chicago are the two top highest seeds in the East and West, so they are the “best” teams out there (so I don’t seem like a media whore). The highlights will be on ESPN, it willmake news; in the US and overseas. Imagine if Houston and Real Salt Lake are in the Championship??? Zzzz- it will get zero media attention- and let’s face it, more [positive] media attention IS a good thing- for MLS and soccer in the USA.

this season was a success any way you want to slice it, and there are 100 reasons why. so let me take some time to say thanks.

thank you osvoldo

thank you ben

thank you brad

thank you chris

thank you taylor

thank you jhon

thank you patrick

thank you kasey

thank you nate

thank you stephen

thank you seba

thank you roger

thank you freddie

thank you freddy

thank you sanna

thank you james

thank you zach

thank you jarrod

thank you nathan

thank you peter

thank you tyson

thank you steve

thank you evan

thank you mike

thank you lamar

thank you sigi

thank you brian

thank you tom

thank you adrian

thank you drew

thank you joe

thank you paul

thank you chris

thank you the rest of the FO that does all the work behind the scenes

thank you ecs

thank you gfc

thank you immortal

thank you nes

thank you fellow bloggers

thank you mike for doing the hard stuff while i get to write the drivel

thank you jt for filling in for mike when he was on one of his 12 vacations this year

thank you work for not tracking what i do all day at work, or if you do, then just kidding

thank you march to the match faithful

thank you dc united for giving us www.wewintrophies.com. if you hadn’t put that one out there, then we would never have had the thought to register www.butyoudidntwinthisone.com

thank you guy who sat in front of me for the barcelona game for getting so mad when we chanted “who are ya’ ” at messi

thank you band

thank you to my friends that voted me on the council

thank you golden scarf

thank you “becks” for visiting our site and providing us with what i think is the comment of the year

thank you $9 crap qwest beer

thank YOU for coming to our site, and putting up with my lack of capital letters and my lack of attention to grammer and all that junk and stuff…

thank you tifo makers

thank you FO for banning the thundersticks for the 3rd time

thank you kids behind me who have a hard time seeing but never complain that everyone is standing up

thank you older guy that sits near us who, all season, kept hitting his wife in the face while trying to do the “sounders..” clap clap clap chant

thank you to my baby daughter for not actually being born on your due date… march 19th

thank you ecs for laughing at yourself after the upside down flag incident

thank you LJ for driving me down to boeing field after the USOC win

thank you fellow 32,000 strong that made every player who came to play against seattle, want to play for seattle

thank you diehard seahawks fan (but soccer newbie) in front of me who wore his black leather seahawks jacket for the first 4 games, but then traded it in for a sounders jersey and soccerball hat for the rest

thank you ACES for showing proving how great our fans are by showing how pathetic you lot are

thank you soundersfc for making the playoffs in the very first year ON TOP of our USOC championship

and i would be remiss if the last and biggest thank you went to my wife who watched our kids for pretty much every game while i either went  to the game, or watched it at the pub

thank you SEATTLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLE

thank you SOUNDERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRS

please feel free to add, many of these are personal and i am sure you have fond memories of your own

Freddie Ljungberg (SoundersFC.com)

7 of the 8 teams who start the MLS Playoffs will end their season with a loss. Sounders FC will be one of them.

The Houston Dynamo ended the inaugural season for one of the most successful expansion clubs in MLS history in a 1-0 match in the Western Conference Semifinals.

After playing 90 minutes in Seattle and then 90 in Houston without a score, the two teams went to two 15-minute periods where former USL-Sounder Brian Ching scored on a volley from 9 yards out in the 96th minute.

The Dynamo held on to the lone goal and won 1-0 after 120 minutes.

More to come…

Seattle and the Dynamo meet on Sunday in the second leg of the Western Conference Playoffs in Houston. It will be the 5th match between the two squads after two MLS regular season games, the US Open Cup semifinal, and the first leg of the playoffs. The Sounders have won 2 of the 4 games and the other two were draws. Sunday’s match will have a winner- whether it is after 90 minutes, 120 minutes, or Penalty Kicks.

The winner of this “winner take all” match will take on the winner of the LA Galaxy vs. Chivas USA match in the Western Conference Finals.

Sounders fans can look for Head Coach Sigi Schmid to start the recent lineup featuring Fredy Montero and Freddie Ljungberg up front. Then Steve Zakuani, Brad Evans, and Nate Jaqua from left to right across the midfield. Osvaldo Alonso will join Evans in the central midfield position.

The Sounders Defense is anchored with Kasey Keller in goal with Leo Gonzalez and James Riley on the left and right sides respectively. Jhon Kennedy Hurtado was a finalist for MLS Defender of the Year in the middle and he the other Central Defender will either be Tyrone Marshall if he is a game-fit 100% or Patrick Ianni who in a last minute start in the first leg had Seattle’s two best scoring chances.

The Dynamo seemingly have all of their usuals at full strength. Ricardo Clark and Designated Player, Luis Angel Landin have used the 10 days in between games to recover to a near 100%. At home at Richardson Stadium, the Dynamo are 4-1 all-time- their lone loss was last year when the New York Red Bulls defeated them.

Seattle is 4-1-1 in their last 6 matches on the road and have won the last 4 matches on grass (they are 5-0-1 overall).

If the match is tied at the end of 90 minutes, two 15 minute periods will be played. If the score remains tied after 120 minutes, the game will be decided with a shootout.

Kickoff is slated for 12p. The game will be shown on King5 in the Seattle area and on FSN in the rest of the Pacific Northwest.

now i am going to try to be a little diplomatic here b/c we all have to recognize that, the mls is nowhere near the level of support found in most outher countries around the world. and, as a result, american football lines are inevitable on the pitch in some cases. i am not saying it is ok, or we should accept it, but at least we can all understand that it is going to happen.

so.. is a “disgrace” a good word?

actually, i think it may be. given that this is an MLS playoff match, how the heck can the stadium not work around this? I have looked, but i can’t tell if there was a ‘throwball’ game in the same stadium on friday… or  today. anyone know? if there was, then why not have the playoff game on thursday so you could play on a soccer pitch? it seems that the options were there, and houston punted… literally. they decided to play on american football lines and it is a bigger priority than the day they play on.

do i have all the facts? heh… probably not, when do i ever?… but should we be pissed… sure!!!! why? b/c we are fans… and watching an mls playoff game on throwball field is disgracful.

when the MLS….. ahem, if the MLS ever gets the credit it deserves in the US as a legitamate league, it will be a beautiful day.

UPDATE:950a Don Ruiz is happy to report that the football lines have disappeared overnight.