With the end of the season firmly in the past, the only thing Seattle is looking forward to is the CONCACAF quarter final game against Santos Laguna on March 7th. Changes have been made to the squad with departures and arrivals over the offseason some of which were expected, others that were a surprise.
All together the Sounders lost nine players, the first departure was a major one, with Kasey Keller (GK) retiring from football. Seattle saw another two players retire in Terry Boss (GK) and Graham Taylor (D). Montreal made a definite impact by James Riley (D) in the expansion draft and then Tyson Wahl (D) and Miguel Montaño (MF) were traded to Chivas USA.
Two players were taken in the re-entry draft with Pat Noonan (F) and Nate Jaqua (F) going to LA and New England respectively. Finally Erik Friberg (MF) wanted to be closer to home, so saw a transfer to Swedish side Malmö come his way.
So with some areas for concern, Seattle got to it, adding to their already successful squad. The first area to be dealt with was the goalkeeping situation that was left void by Keller, and up steps Michael Gspurning, 30, (GK) from Greek side Shoda Xanthi. Once Gspurning was onboard, the arrivals began to show up with Marc Burch, 27, (D) taken in the re-entry draft, Adam Johansson, 29, (D) signed from Swedish club Göteborg and Christian Sivebæk, 24, (MF) from Danish side FC Midtjylland. The latest signing to the roster is Cordell Cato, 19, (M/F) who signed from Trinidad & Tobago side Defense Force FC.
The latest addition saw a new face join in a trade from Montreal, where U.S. International Eddie Johnson swapped places with Mike Fucito and Lamar Negale.This addition is surely going to boost Sounders fire power and offensive selection.
Seattle also acquired a few new faces in the 2012 SuperDraft with Andrew Duran, 22, (D) picked 15th overall from Creighton University, and Babayele Sodade, 21, (F) 34th overall from University of Alabama-Birmingham.
Along with all of these new additions, the Sounders have the added bonus of key players coming back from injury, like Steve Zakuani who I believe will be a player reborn after his severe injury in the 2011 season.
The whole roster will be hoping to make things difficult for Sigi Schmid, when he makes his team selection on March 7th, but for now the team are focusing on getting fitter and stronger for the upcoming MLS season.
(image courtesy of mlssoccer.com)
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