According to this article. It's certainly an intriguing idea, him joining the USMNT, but my understanding is that it takes 5 years from Green card to citizen. I honestly can't imagine that Zak would want to wait that long, especially if you consider that would make his first World Cup hopes 2018. I still think it would be great to see him out there but between the wait and the US being overflowing with good midfielders it seems like it wouldn't really be the best choice for him. Then again, he could turn into something really great in a few years. Who knows?

Official MLS release here. What does this mean for the Sounders? Who knows, I wouldn't be surprised if the Nkufo signing was made with this already in mind. Our biggest issue would be clearing roster space to accommodate up to 2 more Designated Players, but I'm sure we have the money to sign big name guys. This is clearly a move made with the World Cup year in mind and certainly in the hopes that certain Thierry's might decide to mosey on Stateside after the Cup is over. I think it will be very, very interesting to see how this plays into things and to see what the Sounders do with it. Lots of possibilities.

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Up to 3 DPs per team. Much lower cap hits overall. Now can be offered to a player under contract already.

www.24thMinute.com will have the teleconference.

Here. It looks like the ownership has been told that they are free to comment it up. I happen to also really hope this doesn't get to the stage of a strike as I suspect it will be bad for everyone involved. He makes some arguments that make sense. Of course, he's an owner so he clearly has a serious stake in things being looked at from his point of view. I do think it is potentially hopeful that he points out that both sides will have to lose something to get a new deal hammered out. Unfortunately it seems pretty clear that the free agency thing is what players want and also what the owners won't allow. Uggh. The whole thing is just a mess.

Update: More here.

It's really hard to judge everyone's place on this one, but I will say that it looks like the owners might have a bit of a point in terms of revenue. The problem is the players also have a good point with the free agency thing. There must be some sort of compromise in there somewhere, even if it is just free agency for veteran players.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=731376&sec=mls&cc=5901

So, basically they both aren't pleased he is staying in Sweden until the labor dispute is resolved. I'm not particularly happy to hear that Freddie's head isn't really in Seattle as much as he says, but what options does he really have? It would seem that unless he negotiated some out into his contract, he is here for the next year unless the Sounders agree to sell him to someone. Regardless, not all is happy in Sounders land.

Recently Fangraphs introduced their swing stats which showed how often a player swung at pitches in and out of the zone, how often they made contact and how many pitches in the zone they saw. Guess who is #5 in the majors when it comes to swinging? That's right Frenchy who swings at a whopping 56% of the pitches he sees. That includes a large 36.5% of pitches outside of the strike zone. By contrast, Kelly Johnson swings at a miniscule 19% of pitches outside the zone and our favorite hitter Chipper at a tiny 15.75% of pitches outside the zone. Problem anyone? Oh and he only makes contact 60% of the time he swings at those out of the zone pitches.

He should do better.