Sounders

The Sounders and Seahawks have a new Chief Operating Officer in Chuck Arnold, a 20 year veteran of the Seattle sports scene. Perhaps one of you can enlighten me as to whether or not it's a new position: No other name is mentioned in this or any other story on the matter.

Catch up with Adrian Hanauer and reactions on recent moves in the Sounders FC Roundtable Podcast from last week.

Pro Soccer Talk's Steve Davis speculates that Oguchi Onyewu may be a target of Seattle's 2nd spot in the Allocation draft sometime early this year.

The Sounders lost some fan favorites last weekend, resulting in some new stories behind "enemy" lines about the players they've acquired. Portland's got a look at Steve Zakuani, and Mauro Rosales reflects on his time with Seattle, saying he would have "loved to retire" here. Meanwhile, Bigdsoccer reflects on another goodbye to Kenny Cooper, homegrown hero.

MMA fighter Mighty Mouse often rocks Sounders gear thanks to a sponsorship deal with X-Box. It seems he kicked some butt over the weekend, as this gif attests to. He's got his unique goal celebration already figured out.

MLS

The coaching vacancy at BC Place has finally been filled, with the naming of Carl Robinson as Vancouver's fourth head coach in as many years. Robinson was previously an assistant coach under Martin Rennie, and after flirting with the likes of Bob Bradley for a month and a half, Vancouver settled for someone closer to home. Former 'Cap Davide Chiumiento chimed in to celebrate the move.

Chivas USA has changed a date in Southern California with the Seattle Sounders from June 11 to September 3rd. By then they'll presumably have a head coach (never know with Chivas) and now they're looking at Curt Onalfo.

Portland is officially into the Champions League after the seeding for the tournament was changed to favor the conference leaders over the MLS Cup finalists. Still waiting for fans to bitch about "rule changes".

The rags-to-riches story of Sporting Kansas City is an unlikely one, going from the most destitute frontier in the league to MLS Cup Champions with one of the top game-day experiences in the country. This story from The Kansas City Star follows the transfiguration from beginning to end. The team's so big now that multiple players have been invited to appear in The Nutcracker.

Toronto FC appears confident that they will be adding Jermain Defoe to a team suddenly overflowing with star power (including Gilberto). Will it be enough for the Canadian club to reach their first postseason? Presumably in order to keep under the cap, Toronto traded Bobby Convey to the New York Red Bulls in return for two draft picks.

Convey will now be a teammate of Roy Miller, who has signed with MLS again to remain in New York for the forseeable future. Which is more than can be said about Thierry Henry, who will be on the BBC's call of the World Cup in Brazil.

Two more MLS Transaction notes: DC appears to have grabbed Conor Doyle out of Derby County and Lovel Palmer is off to Chicago Fire for allocation. Strikes me as strange to see trades from a team that still hasn't found their next head coach (unless I missed something?)

Brian Ching played in a testimonial match in Houston which included many of his teammates for the Dynamo glory days of 2006/2007. Ching scored four goals in the 6/4 win by the Orange.

World

In what could be a coup for the expansion Houston Dash, Tony DiCicco is in the running to be the first head coach of the new NWSL team. DiCicco was a coaching juggernaut in Women's Soccer when he ran the USWNT in the mid-late nineties.

Lazio continues to send flirtatious looks out Fredy Montero's way, hoping to woo the player setting the Portuguese League on fire.

A look into the going's-on of German Superclub and MLS All-Star opponents Bayern Munich reveals a team concerned about their place in their environment, artificially deflating prices of tickets to allow regular Joes (or is it "Johans?") to attend games.

Carles Puyol, 35 year-old captain of Spanish juggernauts Barcelona, is considering a move to MLS. The story mentions him owning property in New York.

We mentioned Bob Bradley earlier, and it appears he is lobbying for the open spot at West Bromwich Albion.

Monterrey was knocked out of the Club World Cup over the weekend. Disappointing. That could have been US getting knocked out of the Club World Cup.