Perhaps buoyed by news that he was close to joining Portuguese giants Sporting Lisbon, Fredy Montero turned in one of his best performances of his loan to Millonarios. The former Seattle Sounders forward scored a pair of second-half goals to lead Millonarios to 2-1 win over first-place Santa Fe. At the same time, reports out of Portugal suggest Lisbon is expected to pay $3.25 million to secure Montero's rights.

How this news is taken by Sounders fans is highly dependent on previous expectations. It has been widely reported that the Sounders put a more than $4 million purchase fee on Montero's loan to Millonarios. That also was the estimated amount the Sounders would need to secure in order to net the full $650,000 allocation windfall.

The reported fee Lisbon is paying is obviously well short of that amount, but it should be enough to net a reasonable sum of allocation dollars. How much, exactly, is unknown but even a couple hundred-thousand dollars would grant the Sounders significant flexibility under a very constrained salary cap.