MLS Seattle Sounders FC

Sounders FC News & Notes

Published on January 11, 2012 under Major League Soccer (MLS)
Seattle Sounders FC News Release


Seattle to Select Two in Thursday's SuperDraft

The first red-letter date of the 2012 MLS season comes Thursday when the MLS SuperDraft is held in the Kansas City Convention Center. One week later, on Thursday, January 19, Sounders FC begins preseason training at their Starfire Sports grounds in Tukwila, Wash.

With the 2012 SuperDraft condensed from three to two rounds, Sounders FC is left with a pair of picks on draft day, including the 15th overall selection. ESPN2 coverage of the first round begins at 9 a.m. PT. MLSsoccer.com will live stream the second round.

In addition to its 15th overall selection, Sounders FC also holds the 34th overall pick. Newcomer Montreal Impact holds the first selection in the 2012 SuperDraft. Nineteen picks will be made in both rounds.

Seattle also has four picks in the four-round Supplemental Draft, which will be held on Tuesday, January 17. Sounders FC traded its 15th overall pick to Chicago for rights to Sammy Ochoa and acquired the 33rd overall selection from Dallas (originally Colorado) for Chris Seitz. Seattle also holds the 34th, 53rd and 72nd selections in the Supplemental Draft.

Sounders FC representatives at the SuperDraft will be general manager Adrian Hanauer, head coach Sigi Schmid, technical director Chris Henderson, assistant coach Brian Schmetzer and assistant coach/scout Kurt Schmid.

Sounders FC Draft History

2009

Round (Overall)

1 (1) Steve Zakuani FW Akron

2 (16) Evan Brown DF Wake Forest

3 (31) Jared Karkas DF Azusa Pacific

4 (46) Mike Fucito MF Harvard

2010

1 (11) David Estrada MF UCLA

2 (27) Michael Seamon MF Villanova

3 (43) traded to Houston for Patrick Ianni in 2009

4 (59) Jamel Wallace DF San Diego State

2011

1 (11) traded to Portland with international spot (alter HOU) for allocation money in exchange for 2nd round pick

2 (20) Michael Tetteh DF UC Santa Barbara

Acquired from Portland

2 (21) Leone Cruz DF SMU

Acquired from D.C. for Stephen King

2 (27) Servando Carrasco MF Cal

Acquired from Chicago for Freddie Ljungberg

2 (29) Bryan Meredith GK Monmouth

3 (47) Alex Caskey MF Davidson

2011 Supplemental

1 (11) Josh Ford GK Connecticut

2 (29) Corey Attaway MF UC Irvine

3 (47) Sean Morris MF Seattle U.

Tickets for CONCACAF Champions League on Sale Soon

The start of the season is fast-approaching with kickoff set one week earlier than last year. Sounders FC will open the 2012 campaign at home against Mexico's Santos Laguna in the CCL quarterfinals on March 7. Tickets for the quarterfinal match will go on sale on Monday, January 30 at 10 a.m. PT. Tickets will be available at www.SoundersFC.com, by calling 800-745-3000 and the CenturyLink Field Box Office as well as all Ticketmaster outlets.

Sounders FC Signs Danish Midfielder Christian Sivebaek

Seattle Sounders FC has signed Danish midfielder Christian Sivebaek following his transfer from Denmark's FC Midtjylland. The signing will be finalized upon receipt of Sivebaek's P-1 visa and International Clearance. Per Major League Soccer and club policy, terms of the transfer and contract were not disclosed.

Sivebaek, 23, has played for Midtjylland in Denmark's Superliga since 2006. He has been deployed at midfield and right back, appearing in 80 league matches and scoring six goals. Sivebaek has represented Denmark at various youth levels 19 times, scoring twice.

His father, John Sivebaek, also played professionally in Europe for 17 years, including seasons with Manchester United and France's Saint-Etienne and AS Monaco. He was a member of Denmark's 1992 European champions and the 1986 World Cup selection, and he earned 87 caps altogether.

Sivebaek started with his hometown club, Vejle. At age 16 he became one of the first eight youths to join the Midtjylland Academy. He signed as a professional two years later.

Sounders FC Announces Broadcast Team

The Seattle Sounders FC today announced Ross Fletcher has been hired as the club's play-by-play announcer and Kasey Keller will serve as analyst. The duo will be heard on all local television and radio broadcasts.

Fletcher has spent the last five and a half years as a football commentator and reporter for the national stations BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra, covering the English Premier League and the Championship. For the past year he has also been a regular voice across the station's schedule as a sports bulletin presenter.

For seven years Fletcher was the voice of Derby County for BBC Radio Derby, commentating on the English Premier League and Championship. His most memorable call was the 2007 Championship playoff final in which Derby beat West Bromwich Albion in front of 75,000 fans at Wembley Stadium. During his time at the station, he was part of the highly successful team which won the coveted Sony Radio Academy 'Station of the Year' title three times in five years.

Keller completed his 20-year professional career in 2011 by earning MLS Goalkeeper of the Year and Best XI honors. He served as the Sounders FC captain and was an All-Star selection each of his three seasons. From 1991 to 2008 the Olympia, Wash. native played in Europe while accumulating U.S. National Team goalkeeping career records for most caps (102), wins (53) and shutouts (47). Keller played in three of the world's top leagues: England's Premiership, Spain's La Liga and Germany's Bundesliga.

All Sounders FC MLS league matches not aired nationally will be carried live in high definition on KING-5 or KONG-6/16. All locally broadcast matches will also be aired either live outside of Seattle or on a delayed basis throughout the Northwest on ROOT SPORTS. Each match will also be aired live on the radio home of Sounders FC, News Talk 97.3 KIRO FM.

Upcoming Key Dates (times are Pacific & subject to change)

Thursday, January 12 - 2012 MLS SuperDraft, Kansas City, Miss.

Tuesday, January 17 - 2012 MLS Supplemental Draft

Thursday, January 19 - Sounders FC Training, Starfire Sports, Tukwila, Wash.

Saturday, January 21-Sunday, January 22 - Sounders FC Open Tryouts, Starfire Sports, Tukwila, Wash.

Wednesday, March 7, 7 p.m. - Sounders FC v Santos Laguna, Xbox Pitch at CenturyLink Field, Seattle, CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinals - first leg

Wednesday, March 14, 5 p.m. - Sounders FC at Santos Laguna, CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinals - second leg

Saturday, March 17, 7 p.m. - Sounders FC v Toronto FC, Xbox Pitch at CenturyLink Field, Seattle

Sounders FC 2012 Season Schedule Announced by MLS

Major League Soccer has announced the entire 34-game 2012 schedule for Seattle Sounders FC, including 12 matches that have been selected to be televised nationally on either ESPN or NBC Sports Network.

Sounders FC will play the first three matches at home, beginning on Saturday, March 17 versus Toronto FC. This marks the fourth straight year that Seattle has opened at home.

Seattle and Toronto received byes from MLS on the opening weekend of March 10 through March 12. Both clubs are involved in the quarterfinal round of the CONCACAF Champions League.

Sounders FC will host Mexico's Santos Laguna in the first leg of their Champions League series on March 7 on the Xbox Pitch at CenturyLink Field. The second leg is March 14 in Torreon, Mexico.

All three of the encounters with the Portland Timbers will be telecast nationally, including the sole home date on October 7 and a September 15 matchup on NBC. The first of six matches on the NBC Sports Network will be March 23 versus the Houston Dynamo with the former voice of Sounders FC, Arlo White, on the call.

As MLS had previously announced, Seattle will face fellow Western Conference teams three times and Eastern Conference clubs once. Sounders FC will travel twice to both Portland and Vancouver. The Whitecaps FC travel to Seattle on August 18.

Fourteen of the 17 home matches will be played at night. Eight home dates are on Saturdays, four on Sundays and Wednesdays and one on Friday.

The final home game is on October 21 against FC Dallas. The regular season concludes on October 28 at L.A.

After hosting the Houston Dynamo on March 23 and the San Jose Earthquakes on March 31, Sounders FC makes its first road trip to D.C. United on April 7. There are three consecutive road matches in late June and early July. Three of the four flights to the Eastern Time Zone occur within a four-week span of early summer.

The unbalanced schedule will bring the MLS Cup champion Galaxy to CenturyLink on two occasions, along with San Jose, Real Salt Lake and Colorado. In addition to Portland and Vancouver, Sounders FC will play twice at FC Dallas and Chivas USA.

Seattle's travel distance in 2012 will be reduced by an estimated 18.5 percent from last season. Sounders FC logged an estimated 50,582 miles by air and land in 2011, compared to 41,220 for this upcoming season.

All Sounders FC MLS league matches not aired nationally will be carried live in high definition on KING-5 or KONG-6/16. All locally broadcast matches will also be aired either live outside of Seattle or on a delayed basis throughout the Northwest on ROOT SPORTS�. Each match will also be aired live on the radio home of Sounders FC, News Talk 97.3 KIRO FM.

The Champions League quarterfinal winners advance to the two-leg Semifinal Round, which will begin March 27-29 and conclude April 3-5. The final is set to begin April 17-19 and conclude April 24-26.

The team will later announce an additional friendly to be included in the season ticket package. Season tickets can be purchased by visiting www.SoundersFC.com or phoning 1-877-MLS-GOAL.

Visit www.SoundersFC.com for the complete MLS schedule.

Brad Evans, Jeff Parke Called In by USA

Seattle Sounders FC announced that the U.S. National Team has called in midfielder Brad Evans and defender Jeff Parke for a training camp that will run through January 26 in the United States and Panama.

The camp began January 3 in Phoenix and moves to the U.S. Soccer National Training Center at The Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif. from January 13-20. The U.S. will host Venezuela on January 21 at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Ariz. On January 25 the U.S. faces Panama in Panama City.

Evans, 26, has four international caps. He was last called in by the USMNT for the February 2010 friendly with El Salvador, playing the full 90 minutes at right fullback. His first three appearances came during the 2009 CONCACAF Gold Cup. Evans is a native of Phoenix.

Now entering his sixth MLS season, Evans scored five goals and added five assists for the Sounders FC in 2011. He appeared in 20 MLS regular season matches, starting 17.

This will be Parke's first national team call-in. The 29-year-old center back is a veteran of seven MLS seasons. Parke was Seattle's 2011 Defender of the Year and started 28 league matches (38 in all competitions), scoring one goal.

Throw-ins

The kickoff for Seattle's game at Vancouver on May 19 has been changed to 2 p.m. PT...Two birthdays coming up on Monday, January 16. Assistant coach Ezra Hendrickson turns 40 and midfielder/defender Michael Tetteh will be 23...Sounders FC broadcast analyst Pete Fewing has been hired as the head coach of men's soccer at Seattle University. During his first run at Seattle U. from 1988-2005 Fewing's teams won 220 games, including the 1997 NAIA and 2004 NCAA Division II national championships...Kent native Michelle French has been hired as the head coach of the Sounders Women.

Check out the Seattle Sounders FC Statistics

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Major League Soccer Stories from January 11, 2012


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