I have been thinking long and hard about the next step in my career and I am extremely happy to announce that I will be the newest member of the Chicago Fire Soccer Club and I will join the team this Sunday in Los Angeles. I had a very long and exciting meeting with Andrew Hauptman and Frank Klopas; the vision they shared with me about taking Chicago to the next step and becoming a power house in the MLS was extremely appealing to me. I am very much looking forward to working together with my teammates and becoming an active part of the community which has such a strong, successful sports tradition.

I also want to add, as a huge hockey fan, congratulations to the Chicago Blackhawks on winning the Stanley Cup. I look forward to introducing myself a bit better at the press conference next week in Chicago.

I felt I wanted to say something. When I’ve been out and about in the city, the enormous support and appreciation I’ve got from people on the street has touched me deeply.  So I just wanted to say a humble thank you to all the people of Seattle and to my teammates who have shown me so much love during this time with a million people speculating.

THANK YOU,

F

On a personal note, I am back playing center midfield again, which i love. Us playing 3 in the middle gives us an advantage in possession.

Lets hope we can go on a little winning streak and get some points. Think a win on saturday will put us second in our division

//F

Been two big nights of football. The Champions Leagues semi finals. What every player is looking forward to. It very hard to come this far. So what happened in the games are sad. First Lyon vs Bayern. Criss gets sent off for clapping his hands at a yellow card he didn’t agree on. In my opinion this is not a stage of the competition where referees are suppose to make statements for small petty things. Let the players play. Thats what everyone want to see. If the referee feels offended or whatever he felt, talk to Criss that if he does it again he will get a second yellow and sent off or bring it up after the game with the referees representatives for next years competition but don’t kill the game for something like that.

Then we have the Barcelona-Inter sending off. Everyone that has played the game at a decent level knows that when you are being followed by another player from behind in the middle of the park you are thought to put out your hand behind you to feel where the opponent is! There is a MASSIVE difference from putting out your hand to hitting out an elbow!!! To me that the referee sends him of on his second yellow or not the referee needs to have a feeling for the game. Motta was only feeling what he had behind him with his hand unfortunately he connected with his face but with no power at all. If you wanna give a free kick for hand in face do that but don’t send someone off. That happens so many times in a game (a small reflection, I’m short 176cm. When I feel behind me I normally feel the stomach or chest of my opponent but players that are taller still must be allowed to feel with their hand behind them as long as the don’t hit out with it). In my book you just don’t send someone off for that in a semifinal. To much on stake to make a mistake like that. Referee probably thought it was an elbow but if you don’t see it you can’t do what he did. After that the game was dead to me. Wanted to see these two great teams battle it out now it just became a tactical game. Felt sorry for Inter and Motta but mostly for all football fans in the world. Everybody was looking forward to two of the best teams in the world to clash heads and see some great football from two different football schools.

My motto is let the players decide who will win. Not the referee! If there is bad tackle etc send player off but not for petty silly things like this. But that’s just my opinion. Lets now look forward to the final and hope it’s gonna be a great one.

On end note I would like to say Mourino is probably the best tactician in the world!!! Whatever we think about how Inter played they were absolutely amazing defensively. Barcelona away is probably the hardest place to play in the world. He has done it with Chelsea and now with Inter.

//F

Sounders.com

After calming down the feelings. Here comes a reflextion from the game.

Extremely disappointing to draw against the defending champions away when we were 2-1 up and  they score the equalizer in the 94th minute. Think they are the best team in the league to keep the ball and that is something we have to look at and work on. It is inspiring to see how well they play football and something that I admire them for. We had some more chances in the 2nd half on counter attacks but unfortunately we couldn’t make them count. When you play the defending champions away from home you know it’s gonna be a hard game. We lost there last year and struggled. In this game we put out a team for counter attacking. Think we did that well but unfortunately the win slipped threw our hands in the last second.

On a personal note 2nd half felt great. Got the ball to go at the defenders a bit. Felt great we scored from a free kick as well. There was a lot of Sounders fans in the stands which was great to see. The stadium was packed so it was a great atmosphere on the whole.

/F