We’ve been playing great lately. We haven’t got the results we have wanted but that will come. As I see it, here in America the playoffs are the important thing. I was worried in the beginning of the year because we weren’t playing as well as we should have done. The way we played, even if we got some lucky results in the beginning, won’t win you the playoffs. Now we have showed a play that we can fall back on. We have made the opponents run, and not the other way around in the last two games and that gives you confidence. We have created a lot of chances as we did as well last year, but were missing a lot. I think that’s what the club saw and that’s why early on we signed Blaise. I hear he is a player that is always there in the box and puts in the balls. With that in mind I think we are moving in the right direction, and adding him in the summer there will be more goals scored.

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

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.

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Sounders.com

Finally we have played the first game and we won, it feels great. Think we started the game really well and created a lot of chances and maybe should’ve killed off the game before we did. A great team win.

Only negative off the game was their tackles from behind. Just something you don’t do as your opponent has no way off protecting themselves. Thankfully one of their guys got sent off but could’ve been more. I personally got a knee straight in my spine from behind shouldn’t happen that you can knee someone that high up when the ball is 3 yards away on the ground (Straight after the game we went to the ER to get my spine x-rayed as I couldn’t and still cant sit or lay on my back. Luckily no fractures. Only bone bruising. The doctor compared the injury with an NFL injury when someone uses their helmet to crash it into someone’s spine. Hopefully ill recover quickly). Then Montero got a similar one and then the guy was off. You just have to trust that the ref is doing their job and you just try to do yours. Have sometimes been very critical of the refs not doing anything about over violent play that can injur your opponent but I think the ref did a great job last night.

For me after the tackle on me my evening was over, tried to stay on to help the team until I thought the game was over in around the 60th min. During that time I couldn’t run but tried to use my experience to help the guys on the pitch. Something me and Siggi discussed at halftime.

Was great to see Fucito out there in the second half. He has really improved and looked great in pre season. Proves that if you work hard you get your chances. He has a great left foot look out for that.

You fans were absolutely amazing was nice to see and hear you guys again. Despite the heavy rain you were there in numbers and were very loud.

Thanks for the support.
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As everybody probably knows there has finally been an agreement on the CBA. The lawyers seems to have done a good job. Now finally we can concentrate on doin our job and that’s to play football. I am so happy. Really lookin forward to the first game of the season!!

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I watched Arsenal lose to Porto 2-1 in their Champions League match Wednesday, and that’s what I miss most about Europe: the big games like a Champions League knockout tie or a match against Chelsea or Man United. The atmosphere is electric; everyone’s on edge; it really, really matters; and the adrenaline is running really high. Those are the games that I always loved to play, and people say those were my best games.

I saw on TV that Cesc Fabregas was very disappointed — he said Arsenal made schoolboy mistakes. I understand his frustration because, at that level, you don’t expect to see those kinds of errors, which make it almost impossible to win on the road. Otherwise, I think Arsenal would have had a much better result, and it would have been much easier in the second leg.

I think Arsenal will be very disappointed with the first leg result, but in the end, it’s a good score in general to lose 2-1 and have the away goal. If they can win 1-0 at the Emirates, the Gunners are home-free. At the end of the day, I think Arsenal will still make it through.

In the Premier League, I’m excited because Arsenal are now only six points off the lead. After recent losses by Arsenal to both Man United and Chelsea, the Gunners were all but ruled out of the title race. It’s never good for your confidence when you want to compete for a trophy and you lose 3-1 to title rivals like Man United. However, with both Chelsea and Man United faltering themselves recently, the race is wide-open again.

As an Arsenal man, I’m hoping the other teams will continue to slip up again. Arsenal has an easier month of games coming up, so perhaps the gap will narrow further.

With the Sounders, we are in Spain right now in what has become the longest preseason I’ve ever played in. At Arsenal we typically trained for three to four weeks and then we played. We are training for about seven to eight weeks with the Sounders, so it’s hard to determine how hard to train and how hard to push myself. I talk a lot to the fitness coaches about how to plan that.

On the field, we have some unfortunate injuries to some key players, but I hope they can be back at the start of the season. In MLS, that becomes difficult because of the salary cap. When you lose some of your starters, you can’t just replace them with new players.

Before coming to Spain, we were in Arizona for nine days before making a 27-hour journey to Europe that, from boarding the plane to arriving at the hotel, was the longest trip I’ve ever taken! But we’re working hard and we’re getting fit.

Compared to the teams that are here in Spain, we’re pretty unfit. It’s early in our preparations, so it’s going to be difficult for us in the games, which is a pity. I would have loved to come here and show what type of team we have when we’re in full flow. I think that’s something that the Europeans need to see. It just comes too early for us to show how good we are.

I remember, during one year with Arsenal, we played an afternoon game at a tournament in Amsterdam against Barcelona. The day before and earlier that day we ran and worked in the gym so much that we couldn’t move, and Barcelona beat us 3-0. We were all upset because the game was televised all over Europe and we were making fools out of ourselves. But our coach told us it was the Premier League that matters, not the preseason, and that the result didn’t matter too much. It’s good to get fit in preseason games — the quality will come later.

We will be in Spain until Saturday, when we go back to Seattle. It will be nice to finally get back to living a normal life.

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PS You find my column at ESPN Soccernet

Photo: Sounders.com

Been in training camp in Arizona for a week now. We have been running our asses off and we are all a bit tired, but no pain no gain… Being in camp there is lots of time around the hotel, why it was nice last night when we all went to the NBA game Phoenix Suns vs Portland Trailblazers.

Some of us in the squad plays a friendly tonight, but I am one of the ones resting. Tomorrow we return back home.

That’s all for now from Arizona.
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