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MLS Notes: Sounders find Keller’s successor, Fire cut Ferrari and more

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The Seattle Sounders' search for Kasey Keller's successor has been completed.

Seattle announced the long-rumored signing of Austrian goalkeeper Michael Gspurning on Wednesday, ushering in a new era between the posts at CenturyLink Field. 

"First off, you don't replace Kasey Keller. What you're looking for is a new goalkeeper," Sounders coach Sigi Schmid said in a team release. "We like Michael's background and pedigree. We like his size. He's got good feet so we can play through him and he's very good on crosses, takes good angles and has good hands."

The 30-year-old, 6-foot-5 Gspurning was a veteran of the Austrian domestic circuit before moving to Skoda Xanthi in Greece in 2007. The club's interest in Gspurning dates back to this past summer, and general manager Adrian Hanauer hinted at a potential signing in an October interview with the Seattle Times.

Here are a few more items from around the league:

FIRE CUT FERRARI, NAZARIT

The Chicago Fire stockpiled forwards last season, adding a whole host of names to the depth chart, but a couple of those have failed to make the cut heading into the 2012 season.

The Fire parted ways with former U.S. Under-20 striker Gabriel Ferrari and Colombian Cristian Nazarit on Wednesday, releasing both players from the club. 

For the 23-year-old Ferrari, the transaction signifies a disappointing end to a comeback attempt after he joined MLS following a loan-filled journey in Italy and Switzerland. He tore his left ACL in a reserve match in late August and faces another uphill battle to get his career going.

TORONTO FC ADDS LAMBE

Toronto FC added another winger to its player pool by signing 20-year-old Bermuda international Reggie Lambe.

Most recently on loan with Bristol Rovers in England, Lambe came up through the Ipswich Town youth ranks before making the senior team in 2009.

Lambe has only scored in one game on the international stage, but he did so in grand fashion, tallying four times in a victory over St. Martin in the 2008 Digicel Cup.

IMPACT SIGN MONTANO

Miguel Montano became the latest member of the NASL Montreal Impact to join the MLS side, inking a deal with the club on Wednesday.

The 20-year-old Montano joined the impact on loan from the Sounders over the summer and scored once in six appearances. Montano is the second former Sounder to join the impact after Tyson Wahl was acquired on the day of the expansion draft.

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How do you feel about Gspurning taking the reins in Seattle? Disappointed that Ferrari didn't end up making it in Chicago? Like the Lambe signing for Toronto? Think Montano can contribute for the Impact? 

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. i could think of 302,000 reasons not to keep him. Promising talent, but WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY too expensive for what he accomplished.

    Klopas stated over a week ago that Nazarit wasnt in our 2012 plans, so I’m assuming they presented a pay cut and there was a falling out.

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  2. I am not talking about teenagers, I would be willing to bet those guys learned to be confident on the ball when they were kids. My point is don’t expect for Americans to be super creative players. There is a reason the us team is great at set pieces, we have been practicing them since we were 7

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  3. we can’t just go out and sign you with MLS’ allocation process in place for US internationals. It would take a substantial trade to make that happen

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  4. ^ You spelled your name wrong, Marcus.

    I heard Hahnemann’s family wants to be in England so he’s perfectly content being paid by Everton to back up Tim Howard.

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  5. Because players in Europe and South America stop going to proper school when they are 14 and practice for hours everyday. Practice makes perfect and we currently don’t have many teenagers spending the amount of time training that European and South American teenagers do. We simply do not have youth programs of the same intensity.

    If you think La Masia produced players like Messi, Xavi, Iniesta, Pedro, and Fabregas by simply telling them to go out there and be creative you are sorely mistaken. You produce such players through intense and disciplined training starting at a young age, but instead in this country we prefer kids that age to spend most of their time in school, which is not necessarily a bad thing.

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  6. surprised no one has said anything yet about MH!

    I thought he was assumed to be the successor to Keller? Especially now that he not starting anymore in England..

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  7. It will continue to get better, because kids are playing more and they are more talented than ever. However the US will never be a world power as long as we have th econtrolled soccer enviorment we do now. I don’t see it changing anytime soon. Even though US soccer does have information that says at the youth levels we should just let the kids play.

    My piece of advise, go watch your kids play and enjoy it because you won’t have many years of it.

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  8. Maybe that is some insight as to why JK is actively seeking the hispanic talent pool knowing that a lot of those kids ONLY get to play pickup soccer. I know in my community there is 80% of the people living at or below the poverty rate. These kids are playing amongst themselves with a former player from Atlas in MExico trying to guide them. He works at the middle school as a lunchtime supervisor but basically has soccer games going on everyday with no parents, refs, or coaches to get in the way.

    Note the very diverse u17 recently. I LOVE this trend. Several of those young men showed some creativity and instinctual responses to situations as they arose. All my wife’s relatives (Mexican natives) just nod at me when I tell them USA Soccer is almost there. My wife tells me later they have their doubts and still do not really respect us.

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  9. Surely they could have gotten some value out of him though… If people really were as interested as was rumored when they signed him

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  10. In response to #1

    It is because American players from a young age aren’t allowed to be creative on the field. We start select programs when kids are 9 and 10 or younger. So the US is creating robotic players that can be sound in trapping and passing but have no individual creativity because everything in soccer has always been in a structured environment.

    go watch a select game of 11 year olds and all you will hear is coaches directing the kids in the game instead of letting them play and make mistakes that they can learn from.

    Dempsey is the one exception and I remember reading he played a lot of pick up soccer growing up.

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  11. Awesome for Montano. Wanted to see him more at Seattle, just not enough room. Pretty flashy, good potential, just needs to mature.

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  12. Saskatchewan is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of 588,276 square kilometres (227,100 sq mi). Saskatchewan is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dakota.

    ** 7th largest province in Canada.

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  13. Montano is solid, I want to see him play a while.

    Ferrari has had a tough few months, gotta feel for him.

    Nazarit was way overpriced, for less cash he is my pick over someone like Kandji in Colorado.

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  14. Also, the Sounders have two very young, exciting and American keepers on their roster that will get time in CCL and USOC matches. Ford and Meredith are the future of the team, and watching them develop will be great.

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  15. Don’t get too excited about Montano yet. He’s got a ton of potential, but a poor work ethic and an ego the size of Saskatchewan. Hopefully he can turn all of that around.

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  16. Sitting here flipping between Man City v Bayern and Basel v Man U and having just watched David Silva bury that turn and BLAST for the goal I wonder…

    1. Why aren’t American players figuring out how to get into the appropriate field position to shoot the frigging ball like that AND with such skill?

    2. I don’t know this guy SS is bringing in but I imagine he is a mid to higher level netminder based on Schmid’s explanation so I wonder… USA has always produced quality goaltenders more than any other position on the pitch. Have we exhausted that pool and now have to turn to foreign goaltenders?

    3. Ferrari, hang in there kid. Don’t get discouraged at this set back. Turn your nose to the grindstone and work out that knee and get it back to form and then REALLY go to work on your game. You are ONLY YOUNG ONCE. Persue your dream, pal, and exhaust the avenues to return to another team before you give up and move into a new career field. How bad to you want to get paid to play futbol? Trust me kid, at 51 years old, I’d give my left nut to have an opportunity like that!

    4. #3 begs the question… How many PAID PLAYERS are reading this site? Ives, do you have any idea?

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