By AVI CREDITOR
Fans of the Seattle Sounders can turn their worries from an anemic preseason offense to injuries to two starters.
Fredy Montero scored two goals and assisted on Jhon Kennedy Hurtado's 60th-minute opening goal, as the Sounders topped the Colorado Rapids, 3-1, in Wednesday night's Community Shield match at Qwest Field.
While the three-goal haul was a sight for sore Seattle eyes, the match wasn't a complete success. Brad Evans and Steve Zakuani exited with injuries, with Evans telling the Seattle Times that he'll miss 1-3 weeks with a hamstring issue. There was no word on the severity of Zakuani's hip injury.
Jeff Larentowicz scored the Rapids' lone goal on a penalty kick after Hurtado fouled Omar Cummings in the box just minutes after he opened the scoring.
Here are a few more MLS items from Wednesday night:
TFC SIGNS DUTCH TRIO
Aron Winter's continued effort to bring his influence and flavor to Toronto has resulted in three Dutch players being signed by the team.
Toronto FC agreed to deals with Javier Martina, Nick Soolsma and Elbekay Bouchiba, three trialists who had been with the team during its preseason trip to Turkey.
Martina, a 24-year-old forward, figures to be the prize out of the bunch. The Ajax youth product had a brief run with the Dutch power's first team and knows both Winter and Toronto assistant Bob de Klerk from his time in the Ajax academy.
Soolsma, a 23-year-old midfielder, and Bouchiba, a 32-year-old forward will also be counted on to help execute Winter's system north of the border.
RED BULLS ADD TWO
The New York Red Bulls officially signed Teemu Tainio and Stephen Keel, giving the team more cover in the midfield and along the back line.
Manager Hans Backe revealed that the signings were essentially done deals on Monday. Tainio projects to start the season at right back while Chris Albright recovers from knee surgery.
TFC FALLS TO CHARLESTON
Despite the optimism of the team's new signings, Toronto FC fell to USL-PRO's Charleston Battery in the Carolina Challenge Cup, 2-1, for its second consecutive defeat at the tournament.
TFC's Nathan Sturgis opened the scoring with a 14th-minute penalty kick, but Charleston's Dane Kelly answered just before halftime with the equalizer. The Battery went ahead in the 57th minute, as Stefan Frei stuffed Mike Zaher's penalty but yielded a rebound that Zaher put into the back of the net for the match-winner.
D.C. TOPS 10-MAN CHICAGO
Rookie Blake Brettschneider scored his fourth goal of the preseason, and D.C. United fended off the Chicago Fire, 1-0, in the Carolina Challenge Cup to improve to 2-0 at the tournament.
United played with a man advantage for the final 53 minutes of the match, after Chicago's new signing Diego Chaves was sent off with a straight red for a harsh challenge on Fred.
Charlie Davies started and went the full 90 minutes for D.C., which will face Toronto FC in its final preseason match on Saturday.
COLUMBUS DOWNS NEW ENGLAND IN ATLANTA
Tom Heinemann notched a brace and rookie Bernardo Anor got on the scoresheet as well, as the Columbus Crew toppled the New England Revolution, 3-1, in the opening match of the Atlanta Pro Soccer Challenge.
Ilija Stolica scored a consolation goal for the Revolution in the 62nd minute after Columbus tallied the match's first three goals.
The Crew face the Houston Dynamo in the second match of the tournament, and the Revolution will face the Dynamo on Sunday in the finale.
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What do you think of all of Wednesday night's results? Think Montero is in for another big season? Do you see Toronto's new signings making an impact? Think Tainio is the season-long answer at right back in New York? Ready for these matches to actually start counting?
Share your thoughts below.
Don’t be so sure about an easy 3 points, the season hasn’t even started. I think Canada deserves even another team….Edmonton???
Duka has potential, but is no GBS…terrible loss
MLS maybe.
Sounder DEFINTELY.
How many times do they need to make their original $40 million investment back ?
I’m American and glad tfc is in the league. Chris, you’re not as funny as you think… though I’m starting to agree that tfc is going to have another rough year.
hahaha thats funny because Canada blows
7,000 + Fans for Community Shield with little or no advertising. Did you know about it outside Seattle/Denver ?…Exactly my point. Why MLS has yet to take this opportunity to promote the league I don’t know. Hopefully they will. The tickets were $10 for adult & $7 for kids 17 and younger. Over half the people I talked to that were sitting by me had NEVER been to an MLS match. Yes Seattle’s only been in the league for two years but it’s a win – win for new fans & MLS. So the Sounders put this on & gave the proceeds to local charities. I would like to say ” Thank You” to the Colorado Rapids for agreeing to come & playing like it mattered. I met some new fans who left impressed.
No word yet. I saw that he is scheduled for an MRI today. I’m nervous.
I think Friberg is more than capable of replacing Evans for a few weeks. In my opnion, he has looked good in the little bit I’ve seen, and was already pushing pretty hard for Evans’ spot in the starting 11. Not a big drop in quality, if any.
Zakuani on the other hand… we could be in serious trouble depending on the outcome of that MRI.
I was actually under the impression that this was precisely the nature of the competition. I think it would be really cool for the MLS to implement this.
It would possibly increase exposure of the USOC, and it would be cool if they hosted the games at a centrally located stadium so neither teams’ fans would have to travel too far. Now, that might mean having it held in Kansas City or Houston every year, but with their beautiful new stadiums, I hardly see that as a negative.
I’m just happy to see my Crew manage to put 3 in the back of the net, even if it is still preseason.
Its a good idea, i think it should be the last MLS preseason game to be played, and that it should be played in a city where there isn’t any professional team, so the people in the city are grateful and will attend rather than the 7k that showed up, because the other 20k or so can show up a week later.
All in all its a good idea, and should continue
(oh…and the sounders jerseys dont look as bad anymore when you see the team on the field)
Can we (MLS) afford to give to charity like that?!?
It’s something the Sounders started last year, so it’s not what you may be thinking.
It would be a cool idea, though, to kick off the year with a match between the MLS Cup winner and the US Open Cup winner, with proceeds to charity.
+1
I guess people would prefer half-empty U.S. stadiums, poor cable TV ratings, and general disrespect among the U.S. mainstream sports media instead of good MLS support wherever it may be, regardless of the team results for one season.
Someday in the future TFC and Vancouver might have good teams, so let it be said now their supporters were there from the beginning.
Hey, I didn’t even know we had a Community Shield. Or, was this just a joke? I think a Community Shield is a good way to start the regular season. The proceeds should, of course, go to charity.
Can the anti-Canada trolls please remove themselves from the site and USA. Canada has been really good for the league, their teams sell out and they have passionate fan bases. They have earned a nice TV contract and they have nice stadiums. As a Union supporter I also like how both Canada teams this year will be a piece of cake to earn 3 pts.
Yes, well, thankfully most of the rest of your countrymen aren’t total morons.
Any news on the knock Zakuani picked up? That could be a huge deal but havent seen anything about it.
You bet
I’m eager to see his 4-3-3.
He’s got the players for the midfield. We’ll see if they have wingers.
Canuck hate…
Think he’s trying something new and having any part of Ajax’s youth setup means he can spot raw talent. I’d trust the eye of a youth Ajax employee over almost any other youth program.
I think given time, he could change things around. TFC has in the past given time to coaches/management but they’ve also given time to obvious failures thus shooting themselves in the foot and distrustful of long-term growth at this stage.
As a DC fan, I think Toronto deserves a team that can properly compete.
Toronto will once again be a joke this year and then the fans will bitch again, as always, and threaten to boycott games. Toronto and Vancouver should just take their teams out of MLS and start a d1 canadian league, let some other more deserving cities get expansion teams and dont even get me started on Montreal.
It seems Aron Winter has a weird perception of this league. He signed an amateur player, does he think this make-shift lineup with cut it here? I don’t think he finishes out the season and that Mariner will be the interim coach in August.
While lots of faces have left. young ones like Ekpo, Meram, Duka are names with lots of promise. Hard to say, but no one should be surprised if the Crew rebuild/reform quicker than expected.
Attended last night’s Crew/Revs friendly here in Atlanta. Thought the Crew looked better than advertised, lots of new faces ready for gameplay. Revs seemed patchier roster-wise. Maybe the Crew will blossom in the post-Schelotto & Hejduk era.