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2001 News Archive

Nov 30 - The new head coach will be Brian Schmetzer, a local resident and former Sounders player from the NASL years. Coverage:

Nov 8 - Bernie James, who was the "interim" head coach for the 2001 campaign, was let go. General manager Brad Kimura has resigned. Managing partner Adrian Hanauer will take over as GM for 2002, his first task to find a new head coach. More in the Seattle Times.

Oct 19 - The Sounders exercised contract options on Rees Bettinger, Mike Casale, Richard Cullen, Ryan Edwards, Dylin Pillay, Kyle Smith, Craig Tomlinson, Chad Brown, Viet Nguyen and goalkeeper Preston Burpo.

Oct 12 - Forward Craig Tomlinson has been named Community Programs Coordinator.

Oct 5 - Bart Wiley has been hired as Director of Marketing/Communications.

Oct 3 - The Sounders began restructuring the front office by naming defender Scott Jenkins as Youth Programs Coordinator.

Sep 8 - The Sounders finished their season with a 5-1 rout of the Vancouver Whitecaps. The Sounders finished with a season record of 13-1-12 (W-D-L), just barely a winning season. For the first time in the APSL and A-League era, the Sounders failed to qualify for the playoffs.

Aug 31 - Jason Farrell was called up by the Los Angeles Galaxy for this weekend. This was due to an unfortunate injury to the Galaxy's Brian Ching, who has been loaned to the Sounders for several matches this season. Ching suffered a facial fracture around his right eye in an exhibition match between the MLS Galaxy and the A-League San Diego Flash FC.

Aug 23 - The Sounders today waived brothers Ali John Utush and Rashid Utush, who had played in 8 and 1 matches respectively.

Aug 7 - The Sounders announced the re-signing of forwards Erik Storkson and Rashid Utush, and called up goalkeeper Carlos Castellanos from Seattle Sounders Select.

Aug 6 - The Sounders called up defender Casey Barber from Seattle Sounders Select. The Sounders also completed the paperwork to make three Los Angeles Galaxy players available on loan: forwards Brian Ching, Isaias Bardales Jr., and defender Craig Waibel.

Jul 31 - The Sounders have signed 21-year-old South African Dylin Pillay, a former member of the South Africa U-20 national team and a three-time Junior Player of the Year in his homeland.

Jul 1 - Forward Scott Bower from the San Jose Earthquake joined the Sounders on loan for a match in Minnesota. 23-year-old Bower was born in Port Angeles, WA.

Jun 29 - Sounders Select midfielder Ben Somoza and defender Bryn Ritchie left to train with the Los Angeles Galaxy. The pair can be expected to rejoin the Sounders Select for their US Open Cup match against the Galaxy on Jul 11.

Defender Ali John "AJ" Utush has rejoined the Sounders.

Jun 27 - The Seattle Sounders were knocked out of the US Open Cup in the second round by the Kansas City Wizards 4-0, but the Seattle Sounders Select advanced with a 3-2 win, after extra time, at the Dallas Burn. The Sounders Select earned a 3rd round match with the Los Angeles Galaxy.

Jun 20 - The Sounders announced that 1994 A-League Rookie of the Year Jason Dunn has agreed to terms. Dunn played for the Sounders from 1994-96, notching 18 goals in 69 regular season appearances.

Jun 9 - The Seattle Sounders Select advanced to the second round of the US Open Cup with a 4-1 home win over Olympia-Stamford, a Polish-American amateur team that traveled almost 3000 miles from Connecticut for the match!

Jun 8 - With a 3-0 win over the Utah Blitzz, the Sounders clinched first place in Group 9 and qualified for the second round of the US Open Cup. The 2nd round will include all 12 MLS teams, up to 11 A-League teams, at least 5 D3 teams, and 4 amateur teams (PDL or USASA). The Utah Blitzz have qualified via a wild card as one of the top 5 D3 teams in points.

May 25 - The Seattle Sounders Select qualified for the first round of the US Open Cup with a 2-1 win over the Okanagan Predators. Even though the match was played in Canada, it counted as both a US Open Cup qualifier and a league match. The Sounders Select finished their four qualifiers with a 4-0-0 record and have qualified for the next round of the Open Cup. Only four out of 42 PDL teams earn spots in the first round. The PDL was split into three groups of 14 teams each for qualification, and the Sounders Select finished second in their group, tied in points with the Central Coast Roadrunners (San Luis Obispo, CA), who had better goal differential. The Sounders Select qualified as the second place team with the most points.

May 20 - Roster changes: Draft pick Mark Hogenhout has been released. Todd Stauber has been moved from the Sounders roster to the Sounders Select.

May 17 - 23-year-old defender Charles Gbeke has been signed by the Vancouver Whitecaps. The Canadian resident, born in the Ivory Coast, was with the Whitecaps in the preseason, signed with Seattle, played for Seattle in the opening match, and had to head back north of the border when he couldn't get a US work permit.

May 4 - The Los Angeles Galaxy signed Sounders defender Craig Waibel as a "discovery player".

The Sounders are promising to webcast home matches (starting with tomorrow's match) at www.seattlesounders.tv, audio and video.

May 1 - The Sounders announced the signing of newcomers F Christer Forsberg and D Charles Gbeke.

Sounders General Manager Brad Kimura is featured in a soccer365.com interview, part I. Discussed are team ownership, finances, venue, web broadcasts, and prospects for a Seattle MLS franchise. In part II, Kimura discusses the various components of the Sounders club. The "Tim Spry" mentioned as youth and women's coach should be Chance Fry. Web broadcast of home matches is mentioned at the end of the article -- it will apparently be pay per view ($5 per match was mentioned as a hypothetical price)!

Apr 30 - The Sounders signed veteran midfielders Leighton O'Brien and Jeremy Sweet and rookie forwards Rees Bettinger and Kyle Smith.

Apr 29 - Peter Hattrup will be Assistant Coach for the Sounders and David Hoggan will be Technical Director. Both were standout midfielders during their playing days with the Sounders.

Apr 20 - Defender Craig Waibel has been re-signed by the Sounders after being drafted by the San Jose Earthquakes and then waived just before the start of the MLS season.

Apr 19 - Sounders head coach Neil Megson has "resigned based on a disagreement in principle with management concerning direction and the development of the club." This is reminiscent of January 1996 when then head coach Alan Hinton resigned after "months of budget disagreements". Megson was named A-League coach of the Year after last season and Hinton had been named APSL Coach of the Year in 1994. Thanks, Neil, for becoming a great coach for the Sounders, for treating us fans to many wonderful matches the past five seasons, and for your great play as a defender in the mid-90s!

Assistant coach and retired Sounders defender Bernie James has been named as head coach of the Sounders for the 2001 season.

The next day saw articles on the Megson's resignation from the Eastside Journal, the Seattle Times, and theSeattle P-I.

Apr 12 - Teddy Mitalas has been announced as the head coach of the Seattle Sounders Select, who compete in the Northwest Division of the Premier Development League. Mitalas served as an assistant coach for the team the past two seasons.

Apr 11 - In a whirlwind of news, the San Diego Flash were reported in serious danger of folding just 3 days before their first match of the season, then the team announced that they will not compete in the 2001 season, then the USL announced that they would run a new San Diego franchise until a buyer can be found. A tip of the hat to USL Associate Commissioner Dave Askinas for responding to the above bad news with some positive news same day! The next day saw a recap in the local paper, and another day later the league announced that they expected to soon have a buyer for the franchise.

Mountlake Terrace native and ex-SPU forward Dana Garner on the Sounders: "I let the Sounders know that I wouldn't be interested in signing with them, so that's probably why they didn't draft me. To be honest, I'm not a big fan of the Sounders. It's not the best-organized club and I wouldn't have been keen on playing all of the home games on their artificial turf." From an article in the Vancouver Sun.

Apr 6 - The San Jose Earthquakes have waived D Craig Waibel just before this weekend's season kickoff.

The Sounders announced the signing of draft choices D/M Mike Casale and M Mark Hogenhout, both of whom played for the Sounders Select last season.

Apr 5 - The Sounders announced the return of F Craig Tomlinson, who is recovering from arthroscopic knee surgery performed mid-March, and the signing of rookies M Chad Brown and F/M Chris Farnsworth, who were both called up from the Sounders Select for a few late-season matches last year.

Mar 26 - The Sounders held their open tryouts over the past two days. We dropped by at the start and saw about 35 trialists. Forward Craig Tomlinson was there in street clothes. He said that he underwent another arthroscopic knee surgery (second in a year) in mid-March. He would like to play later this year, but it depends on how his recovery goes.

Mar 22 - The Sounders have posted some sketches of their planned soccer complex. Three thumbnail pics give a bird's-eye and a fan's-eye view of the pitch, plus a layout drawing that shows:

We sure hope this plans comes to fruition. We've seen some other teams float out plans that never materialized.

We understand that a Seattle MLS team would play in the new stadium that is now rising from the ashes of the Kingdome. An MLS team would use the above Sounders facility for training, though.

On the player front, ex-Sounder goalscorer Mark Baena has signed with Portland.

We heard a rumor that Leighton O'Brien will join the Sounders. O'Brien is a 25-year-old midfielder from Federal Way. He played for MLS' US Pro-40 in 1999 and saw action in 4 matches for the San Jose Clash. Last season, he played for the San Diego Flash.

Brian Haynes has been named an assistant coach for the Dallas Burn, whom he played for from 1996-2000 following his 1995 season with the Sounders.

Mar 6 - A check of the MLS preseason rosters at mlsnet.com found these players who have local ties:

Feb 26 - Goalkeeper Bill May has announced his retirement and plans to concentrate on a nonsoccer career.

Feb 15 - An interesting article on the Sounders' vision for developing young players.

Feb 8 - Sounders draft picks:

Other locals taken:

Feb 7 - The Sounders announced the trade of 2000 Rookie of the Year Greg Howes to Portland in exchange for two draft picks and an undisclosed amount of cash.

Feb 5 - MLS draft, local picks:

In the MLS draft pool but not taken were UW seniors Mike Casale (D) and Mark Hogenhout (M).

USA Today reports that SPU's 1999 goalkeeper Johann Noetzel has been waived by the Dallas Burn and M Chris Henderson was traded by the Kansas City Wizards to the Miami Fusion for Roy Lassiter.

Jan 30 - The first announced signing of 2001 is major news: midfielder Jason Farrell.

Jan 24 - An alert reader noticed a recent Puget Sound Business Journal article on the Sounders CEO Neil Farnsworth's plans to build a soccer complex for the club. The Fife option has apparently evaporated, but several other communities have expressed interest in cooperating with the Sounders to make the complex a reality.

Jan 23 - This year's affiliations between MLS and USL clubs have been announced. The Sounders are affiliated with the Colorado Rapids, the San Jose Earthquakes and the Los Angeles Galaxy.

Jan 22 - Redmond defender/midfielder Nick Downing has signed with MLS' Pro-40 squad. The past three years Downing has been playing for the University of Maryland, returning home part of the past two summers to play for the PDL Seattle Sounders Select. Downing has played a lot of matches with the US national youth teams, including 22 caps with the U-20 side.

Jan 11 - Defender Craig Waibel has been called up by MLS LA Galaxy for the upcoming 2000 The Football Confederation (a.k.a. CONCACAF) Champions Cup, Jan 16-21 in California.

Jan 3 - University of Washington goalkeeper Hope Solo has replaced national team regular Siri Mullinix on the US Women's Team for their Jan 7-15 trip to China. Defender Michelle French from Kent is also on the roster.

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