After weeks of negotiation, defender Jeff Parke has decided to test the soccer waters overseas.

“We have been in touch with Jeff Parke’s representatives," general manager Adrian Hanauer said through a news release today. "We are aware that Jeff is planning a trip to Belgium and has tryouts with two clubs. We think Jeff is a tremendous player, and that’s why we were willing to risk selecting him in the expansion draft. We will continue to keep in close contact. We continue to hold his MLS right and we’re hopeful that he will some day play for Seattle Sounders FC.”

Parke played last season with the New York Red Bulls. The Sounders selected him in the MLS expansion draft. However, because his contract had expired, all they actually secured were his MLS rights while he was free to negotiate elsewhere.

With Parke apparently out of the picture, the center back position is being contested among Patrick Ianni, recently acquired from Houston; Nathan Sturgis, formerly of Real Salt Lake, Tyson Wahl, fomerly of Kansas City, and Taylor Graham and Zach Scott, formerly of the USL Sounders.

The Sounders' 30-game regular-season MLS schedule was released today (see posts below).

This morning I got a chance to discuss a few aspects of it with general manager Adrian Hanauer and coach Sigi Schmid.

A few highlights:

Hanauer overview: "It’s never perfect. It is front-loaded. We take some rough road trips at the end of the year. But it is what it is. We just need to focus our energy on taking care of business, getting points wherever we can and hope that we’re in the playoffs at the end."

Hanauer on the early cluster of home games and late road trips: "For sure playing in a facility that has an NFL team and other events plays into the overall scheduling. As do international windows that are opening up now for international competitions, the all-star game and various other things within mls that affect the scheduling."

Hanauer on the three friendlies included in the season-ticket package yet to be named: "We think we’re getting close to adding in pieces of the three friendlies. But it’s interesting: Those international games tend to be a moving target."

Schmid overview: "It is what it is. I’ve always felt as a coach you control what you can control and don’t worry about what you can’t control."

Schmid on the two games against Columbus, his former team: "They might circle that one more than me. For me, it’s three points whether we beat Columbus or three points whether we Chivas. And the three points against Chivas are probably more important because it’s three points inside of conference and those become six-point games. For me we always focus on the conference. It’s important that we do that and it’s important to do well at home. If you can have a winning percentage at home, that’s going to help your opportunity to get to the playoffs."

Schmid on the extra travel West Coast teams endure: "It is what it is. I went through it in LA. It makes it a bit tougher when you’re going coast to coast on consecutive weekends. That definitely makes it a little bit harder, and it’s harder because you lose training days. But it’s a reality of our league and its something that our players, between taking care of themselves with nutrition and psychologically. Psychologically I don’t want to make a big thing of it because if you talk about it as a problem it becomes a problem."

Sounders 2009 MLS regular season schedule

March 18 vs New York
March 28 vs Salt Lake
April 4 at Toronto
April 11 vs Kansas City
April 18 at Chivas USA
April 25 vs San Jose
May 2 at Chicago
May 10 vs Los Angeles
May 16 at Dallas
May 23 at Colorado
May 30 vs Columbus
June 6 at Chivas USA
June 13 vs San Jose
June 17 vs DC United
June 20 at New York
June 28 vs Colorado
July 11 vs. Houston
July 25 vs. Chicago
Aug. 2 at San Jose
Aug. 8 at Salt Lake
Aug. 15 at Los Angeles
Aug. 20 vs New England
Aug. 23 at Houston
Aug. 29 vs Toronto
Sept. 12 at D.C.
Sept. 19 vs Chivas USA
Sept. 26 at New England
Oct. 3 at Columbus
Oct. 17 at Kansas City
Oct. 24 vs Dallas

Early impressions: Sort of front-loaded with home games, probably clearing out for Seahawks weekend dates. Could work for or against the team. (Most likely: for early, against late.)
... Starting and ending at home is always nice. ... Three friendlies that will be complete the 18-game season ticket package will be announced later.

Dates to circle: March 19, the opener; April 4, first road game at another wildly successful expansion city; April 25, first visit from old NASL side; May 10, first chants of "Beat LA" in Qwest Field; May 30, MLS champions/Sigi's old team visits.

The 2009 MLS schedule has been released.

The Sounders' will open the season with a pair of home games: the previously announced March 19 game vs. New York at Qwest field and then home to Real Salt Lake on March 28. Then they head to Toronto April 4.

Here's the release from MLS:

The 2009 MLS regular season kicks off Thursday, March 19 with a spirited and historic match – the inaugural game of Seattle Sounders FC. In front of an anticipated capacity crowd at Qwest Field, U.S. goalkeeping great Kasey Keller and Sounders FC will host the MLS Cup 2008 finalist New York Red Bulls, led by striker Juan Pablo Ángel, in a game aired live in high definition on ESPN2.

Today MLS and its national broadcast partners announced the entire regular season schedule for 2009, the League’s 14th season.

The complete schedule is listed below. Throughout the year, the most up-to-date version and the team-by-team schedules are available at www.MLSnet.com.

Each of the 15 teams in MLS will play 30 regular season games for a total of 225 games. Fans can watch any of the 225 games live via the national broadcast partners, regional telecasts, the Direct Kick television package or MLSnet.com. Regional broadcast schedules will be announced by the teams as they are finalized.

The 15 MLS clubs will face each other twice for a base of 28 games per team. The two remaining games for each team will be against intra-conference opponents, with a priority on rivalry matchups.

This year 90 percent of MLS games will be played on weekends (Friday, Saturday or Sunday), compared to about 84 percent in 2008 and 80 percent in 2007. MLS reduced the volume of games on or around Aug. 12, Sept. 5 and Oct. 10 – all World Cup Qualifying dates. Teams will have occasional bye weeks because of the odd number of teams in MLS this season. An effort was made to schedule byes during international competitions for the teams competing in CONCACAF Champions League (Columbus Crew, D.C. United, New York Red Bulls and Houston Dynamo) and SuperLiga (Chicago Fire, New England Revolution, Kansas City Wizards and Chivas USA).

First Kick, presented by Dick’s Sporting Goods, is the opening weekend of the MLS season and features seven games. After Seattle’s inaugural game, Fox Soccer Channel and Fox Sports en Español bring fans an exciting, live Saturday night doubleheader on March 21: First, the past two MLS Cup champions – Houston Dynamo and Columbus Crew – square off, then the Colorado Rapids visit Chivas USA in a Western Conference showdown. Concluding the opening week of MLS action is a match between the two winningest clubs in MLS history, as the LA Galaxy host D.C. United on TeleFutura on Sunday, March 22 at 3 p.m.

Most games on ESPN2 will be offered in high definition with the polished play-by-play of JP Dellacamera and expert insight of U.S. national team great John Harkes. Seven games on ESPN2 will air in an extended 2 1/2-hour window. One regular season game, Seattle at Chicago on July 25, will be broadcast on ESPN. All MLS games on ESPN2 will be simulcast on ESPN360 and ESPN Deportes. In this, the third year of an eight-year agreement, MLS and ESPN have mutually agreed to schedule select matches outside the Thursday night window. Thirteen of the 27 games on ESPN2 and ESPN Deportes will air on weekends (Friday, Saturday or Sunday).

TeleFutura’s MLS broadcasts return to their Sunday afternoon timeslot, usually between games from Mexico’s Primera Division, the most successful sports programming on Univision’s family of networks. TeleFutura’s knowledgeable tandem of Jorge Perez Navarro and Diego Balado will add information, analysis and excitement to the Spanish-language network’s 24 regular season games.

Fox Soccer Channel is again scheduled to broadcast its complete slate of 33 regular-season games with on-site 30-minute pre- and post-game shows for a live three-hour programming window called “MLS Saturday on FSC,” featuring Max Bretos (play-by-play), Christopher Sullivan (color analyst) and Todd Grisham (host) along with sideline reporters including Mark Rogondino, Christian Miles, Brian Dunseth and Steve Bell for thorough, fan-friendly coverage. Most Fox Soccer Channel MLS games are also scheduled to air live in Spanish in two-hour programming windows on sister network Fox Sports en Español, with some airing on a tape-delayed basis.

MLS is in discussions with HDNet to continue broadcasting games on the first all-high definition national television network. HDNet has partnered with MLS since 2003.

The regular season concludes Sunday, Oct. 25 with two games: Houston at Chivas USA on TeleFutura and the New England Revolution at Columbus. Eight teams will qualify for the MLS Cup Playoffs, which begin Oct. 29 and culminate in MLS Cup 2009 on the weekend of Nov. 21-22 at a site to be announced at a later date.

MLS reports "slight technical delays" with the release of the regular season schedule, which was planned for 9 a.m.

They say it should be up shorts, and I'll post as soon as it is.

(Meanwhile I see that San Jose has found a jersey sponsor: Amway. Not as cool as X-Box, but ...