As you may have heard, CosmoGirl.com is running an "Eye Candy" section featuring 15 of the best-looking young players in MLS -- one from each team.

The Sounders FC selection is midfielder Brad Evans.

I talked to Evans about it a bit today, and he admitted a little embarrassment about the whole thing, but he was being a good sport.

When I first asked him about it, he said, "They just chose random guys from every team."

Except it wasn't really a random selection. The Sounders media relations office picked Evans because of his looks, then had him pose for a picture at Fort Dent Park, and that shot is now online at CosmoGirl.

"(He) just said, "We need to take a picture of you,'" Evans said. "I said, "OK." He said, 'It’s going online.' I said, "For what?" "Cosmogirl." "What is Cosmogirl?" He said, "You’ll see."

I asked Evans if his teammates have heard about it, and he responded, "Let's say they have."

However, Evans -- who turned 24 on Monday -- is putting up with it all because MLS players understand that their young league benefits from being in the public eye.

"Any publicity for the league is good publicity," Evans said. "If it starts there on the Web the more publicity the better, you grow the attention, you grow whatever you can really. It’s all in good fun."

I also talked a little soccer with Evans ... mostly about his move from center-mid to outside mid to accommodate Freddy Ljungberg. Once again. Evans was willing to do what needs to be done to help his team.

We also talked to Sigi Schmid a little about moving Evans out to the wing.

“I thought our spacing and positioning was OK on Saturday," Schmid said. "Brad tucked in a little bit more, which is what we wanted from the week before. So if you compare the 90 against Chivas to the 30 that we played 11 against 11 against Kansas City, I thought our defensive shape was much better and I think our shape overall was much better. And again I thought we created a lot of things going forward that were right on the edge of the final third that didn’t come off or result in anything. It’s more of an emphasis of that then I think the shaping in midfield."

I have a short story on all this in the Wednesday paper.

The Sounders reserves played to a 1-1 draw with the Washington Huskies this afternoon at Starfire Sports Complex.

The Sounders took an early lead on a Sebastien Le Toux penalty kick and held that lead until about the 75th minute, when the Huskies scored on a direct kick following and handball just outside the box.

After the game, Sounders coach Sigi Schmid said certain reserve players made impressions for good or bad, but he didn't disclose any names.

Schmid also wouldn't say if he plans to make any lineup changes for the Saturday game against San Jose -- other than restoring Kasey Keller to goal after serving his red card suspension.

"Obviously, Kasey’s a quality goalkeeper," Schmid said. "Anytime you put a quality player back on the field it’s going to make your team better.”

It was a glorious day out at Starfire, which Freddy Ljungberg concluded by walking his black Newfoundland pup Amadeus.

I'm stealing the topic from LA Daily News soccer columnist Nick Green, who wrote this highly readable story on MLS after five weeks.

First up on his love/loathe list was this:

Love: That it's crowded in Seattle. When the Sounders announced they would not play in a soccer-specific stadium, I had my doubts. First, playing in a cavernous NFL stadium is almost never a good recipe for a great atmosphere (see the Kansas City Wizards at Arrowhead Stadium). Second, artificial turf can not only ruin a game with its unforgiving bounces, it can ruin careers, too (see the Chivas USA defender who injured himself in the pregame warm-up at Giants Stadium a few years ago and never played a game for the club).

Well, Seattle rained on my negative parade. The Sounders not only lead the league in attendance with an average of 29,939 for their first three games, but the atmosphere rocks. And I haven't heard any complaints about the fake grass surface.

(And while I certainly agree with him about the great atmosphere at Sounders games, I'm glad to hear him mitigate his complaint about FieldTurf. The Sounders played on natural grass for the first time on Saturday at Home Depot Center, and I thought that was also the first time this year that the playing surface negatively impacted the game.

When artificial turf was new, former baseball great Dick Allen once famously said that if horses horse couldn't eat it, he didn't want to play on it. Judging from Saturday, my suggestion would be that they invite a few horses into Home Depot Center, let them eat the pitch and then replace the stuff with FieldTurf.)

But that's my rant. What about you? Any of you want to pick up on Green's theme and share your loves and loathes from this first one-sixth of the MLS season?

A good catch here taken from a blog comment by Brettghorn:

I'm watching the Price is Right (home sick from work) and one of the prizes just given away was a collection of MLS apparel and balls, including jerseys/shorts from the Galaxy and (surprise, surprise) the Sounders.

Drew Carey (the host and of course Sounders owner) made a joke about Sounders jerseys usually being priceless but that they had to come up with a price for the show. He got in another Sounders plug a minute later too.