May 9: Washington Youth Soccer’s annual day-long celebration, SoccerPalooza, at the Hilton Seattle Airport & Conference Center. SoccerPalooza is a free event featuring workshops, vendor booths and culminating with the awards dinner in the evening. Gary Wright, Sounders FC senior vice president for business operations, will deliver the dinner’s keynote address.

May 9:Tickets go on sale to the general public at 9 a.m. for the MLS All-Star game vs. Everton. The game will be played July 29 in Sandy, Utah.

May 10: Prior to Sunday’s game will be the inaugural Sounders FC Mother’s Day Brunch at the Qwest Field Event Center. The brunch begins at 9:30 a.m., and tickets are required. Tony Ventrella will serve as emcee. General manager/minority owner Adrian Hanauer and his mother will also take part in the short program, which concludes at 10:45 a.m. Kickoff of LA-Sounders is noon.

May 11: Tickets for the Sounders FC-Chelsea match on July 18 will go on sale May 11 at 10 a.m. They will be available at 1-877-MLS-GOAL or www.SoundersFC.com.

May 26: The Sounders kick off against Colorado at 7 p.m. at Starfire, with the winner advancing to the U.S. Open Cup round of 16. This one comes just three days after the Sounders and Rapids meet in an MLS regular season game in Colorado.

July 4: The two-time defending champion USA will play a first-round match of the 2009 CONCACAF Gold Cup on Saturday, July 4, at Qwest Field. The U.S. will face Grenada at 6 p.m. in the second match of the Gold Cup double header. The first match will feature Haiti and Honduras at 4 p.m. Tickets are on sale at www.Ticketmaster.com, www.GoldCup.org and www.CopaOro.org.

July 11: Houston Dynamo visits Qwest Field ... and the next Sounders game for which tickets are available.

No Sounders practice or interviews today, but a few other issues from around the league:

In my last reference to the current MLS standings I referenced only the team above Seattle: Chivas USA. However, this week there's a new team directly in the rear-view mirror: Colorado. So I'm wondering what you make of the standings below the Sounders: Is the bigger threat Salt Lake or Colorado ... or someone else? Or is the West just going to play out as a team-team race?

Looking ahead, here's a link to the LA Galaxy website. And here's a feature on LA's early-season improvement, from the MLS site.

Here's an early overview from the Sounders:

Unbeaten in its last three games overall and owning the second-highest point total in MLS, the Seattle Sounders FC (4-2-1) returns to play before another sellout crowd for a Mother’s Day game on Sunday, May 10, against the Los Angeles Galaxy (1-1-4). Kickoff on the Xbox Pitch at Qwest Field is 12 noon PT.

The match will be aired live on KONG 6/16 and News Talk 97.3 KIRO FM. Kevin Calabro will call the action with analysis from Greg Vanney. The game will be aired nationally in Spanish on TeleFutura. It can also be heard locally on 1210 AM Ke Buena with Rene Aleman, Noe Menendez and Victor Hernandez.

Sounders FC is off to the best start by an MLS expansion team. It is 2-0-1 in its last three games overall, including last week’s 1-1 road draw at Chicago and a 4-1 home win over Real Salt Lake in a U.S. Open Cup play-in. Seattle’s four victories and 13 points are second only to Western Conference leader Chivas USA (6-1-1).

Los Angeles Galaxy is undefeated in its last five matches, and earned its first victory last Saturday, 1-0, over New York. The Galaxy is in sixth place in the West with seven points. It faces Real Salt Lake on Wednesday in Utah before traveling to Seattle for Sunday’s contest.

Seattle’s next five MLS home games through the June 28 game with Colorado are also sold out. There are tickets on sale for the other remaining home dates. To purchase, call 1-877-MLS-GOAL or visit www.SoundersFC.com.

As expected, DC United's Jamie Moreno won MLS player of the week honors.

Looking back, the Sounders have sounded appropriately pleased to have picked up a point in Chicago, especially coming from a goal down while a man down. But not surprisingly from the other side, the Fire wasn't satisfied with yet another draw.