Please note that the pairing listed below from the U.S. Open Cup site are speculative. The pairings and sites have not yet been set (see post below).

The Sounders' third-round opponent and site will be determined soon after the second round is completed.

Sorry for any misunderstanding.

If the Portland Timbers beat the Sonoma County Sol on Tuesday, they would host Seattle Sounders FC at 7 p.m. June 30 at PGE Park.

If Sonoma beats Portland, the Sounders would host the Sol at 7 p.m. June 30 at Starfire.

Here are the possible pairing from the U.S. Open Cup website.

Technical director Chris Henderson said today that Sounders FC wants to host its third-round match in the U.S. Open Cup, partly as a nod to fans, but also because the club wants to bring this cup home.

"We’d like to host," he said. "I think being able to play in front of your home crowd (is an advantage). It’s something we have a chance to do well in, and we want to give ourselves every chance to be Open Cup champions in year one."

Where the game would be held, and who it would be againt, remain uncertain, Henderson reminded. Although it has been taken almost as a given that Seattle will meet the winner of the second-round game between the Portland Timbers and the Sonoma County Sol. But as you can see from the U.S. Open Cup bracket, the MLS teams have not yet been slotted in their third-round positions. That means it is at least possible that Seattle will not be paired against the Portland-Sonoma winner. However, it seems likely. And if Portland wins, it seems very likely ... likely to the degree that someone would need to have his head examined if Seattle were slotted anywhere else.

Meanwhile, simply wanting to host won't matter if the opponent wants to host more. The home team will be determined by bid.

"You never know what the Portland Timbers would bid or another team that really wants to host it," Henderson said. "It’s really kind of a cat-and-mouse game with who’s going to bid it."

If Seattle wins the bid, Henderson said the home site -- either Starfire or Qwest -- hasn't been decided and is more a matter for the general manager than the technical director. (Adrian Hanauer wasn't at practice today, so I didn't simply walk over and ask him.) However, Henderson sort of implied that Starfire might remain the appropriate site for this stage of the tournament.

"We want to make sure that we keep the atmosphere the same as it has been for each game," he said, presumably meaning sellouts. "As someone who has played in 20 Open Cup games, maybe more, usually the atmosphere you play in Open Cup is not in the bigger stadiums. And then you work your way into the semis and the finals and now all of a sudden you’re close and it becomes bigger."

The Timbers and Sol meet Tuesday in California.

The Sounders are off the practice pitch for another day. Coach Sigi Schmid didn't address the media today, so we don't have the usual injury updates, etc.

However, I did get a chance to follow-up with the newest Sounder -- a very happy Lamar Neagle -- who I wrote about in today's paper.

The Tacoma-born resident of Federal Way, told how he got the news that the team wanted to sign him:

"I was leaving practice the other day and I got a call to come back in," he said. "They were like 'Yeah, can you come back in we want to sign you to a developmental.' I said, 'Yeah, I’ll be right there.' I turned right around."

Neagle is eligible to play immediately, but he said the organization hasn't given him any indication that he will.

"I’m just on the squad right now," he said. "Like I said before, I’m not looking to get playing time right now but to work my way into it. Right now I’m just happy to be signed finally."

Still, the Sounders schedule gets pretty busy over the next couple of weeks with San Jose coming in Saturday, then a mid-week game with DC United, then a cross-country flight to New York, and then a U.S. Open Cup game between the next two regular season games. The team is likely going to need it's full roster, and now Neagle is part of that.

An announcement from UW:

University of Washington men’s soccer coach Dean Wurzberger announced the hiring of former Husky and current Chicago Fire defender Brandon Prideaux as an assistant coach following the conclusion of the current Major League Soccer season.

Prideaux, who will begin his duties at Washington on January 1, jointly announced his plans to retire from his professional playing career at the end of the season. Ben Somoza, a former three-year letterwinner and a volunteer assistant coach for the Huskies in 2007, will serve as interim assistant coach until Prideaux’s arrival.

Playing at home before a lot of orange, Houston took a 1-0 win over Chivas USA last night, the second team in the MLS West picking up three points on the leader.

The lone goal was so beautiful they might as well give Stuart Holden the goal-of-the-week honors right now. In stoppage time just before half, keeper Pat Onstad send a kick 60 yards, newly acquired Cam Weaver flicked it on to Holden who was past the Chivas defense, juked Zack Thornton one-on-one and finished into an empty net.

Here's the report from MLSnet.com.