I received notes from a couple of readers pointing out that the USA's amazing win in the Confederation Cup semifinals puts them in a bind for the final.

The championship game against either Brazil or South Africa will kicks off at 11:30 a.m. Sunday, while the Sounders game at Qwest Field against Colorado kicks off at 1.

So, as one writer put it: "Club or country? I would rather not make that call."

So the suggestion has been made, why not move the Sounders game back an hour or so?

I ran that by the Sounders today, and they say they're at least exploring the possibility.

However, there are so many parties involved -- the league, the broadcasters, the visiting team, stadium workers -- that they didn't seem to think it would happen.

More likely, they'll try to get permission to show the US game on Qwest's big screens before kickoff, so fans can watch that way. However, under present timing, the Cup final wouldn't be finished by the time the Sounders are scheduled to start. And you can imagine the groans involved in switching away from, say, a even USA-Brazil match in the final minutes. (On the other end of the spectrum, the Sounders seem to think there's no point in trying to ignore the Cup final so that fans can tape it and get home to watch without knowing the result.)

So, bottom line: No decision yet. They're aware of the conflict and thinking about ways around it. But they don't seem convinced that there is any good way around it that doesn't annoy as many fans as it helps.

Obviously, we'll keep you posted.

With the Sounders exactly 15 games through a 30-game regular season, coach Sigi Schmid gave this mid-term report after practice today:

"I feel OK where we're at. We've been in every game we've played. There's only been two halves -- one half in Chicago, and one half in Colorado -- where I thought we got outplayed and a team really took it to us and had us on our heels. I thought for the majority of time we've either been the better team ore we've been as good as the team we've played against. We're averaging about a point-and-a-half a game, which is what you need to do to get into the playoffs, so we're on course there.

"We want to do better in the second half of the season. I think offensively our cohesion is getting better -- we're starting to click a little more. And defensively we have to make sure we sure up those little mistakes, those little mental errors that sometimes we've made in the last couple of games where we kept giving away a goal. We've got to get back to getting clean sheets.

But overall I feel good where our team's at, and I think our team's got to feel good because they're a lot further along than they were when we started the season in March. Their knowledge of each other is a lot deeper."

A couple of other interesting quotes from today:

Kasey Keller, relating to Tim Howard's work while under attack today in the Confederation Cup:

“You’re just hoping that the ball comes somewhere where you can do something about it. You’re hoping that guys make tackles. You’re hoping that at some stage they kind of clean it up. It was a bit lopsided, but I thought the guys defended very very well. And if you’re going to beat a team like Spain, you’re going to need your goalkeeper to make some saves.”

And Taylor Graham, on his appearance today on "The Price is Right."

“I was lucky that today was the first day that we’ve trained in three or four days; so a lot of guys, I think it kind of slipped their mind. But I’m sure someone will track down a copy. I think people are really happy that they have that under their belt so they can hold it against me whenever they want. I’ll be the first to admit I was terrible.”

The Sounders went through a light practice today, and then a light-hearted interview session talking about the U.S. national team's result today and Taylor Grapham's appearance on "The Price is Right."

I'll try to come back with more on that later. But the news today was mostly the increasingly healthy team.

Coach Sigi Schmid said it was a good thing that his team had a mid-season break of three days off. And he said that aside from mental health, they're getting physically healthier, as well. He said Freddy Ljungberg, who missed the draw at New York on Saturday due to a sore hamstring, should be ready for Colorado’s visit on Sunday. Schmid also cited Smith and Zack Scott are fit to play, and he cited Graham and reserve keeper Chris Eylander as making progress.

I'm not going to give the score here out of respect for those of you who worked today and taped or TiVo'd for later.

However, if you don't want to know the result yet, read no further

=> Read more!