Major League Soccer has unveiled the logo for its 2009 MLS Cup, which will be played Nov. 22 at Qwest Field in Seattle.

The logo is hyper-simple: a clean line drawing of the cup. The only nod to Seattle is the city's name in text below and -- I guess -- from a touch of green and blue.

Or perhaps I'm missing something, because here's what MLS has to say about it:

The new logo marks a turning point in the branding of MLS Cup. Past MLS Cup logos integrated strong visual and architectural elements of each host city while the new logo highlights the Philip F. Anschutz Trophy through a simple and elegant glyph of the trophy. This glyph will remain a consistent element in the MLS Cup logo for years to come. In the new design, the host city -- Seattle for the 2009 edition -- is symbolized by a specific typeface and color accents in the handles of the trophy.

Yeah, that's what I meant: a simple and elegant glyph.

In any case, the thing doesn't seem wildly cap- or T-shirt-friendly ... but it's inoffensive, and perhaps I'll warm up to it.

You can get a look by clicking here.

I'll be talking Sounders with Elise Woodward at 7:30 tonight on radio station KJR, 950-AM.

The conversation also will be available live on the KJR website.

The Sounders went through a light practice today at Starfire Sports Stadium. And from whatever you can tell from this distance, they seem to be seeing the light at the end of the U.S. Open Cup tunnel ... and seem to be thinking it might be the first trophy for their case.

The Sounders are now three wins into the cup -- counting the qualifying games -- and also exactly three wins from the title. Game four comes at 7 p.m. Tuesday, when Kansas City visits Starfire.

From what we heard, it seems likely that the Sounders will start fewer reserves than they have in previous Cup games -- partly because they're increasingly serious about winning it, but also partly because a lot of the starters haven't played since June 28 and Sigi Schmid seems to think keeping them fresh has become more important than keeping them rested.

That's one reason Kasey Keller is expected to be in goal tomorrow. And Steve Zakuani also seems certain to return to action after sitting out with an ankle injury.

A couple of quotes from this morning:

Schmid on the timing:
“Obviously it’s a little different than most Open Cup games from the standpoint that we don’t have a league game before it going in. But sometimes it’s like that gets over-rated too, because once you’re in the rhythm of playing, you’re sort of in the rhythm of playing. And like I said the other time we played on a Wednesday guys would much rather play a game than train. From that standpoint hopefully it’ll come to be a plus for us in the second half because we didn’t play. It changes our lineup a little bit because we didn’t play. We want to get guys back in the rhythm. So we hope it’s a plus for us, but sometimes I think it gets more attention than it deserves.”

Zakuani on the team's attitude:
"We’ve done well. I think we’re taking it seriously. We went to Portland and played a very good team against a very tough crowd and won the game. So we don’t want to waste tomorrow night. We want to come here and win the right to play again. We definitely take it seriously. If we keep winning – and we have been winning recently – it just keeps the momentum going. So it’s just about winning games."

Dallas forward Jeff Cunningham scored both goals in his team's 2-1 win over New York on Saturday and was rewarded today with Major League Soccer's Player of the Week honor. They were the 106th and 107th goals of Cunningham's MLS career.

Here's the MLS release.

(Cunningham also was at the top of my ballot, giving me a two-week streak as I also voted for the previous week's winner: Seattle's own Nate Jaqua.)

Here's my story from today's paper, which deals with what I think are the very good chances that the U.S. will be awarded another World Cup by 2022, and that Seattle will be chosen as one of the host cities.

However, here's one additional long paragraph that I liked -- almost poetic really -- from David Downs, executive director of the USA Bid Committee, regarding soccer in the United States:

"You can’t just look at the average attendance for an MLS game and necessarily say that’s where soccer is in America. Because soccer is the group of people who will turn out for the Chelsea and Barcelona games. It’s the Hispanic weekend player on the pickup fields. It’s the family kicking around that may not consume soccer on the MLS level or watch the Mexican League on Univision. It’s the Europhile who watches just the Premiership. But if we can manage to demonstrate to FIFA that all of those groups exist and somehow aggregate them and quantify them, then it’s a heck of a story. We honestly believe that if the World Cup comes back to the United States that we’ll sell five million tickets. We will literally sellout every one of the 64 matches at an average of 80,000."

Here's the story... which I mention because that game/incident was one of the vivid memories of my sportswriting life.

I had just been in the sports department a few days when my editor comes over and asks if I'm free to get down to Pasadena to cover the Women's World Cup final. I decided then that I was really going to like this job.

The assignment was great, the team was wonderful. But then came the game 0-0 through regulation, 0-0 through overtime. So I thinking, Well, this is fun, but how am I going to write 700 words on a scoreless game?"

Then Brandi Chastain hits the winning shot, whips off her shirt and suddenly there was plenty to write about.