Here's my Sounders story from this morning's paper, which briefly sets up the All-Star break.

But beacuse All-Star breaks are traditionally used for assessing where teams are -- and since I'm likely to be away from the computer most of the day -- I thought I'd just open this post for your takes on the state of the Sounders, with 18 regular season games behind them and 12 ahead. (Or any other soccer topics you'd like. ... I'm also hearing now that Montreal might be about to be introduced into the league. Thoughts on that? Would a Vancouver-Montreal-Toronto rivalry weaken the Seattle-Vancouver rivalry?)

Sounders FC (7-3-8, 29 points) goes into the break tied for the third-best record in the league, three points behind Western Conference leading Houston, one point behind Eastern leader Columbus.
However, Los Angeles, Chivas USA and Colorado are all within two points; and in a league where the top eight make the playoffs, nine teams are clustered between 32 and 26 points.

And Seattle will try to avoid being odd-team-out despite playing eight road games out of their final 12 -- starting Sunday at San Jose.

I'm sure the first half will draw pretty positive marks from most Sounders fans. But how about that tough stretch run? Do you think there's abetter chance at Supporters Shield or missing the playoffs? What needs to happen for the former to be more likely? And so on.

Sounders fans are talking today about the refereeing in yesterday's draw with Chicago, especially the two yellows referee Baldomero Toledo showed to Freddie Ljungberg.

Some exceptionally good facts and opinions are weaved into a couple of posts from blog contributors elmocatt and JoePublic.

So, I'm reproducing those here:

Comment from: elmocatt
Well, J Jr. hate to rain on your parade - but unfortuately that was a world class official out there on the field - at least in theory - in the sense that he has world class qualifications on paper. But as you saw, he did not put his world class paper qualfications to use today obviously.

Refs are qualfied to officiate different levels of matches, and you can tell what level by looking at the badge they have on their left breast pocket. Many MLS refs are just US soccer federation qualified - so only US matches (MLS, USL, etc). Today's guy had a white "FIFA" badge on his shirt, which means he is part of the very, very large pool of internationally qualfied referees (so he could ref a Gold Cup match, a world cup qualifying match, or whatever, involving not only MLS or USL matches, but also international teams in the US - such as the Barcelona match). It also means he is more experienced, and hopefully better, than the average US ref.

Having said all that, the ref did not do a good job today, and he certainly won't be able to use those paper FIFA credentials in any type of international soccer match anytime soon. No calls-up for him anytime soon to ref any international event.

Comment from JoePublic
Elmo: Correct, as usual. The white badge = referee badass. But when you say "very, very large pool" I'm not sure what you mean. There are only six US men on the FIFA list: Baldomero Toledo (our man yesterday), Mark Geiger, Jair Marrufo, Alex Prus, Ricardo Salazar and Terry Vaughn. Select company.

In Italy the newspapers rate the referee performance in every Serie A match. In England the Premiership referees are all well-known to followers of the game, and supporters think they know what to expect when a guy they know is assigned to their team's game. All around the world referees are subject to intense scrutiny, and about the best that fans of teams will say is 'that guy doesn't (stink) too bad.'

Because when you come to this from the position of a fan of a team, you see it with your supporter's eyes. You are biased. You can't help but want the decisions to break your way. And if they don't, then the referee must be at fault. Or incompetent. Or stupid, or from Portland, or whatever.

Nobody was complaining when Baldomero Toledo sent Thorington off (except Thorington, of course). Freddie had to know he has a reputation for being a jerk with the refs, and that sooner or later, some ref was not going to put up with even the smallest amount of (grief) from him. A hairtrigger is not a good quality in a referee; on the other hand, I don't know if Freddie had been in Baldo's earhole the whole game long up to that point.

My take: Enough fans dislike diving to the degree that I like the idea of trying to control it. And I do think Ljungberg milked it. However, I would have simply let the game play on at that point. If you're only going to card one dive over 90 minutes, it has to be different enough from all the others to justify the card. This one seemed unfortunately routine by world soccer standards.

That said, the second yellow almost had to be shown. Too much public display too much in the ref's face.

I've tweaked this post a bit, offering this comment section for discussion for any of today's games, expecially USA-Mexico.

I got home from the Sounders game last night in time to make it an MLS triple-header, watching the Galaxy remain a point behind the Sounders with a 1-1 draw at Kansas City (including what might well be the MLS goal of the year). And then to see San Jose, of all people come from two goals down for a 2-2 draw with D.C. United. (The Sounders next game will be at San Jose a week from today).

The fun should continue today as the US and Mexico will meet on Fox Soccer Channel at noon for the Gold Cup championship.

That will be followed by a World Football Challenge doubleheader on ESPN2: AC Milan-Inter Milan match at 2 p.m. ... Chelsea-Club America at 4 p.m.