SEATTLE - The Salt Lake Tribune

With Honduras game looming, MLS stars stepping up for U.S.

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 00:23:48 MDT

With Honduras game looming, MLS stars stepping up for U.S.

By Aaron Falk The Salt Lake Tribune

Updated Jun 16, 2013 12:23AM MDT

Omar Gonzalez and Matt Besler are becoming familiar faces internationally. The central defenders have become regulars for the United States lately, helping to secure some impressive and critical victories. The sellout crowd at Rio Tinto Stadium next week should already be plenty familiar with the duo. Both have been regular visitors with their MLS clubs. “A few years ago, the talk was always about the European [league] players,” said the 24-year-old Gonzalez, who also anchors the Los Angeles Gal...

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Soccer-crazy Seattle set for World Cup qualifier

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 06:57:50 MDT

Soccer-crazy Seattle set for World Cup qualifier

By steven goff The Washington Post

Updated Jun 11, 2013 06:57AM MDT

Seattle • Clint Dempsey was strolling downtown to find dinner Saturday night and noticed through the windows of crowded bars that TVs were set to the Seattle Sounders match. “I felt like I was in another country,” said Dempsey, a U.S. national team attacker from east Texas who lives most of the year in soccer-obsessed London playing for Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur. Seattle is known for coffee and music, waterways and natural beauty. It is also fast becoming known as America’s soccer ...