Former Mayde Creek High School player Josh Gardner and the Seattle Sounders won the USL-1 title last night over the Atlanta Silverbacks.
Gardner a left-sided midfielder picked up his third title as a professional having won an MLS Cup and a Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup while a member of the LA Galaxy for three years.
The Sounders have consistently been one of the top franchises in the USL and are coached by Brian Schmetzer.
Seattle is considered a top destination for future expansion in MLS.

Hope Solo did not train with the U.S. National team and will not participate in the third place game against Norway.
Greg Ryan, Abby Wambach and Kristine Lilly confirmed this at a press conference that the squad would remain unified for the third place game.
Solo spoke out after being benched against Brazil in a 4-1 loss.
As much as appreciate her disappointment, think Ryan made a mistake, Solo handled the situation poorly and certainly in a selfish manner by speaking out to the press before the end of the tournament in a negative manner.
“There is no doubt in my mind I would have made those saves,” said Solo after the 4-0 loss to Brazil.
Ok Hope.
Hope sold her teammates out in the end in looked like a disgruntled youth soccer player.
Speak after the World Cup is over.
I will say though, U.S. Womens soccer has gotten more coverage over this incident than they ever would have had they won the tournament.

DC United head coach Tom Soehn wanted to rest Ben Olsen and Jaime Moreno for the upcoming 2nd leg of the Copa Sudamericana at Chivas but couldn’t do it.
After a sub-par first half against Toronto FC that saw them down 1-0 to a `14the minute Carl Robinson goal things changed in the second half.
Coach Tom Soehn gave United a tongue lashing at half time, inserted Moreno and Olsen and it was “game on ” at RFK.
United scored 4 goals in 18 minutes to remind Toronto FC that they are an expansion team.
Goals from Marc Burch, Fred, Moreno and Emilio turned put the match beyond doubt.
United heads to Guadalajara tomorrow with a 2-1 advantage to take on Chivas in a huge international match to try and advance in the Copa Sudamericana. No MLS team has won in Mexico.
Chivas Coach De La Torre was fired last week and Efrain Flores has been inserted as Chivas coach and they won tonite 3-1 over Veracruz .
Brazilian Fred left the game against Toronto FC with five minutes left and seemed to have a groin injury which could be an issue at Jalisco Stadium.
Does DC break the duck and get the first ever win in Mexico for MLS?
Your thoughts?
Catch Columbus and LA tomorrow at 5 eastern on HDNET.

With the Washington Nationals done at RFK the stadium once again is solely the home of DC United.
After tonite’s game against Toronto FC (6:30 CST on HDNET) the stadium will undergo changes as the baseball field will be removed and a new surface put in place.
DC United and RFK will host the MLS Cup final on November 13th.
Additionally United’s staff does a fantastic job of making a huge stadium seem intimate with 20,000 fans in it. Still RFK is one of the great temple’s of MLS.
On another note, we head to Columbus tomorrow night on HDNET for the Crew vs LA which essentially is a must win for both teams.
Don’t forget the Dynamo in action on Telefutura Sunday against rivals FC Dallas.
Glenn

Former Mayde Creek High School star and LA Galaxy member Josh Gardner looks to help the Seattle Sounders to their fourth USL title tonite against the Atlanta Silverbacks.
The game which will air on the Fox Soccer Channel (9pmCST)will be played in Washington State.
Gardner who also played locally as a youth with the Hurricanes Soccer Club and was released by the Galaxy prior to the start of the 2007 MLS season and has been a starter on the left side for Seattle after being picked up.
He also scored the game winning goal against Preston North End and was instruemental in helping knock off both Chivas USA and the Colorado Rapids in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup.
The Sounders were knocked out in the semi-finals on penalty kicks by FC Dallas .

Clearly it was a poor choice by U.S. National team coach Greg Ryan to bench Hope Solo and start Briana Scurry.
From there it gotten even worse with the own goal which should have been cleared by the defenders feet. The red card to Shannon Boxx was the killing blow. Yet irregardless I don’t believe the U.S. were going to get by Brazil (more on that in my Sunday Houston Chronicle column).
I can clearly understand the shock and disappoinment of Solo but I thought that she made a grand and youthful mistake at this point to air here laundry publicly at this stage.
“There is no doubt in my mind I would have made those saves,” she said. “The fact of the matter it is not 2004 anymore.”
Now Solo to me seemed a bit like a perturbed youth or college player. By not reacting emotionally it was there for all to see that Ryan had made a poor choice. Why make changes when you came off a good result against England. I believe he made the change out of fear of Brazil.
In the end the U.S. Women are getting more publicity for this controversy then they ever would have most likely if they won the Cup.
It’s also reminds us of the 1998 World Cup debacle with the U.S. mens team with John Harkes airing his laundry out back in the states while the team was overseas while coach Steve Sampson who was clearly in over his head tried to keep a broken team together that include a few players that thought they were more important than they really were.
Tony DiCicco was dusting off his resume during the ESPN broadcast and clearly wants the job again to run the women. Former womens players are weighing in and this could turn into an agenda driven mistake.
Lets also not forget all was not rosy under April Heinrichs at the last World Cup which incidentally the women did not win. Many claimed the players were treated like college players under the autocratic Heinrichs. Ryan was her assistant at the time.
A poor player selection choice in Ryan’s first loss in charge of the U.S. Women but in the end I don’t think it would have mattered. This was Brazil’s day.
And a day U.S. soccer can learn lots of lessons.