Sounders FC announced its anticipated Feb. 29 Community Shield match Thursday morning.

The team's final preseason game will be at CenturyLink Field against Jaguares de Chiapas of the Mexican Primera Division, and admission for the 7 p.m. kickoff is free.

That's right, the game is free -- though fans are encouraged to give donations at the gate to benefit the team's five charitable partners (America SCORES Seattle, Boys & Girls Clubs of King County and Bellevue, Special Olympics Washington, Washington Global Health and Washington Youth Soccer).

Seating will be open in the lower east bowl.

From the news release: "The model for the event is based upon the 'Charity or Community Shield' matches in England, where they are a long standing tradition featuring the champions of the FA Premier League against the winners of the FA Cup with all proceeds going to charity."

I expect the Sounders to field a team of mostly starters, and I expect Jaguares will have some incentive to do the same.

Last year, Seattle hosted the Colorado Rapids to make it a true Shield game between the league and cup winners. In 2010, the Sounders hosted rival Portland.

Seattle kicks off its CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinal at home against Mexico's Santos Laguna on March 7. That's followed by a CCL road leg on March 14 and then the MLS regular-season opener at home against Toronto FC on March 17.

What do you think of the game? Can't go wrong with free, right?

Sounders FC draft pick Abdul Aman has been linked to a number of options after being released from training camp a couple weeks ago.

First, it was thought he might go back to the North Sound SeaWolves FC. Then, we heard he might be exploring options in Europe. Now, through a story on GoHuskies.com, we learn the Seattle native is seeking a sixth year of college eligibility from the NCAA.

"We certainly hope to have him back in a Husky uniform next year as he is an exciting attacking player with the ability to pull off the unexpected and surprise defenses with his mix of speed and tricks," said Washington men's soccer coach Jamie Clark to the university's athletic website. "Time will tell what happens with Abdul, but it speaks to his talent level that the Sounders drafted him."

Interesting stuff to follow. Here are some other links:

--- The Washington Crossfire PDL team has named Adam Rowland as head coach for the 2012 season. Rowland, who takes over for Bernie James, has played for clubs like Blackpool, West Ham, Nottingham Forest and Preston North End.

--- Here's Roger Levesque going 1v1 with SoundersFC.com.

--- The Portland Timbers have some new billboards. I'm not sure if any have been put up in Seattle...

--- The Houston Dynamo has been in the news for various reasons. First, a couple players were arrested after an incident at a bar. The lawyer of one player hints there were racial undertones behind the altercation. The team also acquired forward Macoumba Kandji from Colorado for a conditional draft pick. And here's a picture update on the grass installation at Houston's new stadium.

--- Philadelphia signed Colombian forward Lionard Pajoy to help bolster its new-look attack.

--- Here are a couple links from The Sporting News. First, a look at lightning rod player-turned-analyst Eric Wynalda and also some thoughts on the 2012 National Soccer Hall of Fame ballot.

--- Some notes regarding U.S. Soccer: The Soccer Insider has the scoop on a May 30 men's friendly against Brazil at FedEx Field, the U.S. U-23s will take on Mexico's U-23s in Dallas on Feb. 29 and the U.S. women's game against New Zealand on Saturday will be streamed on the federation website.

--- The final of the African Cup of Nations has been set: Ivory Coast will be a heavy favorite against Zambia.

--- Lastly, here's some mascot-on-mascot crime and also 45-year-old former goalkeeper Rene Higuita re-enacted his famous scorpion kick-save on Arabic television.

The soccer world was shaken up a bit Wednesday when Fabio Capello resigned as head coach of England's national team.

It was a shocking move, but one that had been building up for a couple days.

We'll pick up the story Friday, when the FA decided to strip John Terry of his national-team captaincy upon learning the defender's racism trial wouldn't be held until after the Euro '12 tournament this summer.

Capello, feeling undermined that the decision was made for him and against his wishes, then told Italian television Sunday night that he didn't agree with making such a move before the trial had run its course. That, in turn, was a breach of contract, according to FA chairman David Bernstein on Monday.

Safe to say it was all leading to an inevitable end that became official Wednesday.

So what's next? Well, many signs are pointing to Tottenham coach Harry Redknapp, who was a player and assistant coach for the NASL Sounders in the 1970s, assuming the job. It was here in Seattle, where Redknapp actually got his coaching start. He was a Sounder from 1976-79, most of which was under player/coach Jimmy Gabriel, who currently does broadcast work for Sounders FC.

More than 30 years later, the 64-year-old Redknapp is enjoying his best coaching run as the Hotspurs are currently third in the Premier League standings. Many felt he'd be favored to take the England job after Euro '12, even had Capello stayed on.

Top English forward Wayne Rooney has already backed Redknapp to be Capello's successor.

Not a bad day for the former Sounder, right? That wasn't the half of it. Redknapp was also acquitted of tax evasion charges Wednesday.

So what do you think? Are you anymore intrigued by the story with the decades-old local connection?

Sounders FC announced Wednesday that its July 18 home game against Real Salt Lake has been moved to Oct. 17. Kickoff time and broadcast information will be determined later.

The move will accommodate a summer friendly in Seattle, which was first alluded to by Michael C. Lewis of The Salt Lake Tribune in this tweet.

The details regarding the team's friendly haven't yet been announced.

The Sounders were on the opposite end of this scenario last year when Philadelphia had to reschedule a game due to its friendly against Real Madrid.

The move could benefit the Sounders to a minor degree from a scheduling perspective. The July 18 home game against RSL was on a Wednesday following a Saturday road game across the country in New York. The proposed Oct. 17 date would fall in between home games against Portland (Oct. 7) and FC Dallas (Oct. 21).

I haven't heard when an official announcement on Seattle's friendly this season will be coming. The last update I got in January was that it could be around this time.

The Los Angeles Galaxy was probably the MLS favorite before making some big moves Tuesday.

But the return of midfielder Juninho on loan from Sao Paulo -- apparently without a loan fee -- seems to cement that label. L.A. also secured the free transfer of defender Leonardo.

Many around the Twittersphere have been scratching their heads as to how the Galaxy will be able to get under the $2.81 million salary cap with three DPs (David Beckham, Landon Donovan, Robbie Keane) and other signings that already include forward Edson Buddle.

Even Sounders FC coach Sigi Schmid chimed in.

"L.A. seems to figure out how to sign everybody," Schmid joked while talking about the reality of having to make training camp cuts.

Soccer America tries to take a closer look at the numbers, but due to the mystery of allocation money, we'll never really know how the Galaxy plans on getting salary compliant.

Any thoughts on the situation?

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--- New midfielder Christian Sivebaek goes 1v1 with SoundersFC.com.

--- A U.S. Soccer legend Harry Keough died Tuesday at the age of 84. He was a defender for the team that upset England in the 1950 FIFA World Cup.

--- Portland beat the Galaxy 4-1 in a training game yesterday and forward Bright Dike is excited to be healthy again after missing most of 2011 injured.

--- Sounds like organizers are trying to set up a Real Madrid-Inter Milan friendly this summer in New York. If it happens, might one of those teams also make a trip west? Keep in mind, with the Olympics and the Euro '12 tournament this summer, any opponent is going to be very shorthanded when it comes to bringing over its stars.

--- Vancouver Whitecaps rookie defender Greg Klazura was interviewed after Monday's training game against the Sounders and kept his cool pretty well considering the circumstances. Take a look for yourself.

Sounders FC coach Sigi Schmid held a teleconference with reporters Tuesday afternoon before the team boarded a flight for Seattle. He covered a variety of topics and here is the transcript from the call:

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(Can you give us an overview on how Arizona went and what's coming up?) "I think Arizona went well for us. I think we got the work done that we wanted to get done in terms of establishing our fitness base, so I was pleased with that. Part of building fitness is you also have to give guys a little bit of time to recover and so forth, so we trained this morning. It wasn't a regeneration morning training; it was a regular training session. We worked on our tactics and our defending a little bit and then we'll be off on Wednesday and Thursday. We'll train again Friday and then we're off to Florida. So we wanted to get a little break, make sure everybody saw their families, got a couple days off, regenerate a little bit and then we'll get back to work in Florida."

(We heard about Mike Fucito having a puncture wound and the possibility of a staph infection after Monday's game. How's he doing?) "It really wasn't that deep. He didn't really have a puncture wound; it was more of a raking of the cleats. You can see the red marks on his knee and on his thigh and so forth, but there was no puncture wound, so there's no danger of a staph infection or anything like that. It's more just from the force of the blow. Obviously there was some bleeding that took place around the knee and the quad area, so we got to make sure that ... we get that bleeding kept at a minimum. He was wrapped up today and he was walking on it. Ultimately, it will get better each day."

Sounders FC released more of its preseason plans Tuesday, highlighted by a Feb. 22 closed-door training game at 4 p.m. against Mexican Primera Division club Atlante FC in Cancun.

Seattle midfielder Brad Evans tipped us off to those plans last week, but now it's official.

Atlante is currently second in the league standings and should provide the Sounders with a good warmup leading into a CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinal against first-place Santos Laguna. With a road game on Feb. 17 and a home game on Feb. 25, you would think Atlante would be able to give its starters some time, however briefly. I'd think Sounders officials would insist that was the case.

The team also announced plans for four training games in Bradenton, Fla., as camp heads there on Saturday through Feb. 20 at the IMG Academy:

Sounders FC preseason schedule (times are Pacific & subject to change)

Monday, Feb. 13 -- Training game vs. Orlando City SC, 1 p.m.
Wednesday, Feb. 15 -- Training game vs. Columbus Crew, 8 a.m.
Thursday, Feb. 16 -- Training game vs. U-17 U.S. National Team, 7 a.m.
Sunday, Feb. 19 -- Training game vs. Florida Gulf Coast University, 1 p.m.
Monday, Feb. 20 -- Travel to Orlando
Tuesday, Feb. 21 -- Travel to Cancun, Mexico
Wednesday, Feb. 22 -- Training game vs. Atlante FC, Cancun, Mexico, 4 p.m.
Thursday, Feb. 23 -- Travel to Seattle