• There are no dominant teams in Major League Soccer, and from one week to the next, anything can happen. This week's case in point is the Seattle Sounders, who won the Supporters' Shield in 2014 and started 2015 with three months at the top of the Western Conference. Within a few weeks, though, the Sounders lost Obafemi Martins and Clint Dempsey, and without its all-star strikers, the team lost eight of nine games and dropped out of the playoff contention. Now that both are back, the Sounders are flying again, three points out of first place. To prove the point, they beat Western Conference leaders Vancouver 3-0 twice in five days — first in the league, then in the CONCACAF Champions League.
• The Boston Breakers voted, as a team, to name former Woodbury High star Kassey Kallman the team's player of the year for her performance at center back. Kallman, 23, captained the Breakers and played every minute for Boston this season, one year after helping FC Kansas City win the NWSL title as a rookie. Despite the accolades, though, she probably didn't make any extra friends in Boston last week. In Montreal to watch fellow Woodbury product Eric Miller play for the Montreal Impact against the New England Revolution, she tweeted, "Sorry Boston fans #AllezMontreal."
• Miguel Ibarra, the former United star, has settled into a regular role as a substitute for Club Leon in Mexico, playing a portion of the second half in all of the team's September games thus far, save one. Leon is having a season to remember. The team leads Liga MX, with seven wins in nine games, and won its Copa MX group to advance to the quarterfinals. Tuesday's home game with perennial powerhouse Club America looms large for Leon; a win might give it the inside track on the fall season championship.
• The Gophers women's soccer team made its debut in the Top 25 this week, coming in at No. 18 in the coaches' poll after beating then-No. 4 Penn State and then-No. 20 Ohio State on the road. Junior striker Simone Kolander, who scored the game-winning goals in both games, was named the Big Ten offensive player of the week.
