Soccer returns! Sort of.

While many in the sporting world are focused on baseball's spring training, MLS teams are already playing in games that mean something. At least, that's what they want you to think.

The Pan-Pacific Cup final was yesterday in Hawaii, crowning Japanese side Gamba Osaka victors of a 4-team tournament including Houston Dynamo, LA Galaxy and the Aussies of Sydney FC. In reality, this means nothing - the two MLS sides weren't fielding their most competitive lineups.
However, the tournament did introduce many American soccer fans to Gamba star striker Baré, a 26 year old Brazilian. With 5 goals in 2 games, 4 of them coming in the final against defending champions Houston, he put on a totally dominant performance. And he's been consistently good in the J-League, with 92 goals in the last 5 years. If he wanted to move to a higher-profile league and team, Seattle MLS would seem to be a good choice, yes?

Unfortunately, he's so good that acquiring him might be difficult. Says Adrian Hanauer, "...honestly, the salaries in the J-league are generally higher than those of MLS, and a team like Gamba Osaka would probably be looking for a multi-million dollar transfer fee, for a player like Bare. In MLS, Bare would probably command designated player type compensation." It appears that if Seattle MLS will sign a designated player, they're going to go out and pick up a real superstar. Sadly, Baré probably isn't that guy.

Designated Player Speculation: Shinji Ono

As MLS Cup and a possible Seattle-related announcement draw nearer, only 2 weeks away at the time of posting, all we can do is wait. Wait and speculate.

Supposedly Adrian Hanauer, the MLS Seattle boss-to-be, has been in Asia for scouting purposes. (Which would explain why he isn't responding to our emails!) It makes sense for him to be looking for an Asian superstar player to sign, as sort of a soccer equivalent to Ichiro. Well, we think we know of the perfect guy.

Shinji Ono (shown here in a Seattle jersey, 2 years in the future) is an midfielder, primarily attacking but able to play anywhere in the midfield. He's played for Feyenoord, Uwara (in the J league) and has had 55 appearances (with 6 goals) for the Japan national side.

He's known for fantastic vision and versatile, all-around strong play. Ladies think he's cute, so we guess that's a bonus. Plus his nickname is 'Tensai,' or 'Genius,' which we think is just awesome. But here's the best part - his current contract with Uwara runs out in winter of 2008 - just in time to join Seattle for their inaugural MLS season in 2009! And by that time, he'll still only be 29 years old. Perfect. A Japanese midfielder in his prime to build around.

The only knock on him is durability, as injuries have caused him to miss a bunch of games for Japan internationally. Still, that shouldn't stop Hanauer from pursuing Shinji Ono, who looks to be a perfect fit for a Seattle MLS team.

(Check out videos of him here and here.)