Blaise Nkufo Ready To Join Seattle Sounders

In the wake of last night’s disappointing 3-1 loss to MLS Western Conference leading Los Angeles Galaxy, the Seattle Sounders announced Tuesday that Blaise Nkufo will be soon joining the team.

"In our discussions with Blaise, we encouraged him to take a full two weeks off once he returned from the World Cup," said General Manager Adrian Hanauer. "His first training date is scheduled for July 13 and he is eligible to be added to the roster on July 15."

This comes as welcome news during a season when Coach Sigi Schmid has often had to go with patchwork lineups to stem the tide with a series of injuries.

A major injury was losing defense specialist John Kennedy Hurtado due to an injured ACL for the entire campaign.

The signing of Congo born Nkufo was seen as a move to provide needed vigor to the Seattle attack for the second half of the 2010 season, an effort to make the difference in sending the team back to the playoffs after a successful first year campaign that ended in playoff competition.

Nkufo flew to Seattle for a press conference and to meet with management, the coaching staff, and his future teammates prior to leaving for South Africa and World Cup competition with Switzerland.

Nkufo’s participation on the Swiss World Cup team insured close attention from the Sounders community.  They enjoyed what they saw as Nkufo played well in the 1-0 upset victory by Switzerland of Spain, a tournament co-favorite and semi-finalist.  This was the only Spanish setback thus far.

With Hanauer indicating that Nkufo will be added to the roster July 15, he is eligible to play for the Sounders that evening against host D.C. United.  Seattle will be seeking that night to avenge a 3-2 loss to D.C. United sustained in Seattle’s last match prior to the World Cup break.

Nkufo played the past seven seasons for FC Twente in Enschede, Holland. Twente won the Dutch Eredivisie in May and Nkufo scored a club record 114 goals in league play.

The supporters of Twente will pay tribute to Nkufo on Sunday, July 11, unveiling a statue outside De Grolsch Veste, the team's home stadium.