The Sounders Tuesday signed defender Andrés Correa, a 21-year-old Colombian international, who will be added to the roster immediately following receipt of his P-1 visa and international transfer certificate. Correa spent the past four years with Fortaleza and Medellín, making 17 career appearances for the clubs in the Colombia First Division.
“We are pleased to welcome Andrés to Sounders FC,” said general manager Garth Lagerwey. “He is a dynamic, exciting young player that we believe can compete for minutes on our backline as we head into a packed season across multiple competitions.”
Correa also logged 10 appearances for Colombia’s youth national teams, helping his nation to a first-place finish in the 2013 U-20 South American Championships.
“Andrés is a very good young player with a tremendous upside,” said coach Sigi Schmid. “Although he’s a young player, we believe he can be a contributor this year and we look forward to working with him throughout preseason camp.”
The Sounders are training at Starfire Sports Complex this week before traveling to Tucson Sunday to begin a two-week camp. While in Tucson, the club will compete in the Desert Diamond Cup.
Seattle begins its 2015 MLS campaign March 8 at CenturyLink Field against defending Eastern Conference champion New England Revolution at 6:30 p.m. PST on FOX Sports 1.
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It seemed that Seattle’s fullbacks were caught out of position quite a few times last season. Frei isn’t a world-beater as a goalie, but he can’t be blamed for some of the goals that were let in. Bringing in a young guy with some talent can’t hurt.
However, it may not mean a whole lot if a new collective bargaining agreement isn’t signed before the season opener. The last CBA expired two weeks ago and there is a very real possibility there’ll be a player strike this time because the MLSPA is foursquare behind some form of free agency while the owners aren’t showing any sign of budging. We’re not really hearing about this locally, but there are less than four weeks to go until the season opener is scheduled.