Seattle Sounders acquire the services of defender Tim Steidten from Werder Bremen of the German Bundesliga for the remainder of the A-League season soccer and playoffs. Steidten, 21, was obtained on a loan as part of the Sounders-Werder Bremen affiliation that includes player exchanges. He plays in 12 regular season and playoff games. In August, Bainbridge's Cameron Lawler is among five players chosen to train at Bremen. In November, the Sounders' U14 and U16 boys teams travel to Bremen for a weeklong tour.

Bowing to the Seattle City Parks superintendent's decision to revoke field permits and bar 7,000 young soccer players from Seattle's playgrounds, the Seattle Youth Soccer Association agrees to let Eve Russell, 12, rejoin the Laurelhurst-View Ridge Stars boys' team. Russell had played on the team the past two years but had been blocked this year by the SYSA. The Russell family wanted a one-year exception for Eve. Seattle Parks policy requires organizations using parks to allow exceptions to rules barring participants from playing on the basis of gender, race, age or disability.

A new PDL team in Tacoma will replace the Spokane Shadow in the Northwest Division. The new club, owned by Mike Jennings and Pat Garlock and coached by Jennings, will go by the name Tacoma FC for 2006 before choosing a permanent nickname for 2007. TFC will assume the Shadow's schedule and play home games at Curtis High School. The Shadow was forced to cease operations March 27 when they concluded the turf at Spokane's Joe Albi Stadium was unfit for play.

A scoreless stalemate is finally settled by penalty kicks, with Federal Way taking the girls' AAA championship over Issaquah, 0-0 (4-3), at Renton Stadium. Kerri Coplin and Michelle Dines convert the final two penalties for the Eagles while the Indians see two of their first four attempts sail high and wide. Coplin and Dines had also scored the previous night in a 3-2 comeback semifinal win over Cascade.

The USYSA Region IV Championships come to Spokane and begin with 7,350 attending the opening ceremonies at Joe Albi Stadium. The event matches 240 youth teams in eight age categories, U12-U19, from 14 Western states, including Alaska and Hawaii.

Carolyn Jenkins squeezes a shot just inside the post with 12 minutes remaining, and Washington moves past UCLA, 2-1, on the road in an NCAA first-round game. Tara Bilanski assists on both goals, including Erin Pochman's opener, for the Huskies, winners for the eighth time in nine games.