Mrisho Ngassa the only trialist to play vs. Manchester United

There were a handful of new faces at Sounders FC training today, including Federal Way native Kelyn Rowe , who plays collegiately at UCLA.

With Wednesday's friendly looming, I asked coach Sigi Schmid if any non-contract players might get some action against Manchester United. "The only trialist that we're looking at playing is ( Mrisho ) Ngassa ," he said.

"We haven't had a chance to see him yet on a real big field because just of our training schedule and the amount of games that we've had. We haven't done a lot of big-field stuff in between, so it will be good to see him on a big field."

Ngassa is a 22-year-old speedy wing player from Tanzania. He was brought to the Sounders in an effort to strengthen the team's relationship with clubs in East Africa. "It's a loose affiliation at this point, although we are trying to put something more structured in place," said general manager Adrian Hanauer last week. "It's a relationship that has evolved over the last five years or so. We believe that there is some opportunity in East Africa. We would like to create a link, a pipeline. We are planning to do so with a team called African Lyon in Dar es Salaam.

Ngassa happens to come from a different team called Azam, which were willing to work with African Lyon and ourselves in bringing him out for a trial. We are excited about the relationship. We' ve got work to do to make it more robust, but it's something we think could pay dividends down the line - - two years, three years, five years, 10 years."

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