Sounders center back Roman Torres has been sidelined this preseason by a lingering hamstring issue and the team on Tuesday spent some money to fix what loomed as a rather large problem for the injury-riddled side.
The Sounders signed South Korean center back Kim Kee-hee for Targeted Allocation Money, giving them a strapping 6-foot-2, 176-pound replacement for the physical Torres to start the season off and likely continue well into it. At age 28, Kim, who was dropped by Chinese Super League team Shanghai Greenland Shenhua due to roster restrictions on foreign players, had wanted a place to play ahead of joining the Korean national team for this summer’s FIFA World Cup.