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SEATTLE -- Nicolas Lodeiro, the attacking midfielder who just helped Argentina powerhouse Boca Juniors reach the semifinals of the prestigious Copa Libertadores club championship in South America, has signed with the Seattle Sounders as a designated player.The 27-year-old Lodeiro also has 48 caps for the Uruguay national team, including this summers Copa America Centenario in the United States.With the performance the Sounders typically have, they have always played in the playoff every season and are an important team in the MLS overall, Lodeiro said through a translator during a press conference Wednesday. That convinced me to come over here and be part of this project and be part of this team, and to help the team to continue to be successful.Success has been elusive for the Sounders this season, as they lag near the bottom of the standings with a 6-12-2 record. Wednesdays move was their second major one in 24 hours.On Tuesday, the team announced it had parted ways with coach Sigi Schmid, who had been in charge since Seattle joined MLS in 2009. Longtime assistant Brian Schmetzer was named the interim head coach and was delighted to add Lodeiro to the roster in just his second day on the job.Im very keen on getting Nico and Clint Dempsey together, Schmetzer said about pairing the newcomer with the U.S. national team forward. All the guys, Im sure, are going to get a good burst of energy from Nicos appearance with the club.Pending the receipt of his P-1 visa and international transfer clearance, Lodeiro could be available as soon as Sunday when the Sounders host the Los Angeles Galaxy.The decision of where I play is up to the coach, he said. The most important thing to me is to play with great players.Added Schmetzer, It gives us new options. Nicolas is going to have a big impact on the team, on and off the field. Hes going to work hard and hes going to work smart.Loderio has played in three Copa Americas, including 2011 when Uruguay won it. He has been in two World Cups, helping the country finish fourth in 2010 and reach the round of 16 in 2014. He also was in the 2012 London Olympics.Professionally, Lodeiro played three seasons with Uruguays Nacional, three seasons with Dutch side Ajax, two with Brazils Botafogo, and one with Corinthians of Brazil. He joined Boca Juniors in 2015, scoring three goals.With Dempsey, rookie Jordan Morris, and veteran Nelson Valdez up front, Sounders officials said adding an attacking midfielder was a priority.Nicolas is going to be a tremendous presence for us going forward, general manager and president of soccer Garth Lagerway said. Even five years ago, the thought that the playmaking midfielder for Boca Juniors, one of the biggest clubs in all of the Americas, would come and play in MLS in the prime of his career at age 27 was unbelievable.This is a game-changer for us.Nicolas Lodeiro, the attacking midfielder who just helped Argentina powerhouse Boca Juniors reach the semifinals of the prestigious Copa Libertadores club championship in South America, has signed with the Seattle Sounders as a designated player.The 27-year-old Lodeiro also has 48 caps for the Uruguay national team, including this summers Copa America Centenario in the United States.With the performance the Sounders typically have, they have always played in the playoff every season and are an important team in the MLS overall, Lodeiro said through a translator during a press conference Wednesday. That convinced me to come over here and be part of this project and be part of this team, and to help the team to continue to be successful.Success has been elusive for the Sounders this season, as they lag near the bottom of the standings with a 6-12-2 record. Wednesdays move was their second major one in 24 hours.On Tuesday, the team announced it had parted ways with coach Sigi Schmid, who had been in charge since Seattle joined MLS in 2009. Longtime assistant Brian Schmetzer was named the interim head coach and was delighted to add Lodeiro to the roster in just his second day on the job.Im very keen on getting Nico and Clint Dempsey together, Schmetzer said about pairing the newcomer with the U.S. national team forward. All the guys, Im sure, are going to get a good burst of energy from Nicos appearance with the club.Pending the receipt of his P-1 visa and international transfer clearance, Lodeiro could be available as soon as Sunday when the Sounders host the Los Angeles Galaxy.The decision of where I play is up to the coach, he said. The most important thing to me is to play with great players.Added Schmetzer, It gives us new options. Nicolas is going to have a big impact on the team, on and off the field. Hes going to work hard and hes going to work smart.Loderio has played in three Copa Americas, including 2011 when Uruguay won it. He has been in two World Cups, helping the country finish fourth in 2010 and reach the round of 16 in 2014. He also was in the 2012 London Olympics.Professionally, Lodeiro played three seasons with Uruguays Nacional, three seasons with Dutch side Ajax, two with Brazils Botafogo, and one with Corinthians of Brazil. He joined Boca Juniors in 2015, scoring three goals.With Dempsey, rookie Jordan Morris, and veteran Nelson Valdez up front, Sounders officials said adding an attacking midfielder was a priority.Nicolas is going to be a tremendous presence for us going forward, general manager and president of soccer Garth Lagerway said. Even five years ago, the thought that the playmaking midfielder for Boca Juniors, one of the biggest clubs in all of the Americas, would come and play in MLS in the prime of his career at age 27 was unbelievable.This is a game-changer for us. Cheap Shoes Online Free Delivery . White came in fourth place in the event. He was the two-time defending gold medallist. The gold medal went to Swiss snowboarder Iouri Podladtchikov. Trendy Wholesale Shoes . Jeff Green scored 13 points and Kris Humphries 12 for the Celtics, who nearly blew an 18-point, second-half lead. Sullingers 20-20 was the first by a Celtics player since Kevin Garnetts first game in Boston in 2007. 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RIO de JANEIRO -- If members of the 2016 U.S. Olympic womens basketball team feel the stress of having only 10 days of preparation time together to avoid being THAT team -- the one that loses the 41-game winning streak and five straight gold-medal victories that American teams have strung together before now -- they can at least find comfort in the luxury ship theyre sharing with the U.S. mens basketball squad for the duration of the Games.When players from both squads arrived Wednesday on a charter flight from Houston, photographers snapped shots of porters in red jackets and white gloves carrying their baggage on board the Silver Cloud, a 296-passenger ship in the Silversea cruise line. A weeklong cruise on the yacht can cost upward of $13,000, and patrons enjoy access to a spa, bar, cigar lounge, several dining areas, verandas and an outdoor pool. Theres also a media room where Team USAs Maya Moore said the womens squad held their first meeting of the Games upon arrival Wednesday.We were only there about an hour, but its definitely comfortable, Moore said with a smile. Ill get a better idea when we go back. But we may have to see about having a [rookie] talent show or something in that room.Other than some possible gripes about where the ship is docked -- its at Pier Maua in Guanabara Bay, one of the heavily polluted waterways in the Rio area -- its unlikely the mens or womens teams will be echoing the sort of complaints the Chinese or Australian delegations (among others) have shared since arriving at the Games.Chinese officials reported some muggings, and Australian-born NBA star Andrew Bogut has tweeted about arriving to find his Olympic village bed is too short to accommodate his 7-foot frame and his room lacks a shower curtain. (He tweeted a photo showing how he decided to rig one himself.) Another athlete tweeted a photo showing where the showerhead had fallen off when he turned on the water -- and all of that was after Kitty Chiller, chief of the Aussie delegation, initially declared the village uninhabitable when the team first arrived and put the bathroom sinks and toilets through stress tests.The Aussies were among the national delegations that also objected to some exposed wiring they found. By the end, one Rio official had enough and shot back that perhaps Games organizers would put kangaroos in each Aussies room to make them feel more comfortable.U.S. basketball wont likely have to worry about any of that.The website description for the Silver Cloud boasts the ship is spacious yet intimate and designed to cross oceans and yet able to slip up rivers and into hidden harbors with ease. ...The yacht-like Silver Cloud offers incomparable comfort and style.Just in case star-crazed fans try to get too intimate, theyll have to get past security measurees like the bullet-proof glass partition surrounding the ship, a metal detector at the beginning of the gang plank heading onboard, and police marksmen who are reportedly stationed on boats that will be patrolling the waters around the ship, according to Britains Daily Mail.ddddddddddddts worth noting that such high-end accommodations arent new for the U.S. basketball teams, or based solely on the pre-Games concerns about Rios readiness to host the world. The practice of staying outside the athletes village started with the first mens Dream Team in 1988. (The coach at the time was Hall of Famer Chuck Daly, then the Pistons coach, whose nickname was Daddy Rich.)We dont stay in the [Olympic athletes] village because we dont feel its the best way to prepare for the competition, USA Basketball spokesman Craig Miller told the Associated Press in February.Right. It just didnt work out that way at the 2004 Athens Games. The U.S. men stayed on the Queen Mary 2, wound up losing to Argentina, and came home with only a bronze medal and red faces.The U.S. women are favored to win here in Rio as heavily as that U.S. mens team was favored.Star guard Diana Taurasi says the chance for the NBA and WNBA stars to mingle off the court is one of the things that makes playing in the Games so much fun. In the offseason she sometimes scrimmages in Los Angeles with Draymond Green and other players from the U.S. mens team. On Wednesday, she noted that the two squads enjoyed the chance on the charter from Houston to Rio to get acquainted and swap stories.But now that theyre all here, a reporter asked Taurasi, what will life be like on the ship? Will it be breakfast with Kyrie Irving and Dwyane Wade? Just hanging out?Yeah, theyre all right, Taurasi joked. You know, if Kyrie plays a good game, maybe Ill have breakfast with him. ... We went to their [last tuneup] game. Theyre a great bunch. Weve always had a great relationship with the mens team. We practice in the same facility, we share the boat, usually share the same hotels. They support us, we do the same. Everybodys just a basketball fan. We have the mutual respect of playing basketball together.Once we get down here, its all about Team USA.After the U.S. women played three tuneup games against Canada, France and Australia the last two weeks -- all teams that Taurasi says the U.S. expects to be there at the end of medal-round play -- Taurasi said she and her teammates are ready to go.Olympic head coach Geno Auriemma agreed. The U.S. begins play Saturday against Senegal, and Auriemma, who coached the U.S. to the 2012 gold medal, said, Ive never had a team thats better prepared or more eager to get started. ' ' '