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SEATTLE - The Seattle Sounders traded Uruguayan midfielder Alvaro Fernandez to the Chicago Fire and acquired Christian Tiffert from Germany's Kaiserslautern as his replacement, the club announced Friday.
Seattle, which will begin play in the CONCACAF Champions League on Thursday at home against Caribbean club champion Caledonia AIA, announced the moves via two separate press releases.
The three-time defending U.S. Open Cup champion first said that it had dealt the 26-year-old Fernandez to Chicago for allocation money. Under Major League Soccer's single-entity system, players are acquired and paid for out of a central league fund.
A little more than an hour later it announced Tiffert's acquisition.
Fernandez, an Uruguayan international who was acquired by Seattle following the 2010 World Cup, scored 13 goals in 55 games for the Sounders and had an additional four goals in 15 games in the CONCACAF Champions League.
One of Fernandez's goals gave Seattle its 1-0 victory in Mexico over defending Champions League champion Monterrey on August 23.
The Sounders, who are unbeaten in six but have won only three of their last nine matches, have the seventh-best record in MLS.
The 30-year-old Tiffert has played in Austria and Germany the past 12 years, with stops at Tennis Borussia Berlin, VfB Stuttgart, MSV Duisburg and winning the Austrian league title with Red Bull Salzburg in 2007. Has played the last two years with Kaiserslautern
He takes over one of Seattle's three "designated player" slots - the one vacated by Fernandez.
MLS clubs may sign three players outside the league's salary restrictions. Fernandez had been signed as one of Seattle's three DPs in 2010.
