Yes, you’re reading that headline correctly. Incredibly, just hours before kickoff of the first game of the season, Blaise Nkufo and the Seattle Sounders have agreed to cut ties. The finer details of his departure are still being negotiated between the Sounders, the players, and Major League Soccer, but as of this moment, Nkufo is going to leave the Sounders. We learned earlier today that he would not be starting for Seattle tonight, but that turned out to be the understatement of the century. That was painted as a one-off problem, a one time benching for violation of team rules, but apparently the relationship between the player and team was irreconcilable. If you think this sounds too ridiculous to be true, check out this post from SB Nation Seattle and the following tweet from Joshua Mayers:

So yeah, no more Blaise Nkufo in Seattle. O’Brien White is expected to start in his place tonight. As the SB Nation Seattle post stated, we might never know the full extent of the problems between the two parties. Nkufo was expected by many to go to Vancouver in the offseason, where his family resides, but forcing an exit the day the season starts is certainly out of character. Hopefully we get some more details in the future.