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The honeymoon is over, for the Seattle Sounders FC and possibly Freddie Ljungberg.

A year ago, the Sounders were the darlings of Major League Soccer, becoming the American circuit's second expansion team to qualify for the MLS Cup playoffs, winning the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup and earning a bid to the CONCACAF Champions League in the process.

Things aren't going as well this season. The Sounders, which set an MLS record by averaging 32,523 fans, still have the league's largest and most vocal support. But Seattle has not come close to its inaugural season success.

At the midway point of the regular season, Seattle is in seventh place in the Western Conference, 20 points behind division leaders Los Angeles and seven points from a playoff berth. Qwest Field, where Seattle lost just twice in 15 games, isn't such a fortress. Already the Sounders have two more losses through nine games as they had in all of 2009.

The Sounders are looking to make changes, and that could mean parting with Ljungberg, the team's Designated Player. The former Swedish international has been linked with a move to the New York Red Bulls, which would reunite him with former Arsenal teammate Thierry Henry.

"We'll see what happens," Ljungberg told the Seattle Times. "It's the transfer window and my contact here is up in November. We'll see what happens."

Whether the flashy midfielder moves elsewhere in MLS or returns to Europe, it appears Ljungberg's future in Seattle is in doubt.

"I would say it's a little more tenuous than it was a year ago," Sounders FC general manager Adrian Hanauer told the Seattle Times when asked about Ljungberg's future with the club. "This is a big transfer window, especially for European teams."

Help is on the horizon, though, as the Sounders signed Swiss international Blaise Nkufo, who scored 114 goals in 223 appearances with FC Twente of the Dutch Eredivisie after stints with Hannover and Mainz of the German Bundesliga.

However, Seattle coach Sigi Schmid is quick to warn that Nkufo, who is likely going to be Seattle's second Designated Player, can't solve all of the Sounders problems.

"We can't expect him to be the savior," he told reporters following a recent training session. "He's going to be one member of the team. But he is an experienced player who has shown a knack and ability to finish goals.

"If we can create some of the things we have created, and he's on the end of them, we are confident he can finish them. It's a matter of us seeing where he is at, how he is in terms of his fitness, how quickly he can adjust and adapt to the team and the league."

Seattle opens its CONCACAF Champions League campaign with a two-game Preliminary Round series against Salvadoran Clausura champion Isidro Metapan, beginning July 28 at Qwest Field. The second leg at Estadio Jorge Calero Suarez will be played on August 3. The winner advances to the Group Stage where it will face Monterrey, Saprissa and either Tauro or Marathon.