Ted's Polish-Mexican Page

The US Men's National Team plays Costa Rica today in a qualifier. Since we are now in the "hexagonals," every game turns crucial. We should be able to defeat them, but we cannot expect it to be easy. Private Vince Enriquez will be happy to know that his old buddy Greg Vanney is on the roster, but former Tucson Amigo Pablo Mastroeni is still injured and did not make the squad. The game will be on at 4:30, the same time as the Revs game...bastards.

Yes, the Revs. They are still undefeated, despite a listless performance last week. (Is a performance ever listful?) One of the disadvantages of being successful is that your best players get taken away for national team duty. Today, the Revs will be without Clint Dempsey, Pat Noonan and Steve Ralston, who will be playing against Costa Rica. These three either assisted on or scored twelve of the Revs eighteen goals so far this season. Their opponents, the Kansas City Wizards, will be minus Kerry Zavagnin and Josh Wolff. Wolff is one of the league's top scorers, but I don't get a sense that these two players are as critical to the sucess of their team. Then again, Taylor Twellman did not get called to the Nats, so the Revs have a major scoring threat. Given how critical Noonan, Dempsey and Ralston have been to the team, its hard to know if Steve Nicol will even use the same formation. Look for Cássio, José Carlos Cancela and former Dandy Town forward (I just like saying the name of the team) Khano Smith to get their chances to shine in this one. Kansas City will be coming off of a 1-1 draw on Wednesday night to a pathetic Chivas USA squad.

Yes, Chivas USA. Some correspondents have asked me why I use the strange picture of a Chiva Girl and the Goat. Where I'll talk about other teams, I'll use the logo; Chivas USA, I show a picture of something that has nothing to do with actual soccer. It's my way of insulting the team and this whole BS of, "we will show you MLS teams how to play." Chivas USA did make one good move this week, they removed former Ajax Amsterdam, Los Angeles Aztecs, Washington Diplomats and Ft Lauderdale Strikers player Thomas Rongen of his coaching duties. This was Rongen's fourth MLS squad. Keep in mind, the league has only existed ten seasons. Apparently, this is the quickest firing of a coach by an expansion team in the history of American sports. Rongen claims that he was only supposed to be temporary anyway. Well, it turned out that way, didn't it?

Rongen coached the Revs for almost two seasons, being replaced mid-season by the more disasterous Walter Zenga. He brought in a couple of Dutch players while he was there, Edwin Gorter and Richard Goulooze. Yes, Rongen's New England was the only team that would go out of its way to get a player whose name looks like "Go Lose."

On NPR's Only a Game this morning, they read an e-mail from French Lick of the AZRD's Bruisers commenting on last week's story about a roller derby league in Providence. She mentioned Helen Wheels in her e-mail too.

I am seeing ads now for the Fantastic Four movie. I don't think it will be a total disaster, but I will post a bit later on with my full thoughts.