Ted's Polish-Mexican Page

If you asked me a month ago who would be competing in this year's MLS Cup, I would have told you it would be the New England Revolution versus either the Dallas Burn FC Dallas or the San José Clash Earthquakes.

Of course, I was wrong.

Both Dallas and San José were eliminated yesterday. I don't understand what happened to San José. They should have kicked ass, but they delivered a poor performance in the first leg, so had a two goal deficit to recover from. They couldn't do it.


Dallas was eliminated after they failed to take advantage of the ejection of Colorado Rapids player Alain Nkong. Despite being outmanned, Colorado managed to end the game with the score tied. Both goalkeepers put on heroic performances in the penalty shootout, but Tucson Amigos wash-out Scott Garlick slipped up allowing Terry Cooke to score. That was enough to give the Rapids the victory.


I put the San José Clash logo up not because of the San Jose loss, but because Eric Lybeck mentioned that he really liked the logo.

That logo was from 1996, the first year of MLS and the year of really really ugly uniforms. By the way, I have a New England jersey from that year. That seems to be one of the more presentable ones.

That year also featured the Kansas City Wiz, who one wag noted should have picked the slogan "Urine for some great soccer." They had, thankfully, the first name change in the league. Not for aestetic reasons, though. They were threatened with a lawsuit by the East coast appliance chain Nobody Beats the Wiz. I guess they didn't like Preki.


New England, as expected, defeated the Metrostars 3-1, which put them through to the Eastern conference finals. They will play either the dissention laden DC United or the underperforming Chicago Fire, depending on who wins today. I like the chances.

My roommate Todd Lybeck watched the game with me, but insisted he had to go. The game at that point was 2-1, so still tied on aggregate goals. New England had a flurry of shots that took weird bounces and hit the posts. I noticed that Todd hadn't actually left yet, he stood at the door, outside but had it cracked open so he could catch a wee bit more of the game.

Then, lanky former Dandy Town Hornets striker Khano Smith made an amazing run into the box and tipped it past MetroStars 'keeper Tony Meola (yes, he's STILL playing). Of course, being the Revs, this was done with a few minutes left in regulation. Todd was satisfied with that and left.

Smith then took a bad fall when trying to stop a Metro attack, and had to leave the game. The Revs were unable to make any substitution because they had used all three substitutions. Smith himself had come in after Marshall Leonard was injured early in the game. The Revs had to endure the final few minutes of regulation, plus eight minutes of stoppage time with only ten men on the field. They somehow managed, despite referee Brian Hall's stretching of the final few minutes. By the way, Hall missed a few real doozies, including some fouls that would have resulted in penalty kicks if they were caught.

Of course, it wouldn't be a Revolution victory unless it is close until the very end.


Do zobaczenia. Hasta la proxima.