Ted's Polish-Mexican Page

Former Colorado Rapids coach Glenn "Mooch" Myernick has been hospitalized after suffering from a heart attack. He is in intensive care and has not regained conciousness.

Myernick is regarded as one of the genuine good guys in American soccer. He won the prestigious Hermann award back in 1976 and had earned ten caps for the United States in those days when caps were hard to come by. He played professionally for the Porland Timbers and Colorado Foxes, but could be seen playing in amateur leagues until he was well into his fourties. A scrapy Rapids team made it to the MLS Cup final in his first year at the helm in 1997, and they made the playoffs in every year of his reign after that. He was an assistant to Bruce Arena at this year's World Cup and had been a past coach of the US Olympic team.

Like I said, Myernick is regarded as a genuinely decent, nice guy by everyone that knows him. I have no personal evidence of this, but how bad of a guy can he be with the name "Mooch"?


Well, what better way can I pay tribute to Mooch but to talk about the sport he loves. DC United got spanked by New England yesterday, so all is right with the world.

Last June, Alecko Eskandarian suffered a concussion after a collision with New England 'keeper Matt Reis. Eskandarian is still not over it, and hacked at every thing with the letters "tion" on it. I heard he kicked at a transformer because it said "CAUTION" on it.

Some of you may remember that DC fans had a banner that said, "REIS: DEAD TO US" after the incident. Now, fan anger is also directed at, of all people, New England announcer (yes, announcer) Brad Feldman. Feldman has been very critical of Eskandarian's behavior, thinking that a player of his caliber should do better than pulling hard fouls and silly stunts such as the Red Bull spitting incident. The banner at RFK read: "FELDMAN: DEAD TO US." Well, I guess you go after the TV announcers when your team is losing.

Freddy Adu showed that why, even with his obvious talent, will not be playing for the national team anytime soon. Suprise, suprise, the enfant terrible of US soccer was yellow carded for diving. Geez. Freddy, it would have been more believable had someone actually been standing near you before you fell down. Looking at the replay, it looks as though Adu had trouble switching feet and slipped up on the wet grass. Adu wouldn't have had to switch feet if he would learn to use his left foot. I have the same trouble, but I suck.

Adu's behavior after the yellow card was instructive. It reminded me of my students when they get caught in an obvious lie. He kept complaining about the call, as if he needed to convince himself that he wasn't actually faking it. Piotr Nowak subbed him out and shot him a look. The boy still needs to do a lot of growing up.


Well, two nice things happened in sports yesterday: the New York Yankees and the Los Angeles Galaxy are eliminated. Unlike the Yankees, the Galaxy still has a season to finish off, but they won't have the chance to defend their title.


Games today: US Women v Iceland, Atlante v UNAM Pumas


Hasta la proxima. Do zobaczenia.