Ted's Polish-Mexican Page

I watched this weekend as our Women's team demolished the New Zealanders. I realize that New Zealand ain't exactly like Norway or China (and China isn't like China anymore now that Sun Wen is gone), but I was encouraged by not only the scoreline but the enthusiasm of the players. This is going to be a great World Cup for us.

Near the end, Julie Foudy's complaint was that the US never laid off of the gas. She thought that holding a decent lead was good enough, and that keeping up the offensive pressure leads to defensive mistakes that would have been devastating if they were playing a better team. Point taken sort of, since New Zealand got a late penalty kick. However, as much as I love you Julie, lay off. The late game subs included several midfielders and Natasha Kai. These were all players who desperately want to be starters. "Give them a chance to prove themselves" seems to be Greg Ryan's philosophy. You don't put Kai in and ask her to hold the ball. By the way, she had the assist on the final goal.

Since the game was on ESPN, they mentioned David Beckham. It was well into the second half, but I counted three references.

Oh, and Foudy took the chance to mention Mike Burns when Abby Wambach slipped ont past the defender on the post. Poor Burns, he'll never live that down.


So, here is my chance to finally be a leering WNT fan. I was talking to my friend Prairie Rose about doing a list like this, and she said, "Have you seen the things I write about the Men's team?" So I figured, what the heck. Besides, I'm not talking about their bodies here, right?

So, here it is, my list of the sexiest names on the national team. Not judging on their looks, just the names.

• Hope Solo


• Kristine Lilly


• Cat Whitehill


• Natasha Kai

And finally, the name most likely to generate chuckles from overgrown fratboys who have their own sports talk shows: Shannon Boxx.


I watched the Los Angeles v New England game. Yep, David Beckham did not play. This led to some interesting taunts (here and here).

In a related note, DC United player Bobby Boswell took issue with ESPN's coverage of the game. He's right. The Beckham hype would be much more palatable if it didn't actually interfere with being able to see the game. Beckham stoic on the bench ain't all that interesting.


A couple of other interesting articles: My old boss Ted Leonsis takes on soccer hating commentators here. Plus, DaMarcus Beasley is apparently enduring racist taunts when his team plays in Eastern Europe.


Hasta la proxima. Do zobaczenia.