From the wires

I know I said I was getting back to MLS now that the World Cup has past, but since the whole damn world decided to take an interest in soccer thanks to the Head-Butt Heard Around the World I can't let it go quite yet. Zidane finally came out and gave the world a little hint at what happened between him and Marco Materazzi and it wasn't something racist, it wasn't something that rhymes with terrorwhist, so all you emptyheaded PC reactionaries who've never watched a gawddamn game of fútbol until you saw the incident replayed on SportsCenter, shut the hell up before I card you. It seems to be exactly what I thought it was when I saw it happen, essentially along the lines of "I woke up with your mom this morning, tell her that her coffee sucks." Quite honestly I would have preferred something along the lines of Materazzi asking Zizou, "Care for a shag after the game?" but oh well, that's that. I think it'd be utterly stupid for FIFA to take back Zidane's Golden Ball award, because the only thing that really separates the head-butt from any other stupid example of testosteroniness is that one-sixth of the world saw it. This is fútbol, it's a contact sport, and sometimes there's a little more uncalled-for contact than is necessary. It's part of the game. Go ahead, fine him if you have to, but fine Materazzi, too, for being a pottymouth, because he definately deserves it. Zizou's being as good as he can about the whole thing, and I admire him for admitting that he'd done something wrong, taking the consequences and saying that in hindsight he'd still do it again and take the consequences that come with it. Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do and take what comes. Taking away the Golden Ball shouldn't be part of it. So let that drop.

So let's move on to rankings: SI.com reports today that the new FIFA rankings are out. Brazil is still at the top, and world champs Italy are behind them. The US fell to 16, which quite honestly is a little closer to where I think we should have been ranked all along. But here's what puzzles me: Mexico, who started out 4th, has dropped to 18. Mexico who at least won one game and garnered more than one gol and at least moved on to the Round of 16, got plopped behind the US. Which makes no frikkin sense to me at all.

OK, so finally back to MLS. And hey, the All-Star whoopin' is coming up in a few weeks. DC United Coach Peter Nowak, who's doing coaching duties for this go-round in Chicago, released his First XI, and they include five guys from the USMNT -- Donovan, Conrad, Pope, Dempsey and Albright, three of them who actually put their feet on the German pitch! My policy on voting for the All-Star game was pretty simple -- if you went to Germany, you got your slice of the limelight for the summer, so you don't get my vote. But oh well, I've also been silly enough to continue voting for my beloved Frankie Hejduk, and I've heard he's not coming back until next season. The other six are Shalrie Joseph, Dewayne DeRosario, Ante Razov and my beautiful DC United boys Christian Gomez, Jaime Moreno and Tory Perkins, who's been rockin' the net this season. I never ever thought I'd come to love someone more than I loved Nick Rimando. More names Monday.

NY goalkeeper Tony "the Tank" Meola is out of play for a few weeks to nurse a foot infection. Ouch. And it makes me wonder if anyone's really going to notice. But hey, speaking of NY and Zidane all in one blog, what's this I hear about Zidane maybe coming to play for Red Bull NY? And what is it that I hear about nearly every Europe from legend coming to play for NY? Because they kinda sorta suck this seaason, so why, if you're going to while away your retirement years in the MLS, would you want to go play there? Money? Yeah, it's all rumour, but it makes me wonder.

But the best of the best -- AP has a story about DC's 12-game winning streak that's pretty well gone unnoticed thanks to Mundial drama, and I'm just saying, congrats to my favorite Black-and-Red-clad players. They're doing a good job of stomping last season into the dirt and grounding it out like a finished cigarette. I also saw a Freddy Adu milk add on the back of this week's Ultimate Fantastic Four, so there's all sorts of DC goodness out in the world at the moment.

Games on Friday this week! Back to basics ...