Steve Nicol and Paul Mariner, the New England Revolution's No. 1 and No. 2 coaches, recently spent nearly two weeks on a recruiting trip to Argentina, seeking an impact player for next season. Mind you, "impact" doesn't necessarily mean, "designated." In fact, not only will the Revs' new Argentine not take a DP slot, he'll mostly likely come cheap, says the Boston Globe's Frank Dell'Apa.

Nicol says he's more interested in young, inexpensive talent. "Obviously, there are some great players there but the high-end ones would clearly be impossible for us to try and get," he says, adding that the cream of the crop inevitably winds up in Europe. "Then, you have guys who kind of start coming into our financial range."

The New England coaches returned from the scouting trip with a list of players they think would make the team better. There's a separate list for those they could realistically get. The idea of course is to land a diamond in the rough like FC Dallas did last year in signing Juan Toja from River Plate. "We're looking to find players ... that are going to better us within the constraints of the salary cap," Nicol said. "It is like a jigsaw puzzle, a lot of things come into play."

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