There was a decidedly familiar air to Bruce Arena's words as he made his first move at the Galaxy: "Unfortunately ... in order to bring Eddie [Lewis] to the Galaxy we were required to make salary budget space available and our only available option was to move Carlos [Ruiz] ..."

A weekend simply stuffed full of TV soccer, impossible to watch it all, both because of overlaps and because soccer-fatigue sets in sooner or later. Of the 16 games available over two days, the pick of the bunch, no doubt about that, was the first one, early on Saturday: the Olympic semifinal between Brazil and Cameroon. And, wouldn't you know, this plum, this sure-fire barn-burner, turned out to be the worst game I saw.

The Olympic Dream -- this distracting chimera that American soccer inflicts upon itself every four years -- is over. Once again, it has ended in failure. A lot of time and money and effort has been spent -- slap-bang, one has to notice, in the middle of the MLS season -- and there is absolutely nothing to show for it.

We got used to the best in New York. Make that New Jersey -- or, more accurately but more clumsily, make it New York/New Jersey. Whatever, the Cosmos -- and please note that they dropped the geographical reminder, they were just plain Cosmos -- spoiled us.

It's odd how the idea of entertaining soccer has become almost a dirty word, or a dirty two words. Try mentioning it any soccer discussion and you're quite likely to get trashed as -- take your choice -- a romantic, a purist, a wimp, a know-nothing or just a plain idiot. Entertaining soccer, bah -- the very idea!

Don't rely on anything in soccer. Whenever you think you've got the sport sorted out, it strikes back with a sly sucker punch that flattens your theories. Just one year ago, the SuperLiga was a success at every level -- good games, good soccer, good crowds, good atmosphere -- and a good USA vs. Mexico (Galaxy vs. Pachuca) final. This year, things have been rather different. For a start the Mexicans have not exactly covered themselves with glory. Both their semifinalists -- Atlante and Pachuca -- turned inexcusably nasty at the end of their games. There can be no excuse …

Don't rely on anything in soccer. Whenever you think you've got the sport sorted out, it strikes back with a sly sucker punch that flattens your theories. Just one year ago, the SuperLiga was a success at every level -- good games, good soccer, good crowds, good atmosphere -- and a good USA vs. Mexico (Galaxy vs. Pachuca) final. This year, things have been rather different. For a start the Mexicans have not exactly covered themselves with glory. Both their semifinalists -- Atlante and Pachuca -- turned inexcusably nasty at the end of their games. There can be no excuse …