So now we know. Brian Mullan, for his horrific foul on Steve Zakuani, gets a 10-game suspension. A sentence that will, no doubt, set off an earnest debate. Has the MLS Disciplinary Committee been too harsh on Mullan? Or not harsh enough?

No one wanted anything like this to happen, for sure. Steve Zakuani, one of the few, the very few classy attacking players to come out of college ... out for the season with a broken leg; and David Ferreira, last season's league MVP, also out for the season, with a broken ankle.

This was worth waiting for -- but how we had to wait last night! Right down almost to the last minute, when the Red Bulls' teenager Juan Agudelo delivered a magnificent goal -- of which more shortly.

Well now. If soccer is merely an entertainment whose main function is to provide controversial doings for us to argue about, then this past weekend has been a huge success.

Watching Lionel Messi play soccer gives me an intense delight. The only other player who comes close to creating the free-spirited aura of enjoyment that Messi displays is Cristiano Ronaldo. But Messi is really in a class of his own.

Definitely, it's time for some praise for a couple of coaches whose teams I've never much admired -- but my opinion of their preferred playing style is not at issue here (I'll deal with that shortly). It's their honesty in assessing their own team's performance -- and their willingness to grant praise to their opponents -- that is getting to me at the moment.

Presumably, Tottenham is already out of the Champions league. That 4-0 loss to Real Madrid makes the return game something of a non-event -- certainly a shame for Spurs' fans, and for those of us who might have been looking forward to a rousing decider.

We've had more than our share of false dawns out there in New Jersey, with the recurrent bouts of enthusiasm aroused first by the MetroStars and lately by the Red Bulls.

The English Premier League's chief executive (that's the sort of title we have in soccer these days), Richard Scudamore, has been giving some thought to the matter of referee abuse in his league.