WednesdayStoitchkovWednesday

Word that Robbie Fowler might leave Liverpool for Foxboro reminded me of the invaluably valueless Ugly Footballer website, home of cruel and gratuitous fun, the kind only ugly people like me can have at even uglier people's expense.

Having said that, I'd rather have Robbie Fowler at the same price as David Beckham, and since Fowler will come much cheaper, you do the math.

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My live memory of Hristo Stoitchkov were the fits he threw in Germantown, in a US Cup game vs the Virginia Beach Mariners in 2003, before he scored the winning goal in overtime.

Earlier that year Stoitchkov broke the leg of an American University player in a scrimmage, and that player is now suing MLS, DCU, and Stoitchkov for damages.

I have no idea of the merits of the case, but I hadn't thought about Stoitchkov in a couple of years (other than I saw him on the sideline as Bulgarian coach in a Euro-08 qualifier against - I think - Romania). What I remember thinking, watching Stoitchkov's bullying and ugly performance in Germantown, is here is a guy, 1994 player of the year, hero of Barca, bullying a referee and dirty-chopping opponents' knees in a weeknight game before 2,800 for a minor team playing an even more minor team in a minor tournament, his body shot, his skills - his 1994 skills - gone, whose awareness was furiously creeping towards his anger.

Think of this when thinking about MLS' pursuit of old and broken Euro-greyhounds.

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DCU news here and here and here. Tomorrow night, 45 degrees, chance of showers. One of the four of us will probably beg off because of work, so if you have my number and want to go, give a call. (At the very least you can hitch a ride, buy a ticket at the game, come sit with us.)