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 for the way their players behaved in the face of defeat.

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 […]

I’m not sure that the controversy surrounding the Newcastle midfielder Joey Barton could have happened anywhere else in the world. Only in England would Barton be rated a good enough player to be earning an incredible $140,000 a week, only in England would the coaches and clubs have put up with his incredibly violent anti-social behavior.

There was good news and there was not-so-good news to report from the MLS All-Star Game. Mostly it was good news. The soccer was good — attractive, attacking stuff, with five goals to show for it — and the sunshine, the color and the lively fans produced a terrific atmosphere. Everything combined to give — at least visually — a sparkling telecast.

Just think about this. Only a few weeks ago, peace broke out between FIFA and the rich European clubs, the G-14 group as they called themselves. The clubs decided to greatly expand their membership up to over 100 clubs, now including a whole bunch of not-so-rich clubs (thus countering the persistent charges of elitism), and changed the name to the European Club Association.