By the way, I do plan on visiting La Mestalla while I’m here in Valencia and if you don’t mind, Nico, I’m gonna drop your name frequently as a close personal friend.

Friends, you have no idea how hard I struggled to not make this game the Sickos Game of the Week.

What am I talking about? What I am talking about is something like what the Burn did in 2003 when they, in the midst of one of the worst seasons in the history of Major League Soccer, panicked…

On August 1, a press release emanated from Major League Soccer, announcing that New England Revolution Head Coach, Sporting Director, and Official Smartest Guy in the Room Bruce Arena had been placed on administrative leave for “inappropriate and insensitive remarks” and that the matter was under investigation.

People can care about whatever they want to care about, and I’m not here to tell you that you shouldn’t. But at some point, that goes both ways. We don’t care about Copa Tejas, Austin, and you can’t make us.

I’ll be honest with y’all: I thought that Leagues Cup was a big pile of bullshit when it was announced, all the way until it actually started.

Say, wasn’t SKC in this slot last week? Yes, they were. If they keep this up, they might get named an honorary Little Brother.

Let’s call this the RC Cola of California rivalries. The other two California rivalries, El Tráfico and the Cali Clasico, are the name brand rivalries. They’re Coke and Pepsi, baby.

Of course, the responses from some of the dumber corners of the Internet were predictable. “MLS is holding its players back,” etc.