There's no need to cry out your eyes on the highway tonight

Experienced American professional soccer (Atlanta Silverbacks v. Kansas City Wizards, in the US Open Cup) for the first time last night. Not a bad experience, although the 1. stadium (nasty, concrete, ugly, hard -- DeKalb Memorial) 2. referee (I think he was paid by the yellow card) and 3. announcer ("Southside Steve" from one of Atlanta's Clear Channel radio stations) left a lot to be desired. The game was nice, though; both teams were pretty good, although Kansas City turned it up in the second half and beat Atlanta pretty badly (4-1). This Davy Arnaud kid (on the right below) scored twice and dished a beautiful assist to Francisco Gomez (Davy flicked the ball up over his left shoulder with his back to the goal, and Gomez volleyed it in mid-air, with both his feet off the ground). That was probably worth the price of admission.

I think I'll take my little sister to one of the games some time.