Don’t get me wrong. I think it’s great the MetroStars opened up a brand new pub inside the Meadowlands stadium club. Alexi Lalas was quite right when he said in a recent interview that “In our eagerness to capitalize on the youth market, I think we’ve forgotten the growing adult soccer fan.” And I hope he’s right that the pub “is a small way of creating an environment that is a little more adult oriented.” And while it’s no Three Lions Pub - not by a long shot - judging from the photos posted via BigSoccer it doesn’t look that bad.

But who was the cruel ironist who decided to call it the Pride & Passion Pub?

Champions finish their chances. It’s a simple but hard truth. Real goal scoring opportunities are rare in international soccer. If you get one you better put it away. It’s not the only factor that separates the quality teams from the pack, but it’s one factor. A big factor.

And I’m not saying the Revolution and the Galaxy are finished after their respective 0-0 draws against Alajuelense and Saprissa. But the second legs are now mere formalities for the home teams. And neither New England nor Los Angeles are the home teams.

Maybe I should take it as a sign the league is maturing and the monolithic, sanitized and corporate single-entity media machine is losing control of its appendages. Either that or they haven’t a clue at Real Salt Lake.

It’s one thing to allege Peter Nowak made a racist comment. Allegations are charges and there are proper channels within which to pursue those charges. The referees at the match, as representatives of the USSF, should have been notified (evidently they weren’t). Major League Soccer should have been notified (evidently they weren’t either). Aside from the few who heard the charges aired live on Salt Lake City’s AM1280 - “The Zone” - everyone heard about them the same way: on BigSoccer.

Seemingly overlooked amid the “John said, Peter said” was word from Steven Goff that “league is not pleased with the way Salt Lake has handled it, especially Ellinger’s radio interview.” Asked later if there’s “Any chance Ellinger faces discipline from MLS for a false accusation,” Goff replied “I’m sure that is among the options for the league.” Those comments followed an earlier report in which Goff suggested Kevin Payne is “furious with Ellinger and Real Salt Lake for going public with the dispute.” In fact, Payne is quoted in the same article saying “The league also needs to look into how Salt Lake has handled it.”

Yesterday I tuned in live to hear Jeff Cunningham’s interview on the Bill Riley show on Salt Lake City’s “Hot Ticket 700.” Apparently someone had emailed Riley beforehand and was assured Cunningham would be asked to comment on the incident. Surely, I thought, MLS and Real Salt Lake had gotten control of the media message and Cunningham would say the league was now investigating the matter and beyond that he’d politely decline to comment.

That’s what I expected. It wasn’t what I heard.

I don’t have a transcript. So I can only talk about what I remember hearing. Cunningham admitted he couldn’t remember hearing anything. He was on the field at the time and by his own admission heard nothing of the event in question. But that didn’t stop him from offering a rather strong opinion on the matter. He said, paraphrasing, he knows Nowak. He knows he’s “rough around the edges” and it wouldn’t surprise him if he had said what Ellinger alleges. Cunningham expressed a general disappointment that even today racism remains a problem in this country, and then, apparently taking the allegations for truth, he expressed a particular disappointment in Peter Nowak. Cunningham concluded by saying he hopes the league takes some sort of “action” against Nowak and that he hopes some good will come of all this.

DCenters has a very diplomatic take on all this. I mean, really, it’s admirably diplomatic. Cunningham’s standing with his coach, other folks are standing with Nowak, everyone’s just waiting for MLS to get to the bottom of things. There’s surely something to that. And if Cunningham took that stance in private or within the team I’d understand.

But Cunningham went on the radio and repeated allegations as if they were facts. Peter Nowak has denied these allegations. Players who were sitting on DC United’s bench and heard the actual remarks also deny the charges. Kevin Payne has stood strongly alongside Peter Nowak and proclaimed his innocence. Does that mean he’s innocent? No, it means the incident is a matter of dispute and I’m perfectly willing to let the league’s investigation establish its truth.

Cunningham spoke as if he knew the truth; he spoke as if nothing was disputed here. What he said was completely out of line. Major League Soccer can’t conduct an investigation in which Peter Nowak’s guilt or innocence is supposed to be the core issue while league players continue to brand him a racist in the media.

(By the way, at this point DC United should also keep quiet. And to their credit they haven’t said a word since they denied the charges in Steven Goff’s article. That was appropriate at the time, and that’s all they should say until the league finishes its investigation.)

If as Steven Goff reports Real Salt Lake’s handling of this matter, and particularly John Ellinger’s decision to take it to the media before pursuing it through any official channels, are among the issues Major League Soccer is investigating, then I certainly hope Cunningham’s comments on the radio yesterday are undergoing some league scrutiny today. And regardless of what the league determines in Nowak’s regard, I hope some action is taken against Cunningham and I hope some good will come of his inopportune comments.

I had been thinking about writing a bit about Houston 1836 (we hardly knew ye) ever since they announced the name change. It was going to be a glorious excoriation of MLS and my favorite topic: unrivalled incompetence. I even had a great title in mind: San Houston 1836 ClashQuakes. And that zinger of an opener: “Somewhere in San Jose a Quakes fan is laughing.” It was going to be great; it was going to be brutal.

But whenever I sat down to write it I found I had nothing to say. That all changed last night when some startling allegations appeared on everyone’s favorite soccer message board. John Ellinger claimed he heard Peter Nowak yell a racist remark at a black RSL player. Peter Nowak and DC United both deny any such remark was made.

It was the second time in recent days that Major League Soccer found itself under the cloud of racism.

The Nowak allegations were met with horror, and it seemed that all quarters agreed, if the remark was made, then Nowak’s days at DC United would and should be over.

The news that Houston 1836 would change its name under pressure from sponsors and the Mexican immigrant community was met with very widespread (though not universal) anger and resistance.

In a word, the reactions were totally divergent. I’d like to offer an observation about that.

The cultural current of American soccer all tends in one direction: toward the broadest possible acceptance of all kinds of people. People from all over the world. with all sorts of ethnicities, were vital to the history of the game in this country. And there is no doubt in my mind the future of the game in this country lies largely with new immigrant communities and with wider development of the game in racial and ethnic communities. To be sure, the current doesn’t always reach its goal, and it sometimes encounters obstacles along the way. Still, the entire thrust of the cultural current of American soccer flows toward openness and the greatest possibly inclusion.

Save one persistent stream that runs in the other direction.

There was certainly some Texas pride involved in that anger and resistance concerning the 1836 name change. But I think there was something else too. American soccer fans have a special relationship with Mexico. That relationship has been cultivated for years. It’s been cultivated on both sides of the border, and it’s a decidedly unfriendly relationship.

Had the Houston moniker been widely offensive to all Latinos, or to blacks, or any other racial or ethnic group I suspect you would have seen much more consistent condemnation of the name as soon as it was announced. And I suspect a name change would have been met with relief and applause, not anger and resistance.

I can only speak first hand about the USA-Mexico relationship from my perspective on this side of the border. Nowadays we think of ourselves as up and comers on soccer’s world stage. But before that we were up and comers in CONCACAF. And before that we were CONCACAF doormats. Mexico was the regional giant; Mexico was the yardstick by which American soccer measured itself. For a very long time it seemed beating Mexico was our singular ambition.

Then it happened. In 1997 we tied them at Azteca. A few years later it was the Cold War victory. Then the most glorious of all: 2-0. I can’t help it. I swell with pride when I remember those games. Sometimes I even have to wipe away a tear.

Animosity towards Mexico - on the soccer field, anyway - is an entrenched part of American soccer culture. Even the silliest of things – the FIFA ranking – is bound to rile up American soccer fans if the USA is ranked lower than Mexico. You’ve heard it before: “We keep beating them! Why are they still ranked ahead of us?” (Actually, as I write this they’re tied with us. Good chance we finally surpass them next month. It’ll be about time if we do.)

Even Major League Soccer has played the USA vs Mexico game. Perhaps the only thing more symbolic of Mexican soccer than the Mexican national team is Chivas. I know, Chivas USA was an attempt by Major League Soccer to bring some Mexican fans into the league. But it was also clearly an attempt to bring to MLS some of the drama of the USA vs Mexico match-up that American soccer fans find so compelling. Admit it: you too chanted dos a cero during that Chivas USA game.

I well understand why MLS decided it necessary to change Houston 1836’s name. But I must admit I am among those who wish it could be otherwise. There is a certain bond between those numbers - 1836 and 2-0 - that appeals to that recalcitrant, unrepentant American soccer fan in me, the fan who relishes our rivalry with Mexico. That bond is exactly why the name had to go. I understand. But I still wish 1836 could take the field. And, yet, I am also among those who, if the allegations prove true, would call for Nowak’s dismissal.

It’s an interesting contradiction, a contradiction I suspect I share with many American soccer fans.