So I was just reading Jim Allen's comments about Sheryl Swoopes' coming out on the Daily News section of the Outsports page, and it made me start thinking.

How many of you guys like women's soccer? And if you don't, is there any one thing in particular that you don't like about it?

I personally love watching the US Women's National Team play, but I didn't like the short-lived WUSA league much. I like watching the national teams play because the players are all very fast and technically proficient, and you have amazing stories like Kristine Lilly, who has played in 299 games for the US out of a total of 352 total games the US has played. In the league, however, I found watching the slower pace sheer drudgery.

This goes for high school and college soccer too. I follow how the women's college teams do, but I don't have a lot of interest in going to see a game. At my school, I found the girls' soccer games quite boring, especially because I felt like the game was moving too slowly.

check out little metro.. turns 18 and becomes a woman hater...

Welcome to the dark side metro.

I watch very little soccer -- an indoor game now and then is about it, if you want to count that. So I suppose it doesn't matter to me whether it's men or women playing. (If I'm not mistaken, on the international level the USA women have been more successful than the USA men, which I would think would be an advantage in promoting women's soccer.)

Regarding the quality of play of the WUSA compared to the US National team -- are there similar complaints from soccer fans about the quality of play in the MLS compared to international play?

Yes, afifciandos say the MLS is almost minor league compared to many intl. tournaments.

JiP-yeah, historically the US women have been more successful, but that's partly because there aren't as many truly competitive women's national teams out there. That is slowly changing of course. The men's national team is getting more and more competitive - I think they're still ranked in the top 10.

The sad thing is that since it's inception, many talented American born soccer players have sacrificed what could have been brilliant careers playing for the higher paying European club teams in hopes that MLS would develop.

I don't think this is a sad thing at all. Players like Freddy Adu, Eddie Gaven, Eddie Johnson, DaMarcus Beasley, and Landon Donovan would be stuck in places they don't necessarily like playing for teams that might not care about youth development. Zak Whitbread at Liverpool is about the only exception to this, but Liverpool is known for its excellent youth system.

Look at Landon Donovan's story. He first signed a contract with Bayer Leverkusen in Germany and hated it there, getting little playing time and not really understanding German. In 2001, he moved to MLS, and look what has happened since- he's gone from a reject to a US national team star. Even Taylor Twellman shows how important MLS is for American players; he was also in Germany for a few years before coming to MLS in 2002. Since then, he's been absolutely unstoppable in MLS and is learning to transfer that form to the national team.

Sure, MLS may not be La Liga or the Premiership. But some of the players it has developed are now stars on the seventh-ranked national team in the world.

Back to the original topic, I think I phrased my initial thoughts badly. There are players for the US womens' national team, from Mia Hamm to Abby Wambach to Kristine Lilly, who couldn't compete with mens' national team players with regards to speed. But technically, they are phenomenally gifted; Mia Hamm could lock any defender with her trademark cuts. Abby Wambach and Kristine Lilly are both extremely gifted with the ball at their feet, dribbling at defenses.

I think part of the reason I don't like the high school girls' soccer I've watched is because I haven't seen players with such technical talent in the games I watched. Perhaps I made a bad assumption that I would not like all high school girls' soccer based on my judgement of my school's team.

That leaves the college game. Right now, without the WUSA, WNT Greg Ryan looks heavily at college games for new talent. Overall, I think that technical skill is seen in the great teams like UNC, Univ. of Portland, Penn State, Notre Dame, and UCLA. But, it still lacks at smaller schools.

I think my initial statements were not very smart to say without thinking more and defending my viewpoint. But, at least I have an excuse: the combination of a bad cold and my team losing our playoff game last night.