To all those wishing my wife well, thank you.  The doctors still do not know what's going on, but they figured they could handle everything on an outpatient basis, so she's at least home now.  Gallstones for sure, but the rest, still a mystery. 

First, to RSL.  The biggest news is taht it looks like Clint Mathis has been resigned.  I am going to withhold judgment on this signing until we know which Clint Mathis shows up in SLC.  If it's the Clint Mathis who cares, who scored 6 goals for New York last year and when he played, looked great, in shape, fit and dangerous, I am extremely excited.  If the Cleetus of 2005 RSL shows up, worst move ever!  If Clint decides his job is to mark the referee and be nothing but a locker room poison, I hope the gets cut the next day.  If Clint, however, turns back into a good guy to have around, and puts forth an honest effort ever match, I will be happy.  As I've said before, when Mathis decides he wants to score, he's one of the rare few who can score merely by deciding he wants to.  His touch is still excellent and it will be nice to have someone who has proven they can score goals in MLS and who also can play midfield.  If he can play well with Morales, I am way excited.  If he decides he's going to be Body by Budweiser, well, what can you say, at least this time RSL didn't mortgage the franchise to sign him.  I will just be holding my breath and praying we got Clint Mathis and not Cleetus.

This weekend at Houston is a very scary match.  Houston has lately been looking like they may want to actually defend their championship again.  Ching has really been playing well.  Houston is a very good team and is very dangerous.  Also, playing in Houston, with the heat and humidity is extremely tough.  I think my biggest question will be what sort of affect will the time off have on RSL?  Will they look a bit rusty?  I think the biggest danger, tactically, is a quick score by Houston to start off the match.  I want to hope that RSL will show that they deserve to be at the top of the Western Conference table and they play accordingly.  This match will really show what RSL has this year, if they win I think they can be called legitimate contenders, if not, the improvements are nice, but there is still a long way left to go to get the team to where they need to be. 

Now to the Olympics.  I did not the like veiled political statement that was the Opening Ceremonies.  I especially did not like how Taiwan, or as they were called there, China Taipei, was not allowed to carry their flag into the stadium.  As we demonstrated last year, the communist government really does not like Taiwan and still won't admit that it's a sovereign nation.  Of course, Taiwan is careful to avoid poking too sharp a stick at their much larger neighbor, so is also careful to not make too many waves of their own.  I am at times very sad to see these beautiful venues that are in Beijing.  How many average Chinese will be allowed to use these new facilities?  The communist government of China, like the Soviets before them, views the Olympics as a political statement of the superiority of their system.  I honestly hope that this Olympics, like the Berlin Games, has a Jesse Owens figure.  Isn't it sad just how willing the IOC is to overlook certain "bad behavior" of the places they choose to host.  I guess Salt Lake City proved taht really it's about bribing the right officials to get the games in the first place.

Anyway, I am glad to see some attention paid to sports I truly love.  Must as I like soccer, wrestling, real wrestling is my true passion in sports.  One of my fondest memories is from a camp I went to in high school when Rulon Gardner, before he even became a regular on the US team, was my coach and I got to wrestle with him.  It is too bad that wrestling like so many other sports at the Olympics only gets any attention in this country every four years.  I am really interested to see what Stephen Cejudo, a 21-year-old son of Mexican immigrants, does in this Olympics.  I see in him a real potential to be a repeat Olympic champion and the next great American wrestler.  I think NBC is doing a much better job of televising this Olympics than they did soem of the others, especially 1996 in Atlanta where they tried to make a political statement about women's sports and basically ignored things like wrestling (which women now participate in) and boxing.

Now for the truly chilling events in Georgia.  Make no mistake and do not buy anything Vladimir Putin says.  This has been long in coming and was just a matter of finding the right pretext for invasion (and yes, this is a Russian invasion).  It has been very evident that Putin's long-term goal has been to reestablish Russian hegemony over countries that used to be part of the Soviet Union.  Putin does not really like people standing in his way, anyone who has spoken out against things like his renewal of the Chechnyan War has ended up dead.  Anna Politovskaya was murdered in what was supposedly a mafia assassination.  Alexandr Litvinenko, after publishing his great book Blowing up Russia was murdered with a rare radioactive poison.  The really scary part is that this time the Russians have the money and resources to really be a credible threat.