Former U.S.M.N.T. coach Steve Sampson confirmed what had been speculated. He dropped “Captain for Life” (and current ESPN analyst) John Harkes before the 1998 World Cup because he had an affair with Eric Wynalda’s wife. The U.S. lost all three group matches, finishing 32nd out of 32 teams at the tournament.

Often tempestuous and controversial, Wynalda comes off better here. He criticized Harkes’ exclusion then. He still does, even though Harkes also took his lead analyst job at ESPN. Harkes, in contrast, chose the Mark McGwire route, not wanting to talk about the past.

“I am not going to rehash the things that have happened in the past,” Harkes said on Tuesday in a telephone interview. “1998 was devastating to me and my family. It was hard enough not to play in the World Cup, but it was even difficult to go through that time period, the most difficult time period of my life.”

Harkes obviously was important, but for Sampson to blame this for the performance is a bit simplistic. Sampson, a college coach with no professional experience, changed formations and booted a number of veterans from the Starting XI just before that World Cup. Coaching is an endemic problem that will stunt American soccer until there is an appropriate a generation of professionals go abroad to get experience and licenses.

The obvious parallel is to what England is going through now with John Terry and Wayne Bridge. Capello is stern and forces players to focus, so this should not be an issue. Terry’s captaining abilities are overrated, so whether it’s Terry, Rooney, or another player wearing the armband, it will only be relevant to the English media.

However many sabers are rattled by “the rivalry” in the States, England is one of the worst matchups for the United States.