Did you know that Jay Buhner played high school soccer?

That, my friends, is my way of telling you that even as I have been immersing myself in a cover story on the Seattle Mariners, I am still keeping my eyes open for soccer. So, there you have it, the one time the word "soccer" appears in the Mariners 2001 Media Guide.

Yeah, yeah, I know it's Thursday and I'm supposed to be providing you with your weekly Big Gulp of MLS and U.S. Soccer stuff. Well, I'm sorry.

Can you check back tomorrow?

In the meantime, I'll give you one sip. I caught a glimpse of the Colorado Rapids-D.C. United game and it looks like coach Tim Hankinson has done it again. He's taken Carlos Valderrama off the hands of a team that said it couldn't win with El Pibe on the field, stuck him in the center of the Rapids lineup and now has a team that plays sweet soccer.

Let's boil it down to the basics. You can complain that Valderrama doesn't get in on tackles or track back to help the midfield cover space, but you cannot deny that when you put Valderrama in the middle of the field, the game you are watching starts to look a lot more like soccer. Wednesday night, the Rapids strung passes together. Valderrama did his thing, popping into spaces where his teammates could play him the ball and made those little one- and two-touch connections that only he can make.

Give Hankinson his due. The coach who was let go by Tampa after a 51-point season ... how ridiculous is that when you really think about it? He has gone to Colorado, taken inventory and put together a team that, even if it doesn't recover and make the playoffs this season, is surely going to be poised to contend for honors in 2002.

He brought in a sparkplug of a striker in John Spencer and a classy leader in Robin Fraser, and reformed a couple of disenchanted players in Imad Baba and Rosse Paule. He also traded for a couple of guys, in addition to Valderrama, who went to war for him in Tampa, Ritchie Kotschau and Scott Garlick. Basically, in half a season, he rebuilt a franchise.

The key is, of course, Valderrama, because, well, Valderrama has to be the central figure on any team he plays for. Hankinson understood from the first day he coached the 39-year old Colombian in Tampa that it was his job to build a framework around the star.

Keep an eye on the Rapids. In a week's time, they've become one of the most watchable teams in MLS.

Hope you'll check back in tomorrow ...

Jeff Bradley is a senior writer for ESPN The Magazine. E-mail jeff.bradley@espnmag.com.