By Paul Gardner
Pretty standard stuff at the announcement of Mo Johnston's appointment as the RotMasters' head coach … GM Alexi Lalas said Mo is a fierce competitor who has always been a leader and he has a nice smile but he can be wrathful too … MoJo said he hates losing and he has a ruthless part and New York is a tremendous place and there will be a lot of changes on the team … Alexi then refused to discuss the terms of MoJo's contract and MoJo refused to identify any players or even positions that he thought needed special attention … Alexi did, at one point, say that he wanted an entertaining team, MoJo talked only about a winning team, saying that the team needs some character and he would bring in quality players … like I said, all pretty standard stuff, totally predictable … it then got even more predictable when we learned where MoJo is starting his search for those quality players … first of all he's off to college soccer, the ACC tournament, and then it seems he's interested in players from Scandinavia, Australia and Britain … quite a trio … Central America? South America? Not a mention, never heard of them … if Alexi Lalas really, really wants the Rots to be the Real Madrid of MLS, a super club, a club that not only wins but plays classy, entertaining soccer while it's doing it, then he'll need something a little more imaginative than the same old Euro-coach-goes-scouting-in-Europe platitudes.