By Ridge Mahoney, Senior Editor

Two Revs have left MLS and they wonÆt be missed. Steve Howey, a 33-year-old Englishman, may or may not have had enough left in the tank to produce, but injuries kept us from ever finding out. Richie Baker, 24, had nothing but good things to say about his performance and mostly bad things to say about his lack of playing time.

Coach Steve Nicol took some drastic steps to give Baker time, including moving Steve Ralston to right back when injuries decimated the back line, and Baker did contribute six assists in just 1,052 minutes. At times, he played as well as that other Irish right-sided midfielder — Ronnie OÆBrien of FC Dallas — but without that same commitment.

The Revs rolled to the conference final and came agonizingly close to MLS Cup without Baker. When his former club, Shelbourne Rovers, came calling he bolted. We wish him luck, and he might even tangle again with former Rev Paul Keegan, whose winning goal for Longford Town with two minutes left in the Irish Cup final Oct. 24 sparked a run of articles and interviews that only recently began to subside.

LIBERTADORES QUALIFYING ON U.S. SOIL: Dallas has been added to the list of cities that will host Interliga games next month, bringing the roster of venues to six.

The final day of round-robin competition will be staged at the Cotton Bowl Jan. 9, three days before the Interliga finals are played in Houston. All of the seven match days will be doubleheaders in the competition, from which two Mexican League teams join Pachuca as MexicoÆs three entrants in the 2005 Libertadores Cup, which begins in February.

In the Interliga, two groups of four teams each will play a round-robin, with the group winners and runners-up advancing the finals in Houston. The winners qualify for the Libertadores Cup.

Club America, Atlante, Santos Laguna, Guadalajara, Monterrey, Toluca, Nuevo Leon and Jaguares will be in the Interliga field, unless one of them wins the Apertura 2004 championship currently being played. In that case, Necaxa would join the field and the champion would be compelled to play in the CONCACAF ChampionsÆ Cup in lieu of the Libertadores and Interliga.

The Mexican League playoffs have reached the semifinal stage, in which Atlante plays Monterrey and UNAM meets Atlas. Those teams are in a quandary; the losers have a chance to play in a much more lucrative and prestigious tournament, the winner wins the league title yet is stuck in an international competition that reeks of the rinky-dink.

But thatÆs CONCACAF, which has seldom bestowed upon its club or national teams the organization and support and financial incentives equal to the level of competition displayed in the Gold Cup or ChampionsÆ Cup.

Interliga 2004 produced scads of exciting action and more of the same is forecast for 2005. With Libertadores on the line, teams take Interliga seriously and the intensity is nothing like the skillful but rarely fierce friendlies Mexican clubs play in U.S. cities.

Here is the Interliga schedule: Jan. 2 û Bank One Ballpark (Phoenix), Home Depot Center (Carson, Calif.); Jan 5 û Spartan Stadium (San Jose); Jan. 6 û Alamodome (San Antonio); Jan. 8 û HDC; Jan. 9 û Cotton Bowl (Dallas); Jan. 12 û Reliant Stadium (Houston).