By Ridge Mahoney, Senior Editor
Soccer America Magazine

FRIENDLY DATE: Because the Aug. 17 qualifier against Trinidad & Tobago falls on a FIFA friendly international date, not one set aside for competitive matches, U.S. coach Bruce Arena won't have his players until two or three days prior to the T&T game.

FIFA rules mandate a 48-hour window prior to matches played on friendly dates. On dates designated for competitive matches, teams can require players to report four or five days in advance. The same rules will apply to those American players based in Europe, and many of them will be in action the weekend of Aug. 13-14 for their club teams.

Only players from the Rapids and Revs, which meet on that same date at Invesco Field, might miss MLS action to play for the national team. One of them, Pablo Mastroeni, is injured and won't be called up anyway. Arena will have to make decisions regarding Steve Ralston and Pat Noonan of the Revs, who were injured during the Gold Cup and didn't play Wednesday night in an 3-2 Open Cup loss to the Fire.

The Metros and Crew play on Sunday, Aug. 14, which is when players will report to prepare for the T&T game. The other 10 teams play on Saturday, including what might be an MLS Cup 2005 preview when New England plays FC Dallas at Pizza Hut Park.

LAMAR ON HAND: Speaking of Pizza Hut Park, Lamar Hunt is spending most of the week on the site overseeing final, frantic preparations for the grand opener against the Metros Saturday.

Well, of course, the opener won't be as grand as Hunt had hoped, since construction isn't complete and the capacity will be limited to 15,000 instead of its projected figure of 21,193. However, all the seating areas are completed, but the supporting amenities — concessions, restrooms, etc. — won't be ready in time.

''Usually, when you open a stadium and you have to limit the attendance, it's because the seats aren't ready,'' said Hunt on Wednesday. ''In this case, all the seats are in, but it's the other things that we have to finish before we can handle a full stadium.''

Hunt admits the prospect of a new MLS stadium set among a spread of soccer fields and a lovely park setting has him excited, but on Saturday his focus will be on the practical. ''I'll be thinking of what we'll have to do if the ticket windows aren't ready and the restrooms aren't working right,'' he says. ''We've made a real big deal about this and we'll have a lot of people here to see it, so we have to make sure we get it right, even if everybody knows it's not the finished product.''

STAR SEARCH: Under a proposed plan, no team would contribute more than two players to the squad of MLS all-stars that will take on Real Madrid at the Bernabeu Stadium Aug. 23.

The early favorite to coach the team is FC Dallas head man Colin Clarke, who was in charge when the All-Stars beat English Premier League club Fulham, 4-1, last weekend. The most rested teams will be the Rapids and Revs, who after playing Aug. 17 are not in action again until Aug. 27 (Revs) and Sept. 3 (Rapids).

Hunt says there was some debate that perhaps MLS should send one its teams, such as defending champion D.C. United, instead of its all-stars, but the overriding concern was to send the strongest possible squad.

''We'll be more competitive,'' says Hunt. ''I don't think it would be reasonable to believe that FC Dallas could go over and play head-to-head with Real Madrid. Maybe we would for half a game or something, whereas our all-stars will have a better chance.''

The game against the MLS all-stars will be the final preseason tune-up for Real, which opens its La Liga season the following weekend.