Week 16 Notes:

• D.J. Countess starts in place of Henry Ring for Chicago. Someone explain this to me. I’m just going to assume, to preserve my own sanity, that Ring has a knock or just needed the rest; maybe a family emergency of some sort. My already tenuous sense of order in the universe demands that it be one of those things.

• Clint Dempsey is going to force Bruce Arena to give him a call up if he keeps up this pace. He’s just doing everything right that a young player can do. Hustle, brains, attitude, finishing. He’s got it all. He’s this year’s Taylor Twellman. Hopefully minus the injuries.

• You can tell New England is emerging from the dark pit of injury despair. Steve Nicol had to leave Felix Brillant, one of this year’s nicest surprises, a creative finisher, on the bench against Chicago. It’s been a while since the Revs could afford to leave talent on the bench.

• Taylor Twellman gets two goals and a red card. Not good for Steve Nicol. Still, you heard it here first: A healthy New England not only makes the playoffs, but gets out of the first round. Really. No, I mean it.

• The only entertaining part of the Galaxy/Rapids match was seeing Ruiz get a yellow card for diving. Not that that’s not enough for me. I was plenty satisfied, despite the fact that the rest of the game not particularly compelling, and ended in a goal-less draw.

• As I have before, I congratulate Stone and Wynalda for not saying “Cha-Ching” when Brian Ching scored on Colorado. Rob Stone did refer to him as “The Big Kahuna”, however, so there is a slight deduction on style points.

• Clint Dempsey’s goal against Columbus on Saturday way harder than it looked. And it didn’t look easy to begin with. Running towards the goal, chests down the long service in, controls it and half-volleys it past Jon Busch. Wow.

• The Emmy nominations came out this week. Ruiz got three.

• Interesting look for the Fire this week with the yellow home jerseys. What’s up with the change in colors though?